Dad’s Report on 1974 China Trip

In November 1974, Dad was invited to join a group of Hong Kong business people on a two-week tour of China. Mom was able to go with him. This was two years after Nixon’s groundbreaking 1972 trip to China and one of the early tours for any American businessman beyond the Canton Trade Fair. The trip included stops in Guangzhou, Guilin, Changsha, Hangzhou, Wuxi and Shanghai. Dad wrote up a detailed report with photos which I think he presented to Exxon and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. I’m happy to have recently found this copy so now you can see the whole thing. The report, written by Dad and prepared by Patricia Lee, happens to be the longest, most detailed example of Dad’s writing I have. The old man did a pretty good job.

I have a few additional notes and postcards from this trip here.

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Some Impressions of China

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The following summarizes a few of the impressions gained from a two-week trip to the People’s Republic of China. A more detailed description of the trip and of some of the conditions observed is given in the attached memorandum.

Political/Social – The magnitude of the job of controlling and motivating 800 million people spread over such a vast area is awesome, particularly in view of the relatively meager communications available. The impression we gained – and the one of greatest impact from the entire trip is that effective control is being accomplished, and more by persuasion than by force.

Overall, the present system of Government and social structure, as baffling as they are to an outsider, seem to be working well. In general, the people we saw appeared to be convinced that the present system is a good one for them and were working hard and long in conformance with Chairman Mao’s exhortations. The personal glorification of Mao and his brand of communism is a principal theme of all of the propaganda. It seems to have been accepted with an almost religious fervor and now to represent a truly powerful rallying force helping to maintain control and unity of purpose.

There is almost no evidence of police control other than the unarmed, “off-duty” members of the People’s Liberation army, large numbers of whom mingle with the crowds in the cities. Except for guards on duty at the entrances to military barracks, we saw no military or police personnel carrying arms. Further, there were no locks on the doors at most of the hotels where we stayed (only internal night latches). Apparently, thefts as well as other crimes are now relatively rare, after having been dealt with sternly by the People’s courts for a number of years.

We were impressed by the attention being paid in the cities and in the communes to the reported 200-million school children. Education starts with kindergarten at age 4 and is compulsory through middle school (lower high school). We were told that the literacy rate country-wide is now above 90%. The objective seems clearly to be quantity rather than quality of education. Unquestioning conformance to Mao’s teachings is a theme being conveyed with remarkable success in all school work and play.

Economic – Obviously, a great deal has been done in the direction of bringing everyone to an economic common denominator. For the great majority it seems clear that their economic status is now significantly improved over what it must have been a decade or so ago. There are still slum areas in the cities and many mud block shanties in the country-side, but even these do not give the appearance of abject poverty that exists in many other underdeveloped countries. The majority of the people give the impression of being well fed and reasonably well clothed. This is particularly true of the children.

Private ownership still exists with respect to small plots of land, homes, and of course for personal possessions such as home furnishings, bicycles, radios, cameras, wrist watches, etc.. The profit motive also still remains, with commune members free to grow and sell their own pigs and vegetables. Many families, both in the cities and in the communes, are said to have savings accounts in the banks.

Agriculture – A PRC estimate places the rural population of China at 600 million. This is not difficult to believe, based on the country areas we saw. Where fields are being harvested or cultivated, they are literally teeming with people. Yet we flew over (and travelled through) vast stretches that were either forests or still uncultivated open area, giving the impression that agriculture can yet be further expanded.

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Impressive progress has been made in water control and irrigation programs. Many large irrigation projects are still under construction. These will go far toward preventing the disastrous flood-then-drought cycles from which Central China has long suffered. Farming methods on the whole remain primitive. Except for electrical pumping of irrigation water, essentially no mechanization was evident and little chemical fertilizer is used. Electrification of the rural areas surrounding the numerous hydro-electric projects, however, is extensive, and many of the communes have electric lights. Much attention is given now in the propaganda to encouraging communes to improve yields, and a large program is underway to provide chemical fertilizer and farm machinery. Overall, the impression is given that China will have no problem in feeding itself in the future.

Industry – From our somewhat limited sample, based on plant visits and other observations, it appears that industrial development in the PRC has a long way to go and is far less important in the overall economy than the agricultural sector. While there were a number of relatively large plants in all of the cities we visited, heavy industry was limited to Shanghai. Here, the very large industrial area surrounding the city has steel mills, heavy machinery plants, automotive manufacturing, many textile mills, chemical plants and various other factories. Almost all of the factories we saw, as well as the railroads and power plants, used coal as fuel. There are a few very modern plants at various locations, pictures of which are prominently featured in the propaganda magazines, but the overall impression we received is that industrial activities in general are far from modern.

