Before there used to be hawkers, surrounding your bus, and everywhere you would go. They’re not there, even in the cities, very little. Now they’ve put them in shops and stalls, and it looks like they’re not allowed to run after the tourists, they just have to shout and hope you come over. Before it was fun, sometime annoying but fun. I don’t know how those people who lived off tourists are doing, I don’t think as well. To me that’s a huge difference. I think a lot of people could make a living selling things like silk scarves, now you have to go to a stall, and it’s harder to stop when the guide is rushing you along. It has to be hurting their livelihood.
Mama Lois on Changes in Cities
When we were here last, it was before the Olympics. It was in chaos, everything was being built. The highway rings around Beijing were still being built. If it wasn’t being built it was being renovated. Half of the hotel