Efforts are being made to disperse light industry to the smaller cities and even to the communes in rural areas. The results do not seem to be consistent with maximum efficiency, but the small plants do provide a great deal of employment, which is no doubt one of the objectives.

Transportation/Communications – The number of Chinese civilians travelling individually and in organized tours within China was surprising. The trains and the planes on which we travelled were filled to capacity. Both, however, maintained strict schedules and were clean and well maintained. The European-style, steam powered trains were unusually comfortable, at least in the first class coaches, and the well ballasted road bed (with concrete cross ties) was extremely smooth. There appears to be quite a network of paved roads, and more are being built. But in general they are narrow and inadequate for heavy traffic, and we saw no overland truck transport.

Radio is the principal medium of mass communication, and small transistor models are very common, even in the communes. Television stations operate in Canton, Changsha, Hangchow and Shanghai, and of course Peking and possibly other cities. TV receivers, however, are few and far between, being available mainly in public meeting halls, factory canteens, hotels and other public buildings. Radio, and to a lesser extent TV, are important and effective means of conveying the Party line to the people. Also important, however, are the very prevalent movie houses and the numerous travelling entertainment troupes whose live performances all carry strong political messages. (In 5 of the 6 cities visited we saw elaborate live performances played to capacity crowds in large community auditoriums).

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It is realized that the foregoing may give the impression that our group was shown only what our hosts wanted us to see and that we accepted without question what was told us. This was not the case. We were quite skeptical and probing, and were exposed to many conditions and situations which could not have been planned. Other than our official interpreters, three of the Hong Kong visitors spoke Mandarin. This permitted direct and extensive questioning of the local people we visited, who were in general very open and friendly in their answers.

The reader may also question whether we have been gullible in concluding that the average man in China is reasonably satisfied and supportive of the present system. In considering this, it must be realized that few Chinese, even the older ones, have ever known the type of personal freedom we enjoy. To them its absence is therefore not so important. Somehow its absence seems offset by the personal satisfaction and pride one senses they feel in working together toward the common goal of social reform. As critical as we may be of the Maoist propaganda, it must be admitted it has done a remarkable job of unifying and organizing the efforts of the people toward achievement of this goal.

CHD:pl
January 15, 1975.

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SOME IMPRESSIONS OF CHINA

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At the invitation of China Resources Company and China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, Limited, a group of 14 Hong Kong business men, most accompanied by wives, visited the People’s Republic of China during the period November 20 through December 3, 1974. The names and business affiliations of the tour participants, as well as the itinerary are shown on attachments.

All arrangements for the tour within China were handled by the China International Travel Service. We were accompanied throughout the tour by three representatives of that agency. In addition, at each of the cities visited we were joined by local representatives of the travel service, who acted as guides and interpreters for that particular location.

We were called the Hong Kong Traders’ Tourist Group by our Chinese hosts, who made it clear from the beginning that the objective of the tour was not to conduct business but to acquaint us with conditions in China and to “make friends” with the view to developing future business possibilities.

At each of the locations visited, the routine, immediately upon arrival, was for the entire group to meet with the local “responsible persons” for tea along with a welcoming ceremony and a 20-30-minute briefing. For this purpose there were fairly elaborate and well furnished meeting rooms set up even in the modest hotels, as well as functional meeting rooms in the factories, communes, schools, museums and other locations visited. Invariably, one wall of the meeting room would have four large framed portraits – one each of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, while the opposite wall would have an even larger picture of Chairman Mao, usually with one or more of his quotations also in frames. We were told these rooms were normally used for various revolutionary committee meetings, but one wondered whether most of them weren’t specially prepared for tours such as ours – and represented evidence of the careful planning which had been done to assure that we saw what our hosts wanted us to see.

It became clear after the first few of our welcoming briefings that the Chinese idea of the best way to “make friends” was to convince us of how deplorable conditions were in pre-liberation days and how greatly improved they are today. This theme was repeated and emphasized in all of the briefings and on a number of other occasions, usually followed by a self-effacing acknowledgment that the new China a still a young and developing country with a long way to go in their social reconstruction efforts. While none of us had a real basis for comparison, I believe it was the overall concensus of our group that indeed impressive progress has been made and that average living conditions, although still very austere and stringent, must have improved very considerably over the past decade or so.

We had overall a surprising degree of freedom of action. While we usually travelled as a group in special buses, there were several occasions when the group split up with choices of two or more alternatives for sight-seeing. There were also times when we were free, for example, to take unaccompanied walks, or go shopping, or even go outside the hotels for meals. We were encouraged to take photographs, the only prohibition being at airports and from aeroplanes. We were also encouraged to ask questions, and did so at length, at all of the locations visited. The representatives of the China Travel Service and our local hosts were most friendly and open in trying to answer questions, but there were some communication problems. Few of the local interpreters were really fluent in English, and the guides accompanying us on the whole tour had not previously been to many of the places visited.

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Impressions of Cities – The first city visited was Canton (called Kwangchow [Guangzhou] locally) – a teeming city of about 3,000,000 people and more than 600,000 bicycles, officially registered. All of the people and all of the bicycles seemed to be in the streets when we arrived. In addition, there were numerous other conveyances – all types of pushcarts, tricycle carts for both goods and passengers, numerous crowded buses, a few trucks and taxis, an occasional private car and a relatively modern trackless trolley system. The streets in many sections are unusually broad and well laid out; but they are so full of human-powered vehicles and pedestrians carrying all kinds of burdens that the buses and trucks incessantly blow their horns to force their way through. While taxis are readily available at the hotels, few are seen elsewhere, and the very rare private cars are limited to high government officials or the military.

Not all of Kwangchow is crowded and congested. There are a number of spacious parks, a large botanical garden with lush tropical growth, and a well laid-out zoo which boasts of seven giant pandas. The most modern part of the city is the area around the very large new railroad station, the main hall of which rivals New York’s Grand Central as to spaciousness. Across a very large paved plaza in front of the railroad station are the extensive new exhibition halls for the Chinese Export Commodities Fair.

Chairman Mao quotations and other revolutionary slogans appear on many buildings, fences and signboards, some being printed in English as well as Chinese characters. In an apparent message to the many “third world” visitors to the Canton Fair, a large sign board in front of its principal building proclaims in both Chinese and English the following Maoism: “In our international relations, we Chinese people should get rid of great-power Chauvinism, resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely”. (The sign was brand new, but I later learned this quotation was from a speech made in 1956.)

Kwangchow has a large number of small to medium sized factories, most with stacks pouring forth black smoke from the coal-fired boilers. We were told coal is the source of essentially all industrial power and saw large stockpiles both on the river-front and along the railroad. There is apparently little effort toward smoke control, and a heavy layer of dark haze hung over the city both days we were there.

Kweilin [Guilin] – After about an hour’s flight from Kwangchow in a Russian-made turboprop plane we arrived at Kweilin, some 300 miles northwest of Kwangchow. The last 50 or 60 miles of the flight were over very spectacular “karst” formations, which appear to have been the inspiration for all of the misty, vertical mountains of traditional Chinese painting. These small but rugged limestone mountains, each thrusting independently from the plain, form a veritable forest of sharp upright peaks which covers an area approximately 100 miles long by 60 miles wide. Many of them contain spectacular caves with beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations. (In one cave we saw numerous scallops and other sea shells embedded in the porous limestone which still resembles coral rock, attesting that eons ago the whole area was, incredibly, under the sea.)

In contrast to Kwangchow, Kweilin, a city of about 200,000, seemed to be an almost relaxed country town. Yet there was much activity in its crowded streets, and an impressive amount of new building was under way. In a sort of urban renewal program, large sections of the old city were being cleared out and the mud block huts replaced with two or three story brick apartment blocks. Apparently in preparation for stepping up tourist visits, a new high rise hotel is under construction in the center of town. There seemed to be little industry except for a few textile mills, a paper mill, a turpentine and pine products plant and numerous brick kilns which ship out large quantities of brick by rail. There was also a fertilizer plant with what appeared to be a small but modern ammonia plant. We were told that Kweilin gets some of its electric power from a nearby small hydroelectric plant. There are two additional coal fired power plants in the city. We had to eat dinner by candle-light two of the three nights we were there, indicating some difficulty with reliability of power supply.

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Our two days in Kweilin were crowded with climbing to scenic lookouts, exploring caves, and a combination bus and boat tour down the Li River to Yungshao [Yangshuo], some 40 miles to the south. This quaint village was a Portuguese settlement in the early 19th Century and still looks more Portuguese than Chinese. The Li River is a picturesque stream noted for its clear water, beautiful scenery and abundant fish. On it are many unusual sampans, bamboo rafts and other types of craft from which fishing is done by casting large throw-nets. There are also numerous clear water lakes nearby which are used as fish farms. The local cooking features fresh water shrimp and fish prepared in various ways – all delicious. It was generally agreed that Kweilin food was the best of the unusually good food that we had on the entire tour.

Other amenities for tourists in the Kweilin area were surprising. In recent years many pavilions and tea-houses have been built along the river and on the scenic mountain tops. The two large caves we visited were beautifully lighted with colored flood lights along the mile or more of well marked walk-ways through the various caverns. (All of these facilities were apparently built not primarily for foreign groups but for the Chinese who still manage to visit Kweilin). Our hotel was part of a multi-building complex on a small lake close to the down town area. Each U-shaped building of the hotel resembled a U.S. type motel with an attractive garden in the courtyard. The central building contained a modern auditorium in which we joined a large crowd of locals for an excellent live, variety show one evening and movie a second evening. (Kweilin, however, was the only place we visited that had no hot water for baths, despite the very chilly temperature.)

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Changsha [Changsha] – From Kweilin we went by rail to Changsha, some 300 miles (and about 11 hours) to the northeast. The first class coaches in which we rode were comfortable and very clean, even though pulled by a coal-fired locomotive. The rest of the train, including the dining car, was without cushions, very crowded, and there was much soot and smell to contend with. Despite the length of the train ride, it was extremely interesting – mile after mile of carefully cultivated beautifully terraced rice paddies and truck farms, mostly irrigated by ancient design, foot-driven, water lifts. There was almost no evidence of farm mechanization. Rice harvesting was in full swing. Many large groups of men, women and children were cutting, hauling and threshing rice by hand. In most instances the work areas were delineated by a number of large red flags of the PRC. These busy fields were interspersed with surprisingly long stretches of almost unpopulated area, looking much like the pine woods and red hills of middle Georgia or Alabama. There were frequent villages and clusters of mud-block thatched-roof farm houses. Yet the overall impression was one of a spacious country side, with plenty of room for further agricultural expansion.

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Changsha, the capital and principal city of Hunan Province, has a population of some 800,000. It was an important city as long ago as seven centuries B.C.. Its more recent claim to fame is as the location where Mao Tsetung received his education, organized (in 1921) the Hunan branch of the Chinese Communist Party and thereafter carried out much of his early revolutionary activity.

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The river valley in which Changsha is located is an extremely rich agricultural section. Surrounding the city is an extensive system of irrigation projects, most of them with stone-lined, concreted canals evidencing many man-years of toil. The city itself resembles a huge farmers’ market, with beautiful displays of vegetables, fruits and flowers. But there are also large industrial plants (textiles, shoes, paper, glass, lead refining, machinery and electrical equipment). In addition, Changsha is a center for handicrafts such as porcelain, bamboo carving, lacquer-ware and embroidery. We visited an embroidery factory where several hundred women were producing a wide variety of embroidered articles, both by hand needle work and at long rows of sewing machines. The hand-sewn decorative silk pieces, depicting elaborate scenes or portraits, were incredibly intricate and detailed. Some were made of silk thread so fine as to require several months of painstaking work under a magnifying glass for each piece. Here the unbelievable patience of the Chinese was much in evidence.

Some exciting archaeological finds have been made in recent years on the outskirts of Changsha. Three separate Han Dynasty (206 BC 220 AD) tombs have been found. The first was reportedly discovered while digging an air-raid shelter into a large solitary hill which until then had not been known to be man-made. The excavation we visited was a vertical pit some 60 feet deep and about 50 feet square, now shored up by heavy timbers and protected by a large steel-girder roof. It was the tomb of the favorite concubine of an ancient warlord of the area. Research has indicated that she died about 200 B.C..

The tomb itself, when discovered in 1973, was a completely sealed chamber at the bottom of the pit. The walls of the chamber were made of a ceramic-like, hardened clay, still without cracks when found. Immediately inside the 6-inches or so of hard clay casing was a jacket of charcoal more than a foot thick (over 11,000 pounds of charcoal were actually recovered). Except for a large wooden burial vault at the center, the rest of the chamber was originally filled with a dry, yellow silt which had been brought in from some remote location and specially prepared for this purpose. It is thought that this combination of impervious outer casing, plus the charcoal desiccant and sterile silt packing, was responsible for the perfect preservation of the burial vault and the treasures found in it.

The large wooden burial vault, some 12′ wide by 20′ long and 5′ high was made of incredibly wide boards of hand-hewn cypress about 8″ thick. A single board formed each of the sides and the ends of the vault, held together by beautifully fitted mortise and tenon jointing. Inside the wooden vault were a number of large compartments filled with what were apparently all the worldly possessions of the deceased and many other items representative of her time. Within the center compartment were three boxes an outer, a middle and an inner coffin, fitted snugly one inside the other. Each coffin was elaborately decorated, the inner one containing the amazingly well preserved corpse wrapped in many layers of colorful silk.

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All of the objects found in the tomb, including the coffins and the large wooden vault had been removed to a beautiful new, air-conditioned museum in Changsha especially built to house them. The corpse itself is displayed in a glass case filled with formaldehyde, located in a specially constructed underground vault. The other objects from the tomb include a large collection of lacquerware, glazed and unglazed pottery, bronzes, intricate carvings of bamboo, wood and bone, a collection of musical instruments, tools, knives, cross-bows and other weapons. In addition to the complete wardrobe of the concubine, there were large quantities of silk fabrics and decorative materials, some painted, some woven – all with colors still brilliant. After viewing in wonder for several hours all of these treasures, we were much impressed with the culture achieved by the Chinese more than 2100 years ago but the message our hosts intended that we carry away was summarized by the concluding paragraph of a pamphlet given us at the museum:

“From the tremendous amount of money and labor that went into “comforts” for the dead during the Han period, as indicated by the finds in this tomb, one can well imagine the waste and extravagance pursued in those days by the ruling class in their ruthless oppression of the working people”

While in Changsha we visited an agricultural commune located several miles outside of the city. The section we visited, called the “Friendship Brigade”, consisted of 554 families, with a total population of 2,200 people. The Chairman and Vice Chairman (a woman) of the Brigade’s Revolutionary Committee escorted us around, showing us their schools, infirmary and shopping area, as well as the beautifully kept truck farms and rice paddies. We also visited the Brigade’s foundry and large machine shop where farm implements and small metal products are made. When we were there, the production line, all “manned” by women, was turning out by the hundreds a well designed, cast-iron meat grinder suitable for use in a butcher’s shop. We were told these are shipped all over China. In addition, we saw the Brigade’s new rice vermicelli factory, which ships its product to many cities other than Changsha.

We were told that the net earnings for the Brigade in 1973, after meeting all expenses and feeding all its members, amounted to the equivalent of US$490,000, and that 1974 profit would be much higher. It was said that one third of the profit is normally turned in to the State, another third returned as bonuses to the workers, and the remainder allocated among the Brigade’s reserve fund, welfare fund and capital fund. These funds, kept in a bank in Changsha, were said to draw interest at 2.7% per year. We were told that almost all of the families in the Brigade also had savings accounts. Their affluence was indicated by the boast that the 554 families own 184 bicycles (cost about US$90 each), 89 sewing machines (cost about US$75 each), 135 wrist watches (about US$50 each) and some 200 radios of various types.

The Brigade had a large electrical substation from which power was drawn for numerous irrigation pumps, for the machine shop and for lighting all of the buildings and homes. The power charge for each home was equivalent to slightly over US$1.00 per month the same for all, as there were no meters. Power for Changsha and the vicinity was said to be from a hydroelectric plant about 60 miles away.

All of the homes in this section of the Commune had been built within the past few years, and were of sturdy, brick or clay-block construction, with concretes floors and mostly asbestos composition roofs. There were several sizes of homes but all of essentially the same design and construction, indicating a single large construction project. The ones we visited were modestly but adequately furnished. The families in them seemed pleased to show us each of their three or four rooms and were very proud of their furniture and other possessions.

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Each family was assigned for its own use a small area surrounding the house. Most used these small plots for their own vegetable garden, chicken yard and pig pens. It was stated that each family was free to modify their homes to their preference and utilize their plot in whatever manner desired. However, there was a strange uniformity of appearance for all of the houses, as well as for their gardens and pig pens.

Despite their hard work and austere life, the commune members seemed not unhappy with their situation. There was an obvious sense of pride of accomplishment which they all seemed to share. It was difficult to judge whether this flourishing, well developed commune was typical or specially improved for tours such as ours. Some of the other communes we passed by in more remote locations were also impressive and appeared well maintained, but with a very much lower standard of housing.

Shaoshan [Shaoshan] – On our third day in Changsha we travelled by bus some 60 miles to the south to visit the village of Shaoshan, the birthplace of Chairman Mao. The farmhouse where he was born and the school nearby that he first attended have now been turned into national shrines. In addition, a very large museum and an extensive hotel complex have been built in the village. The whole area was extremely crowded with large groups of school children, workers from various factories, farm workers, soldiers, sailors and others all apparently organized into special tour groups for the visit.

The new museum is a rambling building surrounding a number of internal courtyards where there are statues of Mao and of his two brothers and a sister who died as heroes in the revolution. The exhibits include many original manuscripts of the Chairman’s early writings, his uniforms, battle flags and other personal relics. There are also many three-dimensional miniature tableaux in glass cases glorifying Mao’s participation in revolutionary activities, military campaigns, and in particular the Long March. The pervading effort to deify Mao, which seemed a central theme of many of the briefings we had been getting, was strongly driven home by the museum and the overall atmosphere at Shaoshan.

The success of these efforts was indicated by the looks of intense interest (and what seemed almost reverence) on the faces of the hundreds of visitors crowding the museum.

On our return trip from Shaoshan, at our special request, we stopped to visit a work site for part of a large new irrigation project. Some six hundred “volunteers” of all ages and both sexes were digging away shoulder-to-shoulder in the red clay of a small mountain with the objective of diverting a river through the mountain. Already several miles of concrete and stone canal had been completed to the vicinity of the mountain. For most of its length, the canal was elevated above the surrounding fields. A system of elevated concrete aqueducts distributed water from the canal to the terraced slopes on either side.

The excavation work site was surrounded by many red flags of the PRC; and martial music blared forth from huge public address horns mounted on poles around the edge of the site. There were no signs of guards, or even foremen. We could not help but wonder how these people had been “motivated” into continuing day after day such back breaking toil. It could only be concluded they believed their alternatives to be even worse. Yet, incredibly, they did not seem unhappy. Rather it appeared that their spirits were somehow buoyed by the music and the feeling of striving together toward a worthwhile goal. We later learned that the Shaoshan irrigation project is widely propagandized as a model of how communes are encouraged to work together on regional projects too large for individual communes to undertake.

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Hangchow [Hangzhou] – From Changsha we flew in a brand new Trident jet to Hangchow, a flight of about two hours. The airports at both locations were combination military civilian facilities, with almost continual stream of jet fighters taking off and landing in training flights. (The fighter planes at Changsha were needle nosed, supersonic MIGS that required parachute braking for landing).

Hangchow, a city of about 700,000 people, was for many years before the liberation a favorite vacation and site-seeing spot. In fact, its lakes, hills and ot attractions were made famous by the glowing descriptions given by Marco Polo of his visit there around 1275, at which time it was a city of 186,330 registered families, equivalent to a population of around 900,000. Hangchow’s many beauty spots are still well maintained for visitors and a number of new pavilions and teahouses have been constructed in recent years. The large tourist hotel, overlooking the beautiful West Lake, has recently been expanded. Its food, service and furnishings are comparable to those of a good, if not first class, western hotel.

In Hangchow, in addition to much sight-seeing, we visited a silk weaving factory. It contained 400 electric looms and employed 1,800 people, half of them being Women. Its products included various types of silk materials for clothing, draperies, etc., and a large variety of woven silk tapestries, screens and other art work. Many of the looms used up to 15 threads of different colors in high speed, automatically controlled weaving of very detailed and intricate scenes and decorative designs. The patterns controlling the weaving were punched in heavy paper on long, continuous rolls resembling an old-time player piano roll. Among the products so produced were finely woven portraits of Mao, Marx, Engels and Stalin, similar to those we had seen in various meeting rooms, schools and other public buildings.

The factory had its own residential section, schools, health clinic and shopping area, all of which, together with the main factory, were under the supervision of a Revolutionary Committee. We were told that the Revolutionary Committee answered to the Party organization and was independent of the civil authority of the city of Hangchow. The roles of the Revolutionary Committees, the military and the civil authorities seemed overlapping and difficult to understand, not only for this factory but also for the other organizations we visited.

Wuhsi [Wuxi] – We went by train from Hangchow through Shanghai to Wuhsi, an industrial/resort city some hundred miles north of Shanghai on the main rail line to Peking. Wuhsi has a population of about 600,000. It is located on Lake Tai, one of the largest and most scenic lakes in China. The city is criss-crossed by a system of wide canals which, with the numerous bridges, make it appear somewhat like Venice. The large, modern tourist hotel where we stayed was located about four miles from the city in a beautiful mountainside garden overlooking Lake Tai. A highlight of the sightseeing here was a long boat ride in a beautifully equipped high speed motor launch (about 80′ long), visiting a number of temples, pavilions and scenic lookouts along the shore and on some of the many islands of the lake.

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We were quite surprised by the obvious efforts that have recently been put into expanding and improving facilities for handling tour groups in this area, as we were in both Hangchow and Kweilin.

While in Wuhsi we visited a large plant where silk thread was being produced by processing cocoons gathered from the communes in the surrounding area. The plant employed 1,500 workers, about 85% of whom were female. The procedure by which the silk filament is drawn off the incredibly large volume of cocoons processed was most fascinating. Upon arrival at the factory the cocoons are subjected to heat treatment to kill the larvae and prevent their further development during storage. From storage, the cocoons are passed by conveyor system through a bath of boiling water which dissolves their natural glue and loosens the silk filaments. The ends of the filaments from a number of cocoons are then picked up using a hand tool which resembles a crochet hook, and while the cocoons remain floating together in a hot water bath the filaments are pulled up and mechanically twisted into a thread by a fast moving electric spindle. The number of cocoons spun together (from four to eight) determines the denier of the thread produced. After initial spinning, the thread is subjected to additional washing, re-spinning and stretching on large reels before it is sent to the dyeing works. The output of the factory was said to be about one metric ton per day of finished silk thread, involving the processing of some eight or nine tons per day of cocoons.

In our briefing at this factory much emphasis was given to the liberal social benefits which the workers now enjoy in contrast to pre-liberation days. We were told that workers’ wages average the equivalent of US$36 per month; that working hours had been reduced to seven hours per day, six days a week; that women workers how get 56 days maternity leave with full pay; and that workers can retire on reaching age 50 for women and age 60 for men with retirement pay about 65% of Wages at time of retirement.

In Wuhsi we also visited a factory which produced a wide variety of handmade clay and china figurines, some glazed by firing and some made of a clay/gypsum mixture which were painted after hardening. There were 650 artists and staff in the factory. The products ranged from beautifully detailed, porcelain-like figurines in traditional Chinese style to miniature models of workers, soldiers and Chairman Mao. We were told that the factory had until recently been producing only art works conforming to the revolutionary line, but that some of the older artists were now being permitted to produce traditional items of Chinese art in order to pass on their methods and talents to the younger members of the factory.

Shanghai [Shanghai] – Our next stop, after a three hour train trip, was Shanghai, which with a population of over 14 million is now the largest city in the world.

The very extensive downtown area of Shanghai appears to have changed very little in the last twenty-five years. There are no new buildings. However, the very solid, European style, brick, granite and concrete buildings throughout the area have been maintained very well. As far as the buildings themselves are concerned, the city looks very much like the older sections of many European cities. So do the relatively wide, tree-lined streets. The difference arises from what one sees in the streets – a veritable sea of bicycles, push carts and pedestrians all with dark blue jackets, among which buses, trucks, trackless trolleys and an occasional taxi are forcing their way with much difficulty. There are, surprisingly, a large number of department stores and specialty shops which at night have brightly lit windows and a few neon signs.

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Shanghai was cold, rainy and foggy while we were there. This added to the other discomforts and aggravations with which the people have learned to live – apparently without great unhappiness. Our first afternoon in Shanghai we visited a “Children’s Palace” located on the edge of the former French Concession. This was an after-school recreation center built in one of the pre-liberation European residences – a large stone mansion of four stories with several auxiliary buildings. At the time of our visit the grounds and all of the buildings were alive with some 450 children ranging in age from 5 – 16 – all very happily engaged in highly organized recreational or learning activities. Each of our group was assigned as personal guides one or more bright-faced little girls who were learning English at special classes given at the Palace. They were most friendly and engaging as they escorted us, tightly clutching our hands, through the various rooms classes for different musical instruments, for ballet, chorus, sewing, model making, woodworking and in other handicrafts, as well as many games and other activities, concluding with an elaborate, professionally staged, song and dance production, glorifying the revolution and social reconstruction.

All of the children were clean and relatively well-dressed. They were also remarkably disciplined and well behaved. An example was an unbelievable system being followed, apparently without supervision, for sharing two ping pong tables in a large room. At each end of the tables was a queue of some eight or ten children, in the range of 10 years old, each patiently waiting his or her turn to play. The two children playing at each table would hit the ball to one another until one missed. The one who missed would then go to the foot of the queue to await his turn again. It was explained that this system not only taught patience but also provided an incentive for improving one’s ping pong talents.

We were told this was only one of a number of Children’s Palaces in Shanghai that each of the principal districts of the city had one. The great attention being paid to the welfare of children, and to training and developing their talents, was certainly impressed upon us here, as it had been in the schools we visited in Changsha and Hangchow. It was equally impressive how, wherever possible, a political significance is tied into children’s activities, both educational and recreational.

The permanent Shanghai Industrial Exhibition, which we visited on our second day, is housed in a complex of immense buildings obviously constructed under the strong influence of the Russians. The most impressive hall contains a number of pieces of large machinery, such as a full sized 300 megawatt generator (with water cooled stator and rotor), a 12,000 ton hydraulic forging press, a multi-color printing press, high speed spinning and weaving machinery, and many ingenuous, automatic machine tools. Also on display were large-scale models of the various types of ships that have been constructed in the Chinese yards, including an elaborate drilling barge said to be capable of drilling in water depths of over a hundred feet. Overall, the Exhibition left an impression of quite well advanced technical capability with respect to the tools required for industrial expansion. However, based on what we had seen outside of the Exhibition, we concluded that application of this capability so far has been extremely limited, at least in the areas we visited. For example, what wonders could have been accomplished at the Shaoshan irrigation project excavation site by a few of the beautiful, heavy duty bulldozers we saw at the Exhibition.

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While in Shanghai we also visited a large shipyard where 13,000 ton ships are being built and a new slip has just been completed for construction of 25,000 DWT vessels. We were told that the yard had built seven 13,000 ton ships since 1969, the last one being completed in seven months at a cost equivalent to US $9.4 million. In answer to our questions concerning accounting methods, we were told at first that records are kept by an accounting department of all costs, primarily in order to be able to measure efficiency. However, on further probing we found that the ships produced are sold by the shipyard to the State shipping corporations at a contract price, based on a budgeted cost, agreed to before construction commences. If there is a profit (after allowing for pensions, capital needs and other permitted reserves for the shipyard operation) it must be turned in to the State. If there is a loss, it is made up from one of the yard’s reserve funds. When we asked what happened if the reserve fund became exhausted we were told this never happens since it would mean disgrace and removal of the management.

The Revolutionary Committee in charge of the shipyard is headed by its chairman, the equivalent of general manager, who is assisted by two vice-chairman – one in charge of design and technical work and the other in charge of operations. were told that all members of top management are paid at the same rate, the equivalent of about US$70 per month, while the average worker receives about US$35 per month. Top class welders and machinists (including women) receive the equivalent of about US$60 per month. The yard works on a three shift basis, and there is no provision for any overtime pay. It has its own canteens, recreation facilities, medical clinics and hospital, all free to employees. In general, the shipyard gave the appearance of a reasonably well managed operation with a high-morale work force.

Around the perimeter of Shanghai there have been built many high-rise housing complexes as workers’ residential areas. Our group visited a large one consisting of 12,000 households (52,000 residents) under the management of one Revolutionary Committee. The apartments were mostly 2 or 3-rooms each, in some cases with baths and kitchens shared between two families. The rental averaged the equivalent of about US $4.50 per month for a 3-room apartment, with apartments facing south carrying higher rent than those facing north. Electricity was included in the rent, but piped in gas used for cooking was charged at about US$3.00 per month.

The residential area was a completely self-contained community with its own schools, department stores, large grocery and fresh produce markets, two cinemas, clinics and a large hospital. We visited one clinic where four women doctors were giving acupuncture treatments to patients suffering from arthritis, rheumatism, migraines and other chronic ailments. Two of the women patients had needles inserted about three inches deep into their temples on either side. The treatment, which consisted of vibrating and twisting the needles for a minute or two, was given once a week as a preventive treatment for severe migraine headaches. We were told that the clinic gave acupuncture treatments to several hundred patients each week.

The last leg of our trip was a flight from Shanghai back to Canton in one of the ten Boeing 707s which the Civil Aviation Administration of China now operates. About one half of the cabin space of the plane in which we flew was closed off and used for freight. Seats throughout the remaining half were six abreast and very close together. Otherwise, the plane was clean and comfortable; and the four pretty Chinese stewardesses very friendly and cheerful.

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We over-nighted in Canton before taking the train for Hong Kong. We were intrigued by a convention-type meeting going on at that time in the main meeting hall of the hotel. A large red banner had been stretched above the hotel entrance with Chinese characters which translated into “Lower-Middle Peasants’ Congress for the Exchange of Experience”. It was explained that this was one of the many regional meetings of various classes of people called by the Party for the purpose of achieving interchange of ideas, reaching agreement on goals and listening to Party leaders explain Party principles and objectives.

When we expressed surprise at such formal class recognition as was indicated by the designation “Lower-Middle Peasant”, it was explained that the Party classifies all non-party members into defined categories. For example, there are still people designated as landlords, not because they now have property but because they (or their families) formerly did, and they have not yet demonstrated by their service to the party or their attitude that they merit a change in classification. Further, there are rich peasants, middle peasants, lower-middle peasants and poor peasants, all formally classified by the Party. We were told that the delegates to the meeting were not members of the Party. Further, that it would be very difficult for anyone designated in these classifications to break into another class or become a Party member, since he would not have the proper ideological orientation. In addition, it would be unusual for any agricultural worker to be accepted for full time party work, since it would not be in line with the Marxist theory that industrial workers should normally be the Party leaders.

This discussion, indicating the continued existence, according to Party doctrine, of a number of formally established classes of society and the special status of Party members as distinct from all such classes, did not help to clarify how the Party accomplishes the degree of control it obviously wields nor the nature of its real relationship with the military and the large body of non-party civil authorities. It did seem to drive home, however, the key role that the overall propaganda effort plays in maintaining the Party’s strength and in persuading the majority of the people to accept their status without complaint. With the limited communications systems available, and the vast areas to be reached, the degree of saturation and success achieved by the propaganda effort seems indeed remarkable.

CHD:p1
January 15, 1975.

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Additional photos/postcards

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[Note – the photo of Sun Yat Sen’s tomb in Nanjing appears to be from a later trip to China…but I don’t know if or when Mom and Dad visited China again. The 1974 visit didn’t include Nanjing and the photo format and processing is completely different than others from that trip. The caption on the back is in Mom’s handwriting. I guess it’s possible they took another tourist trip to China in 1976-77 while I was already at Georgetown, but I don’t recall for sure. A little mystery.]

West Lake Brochure from Hangzhou

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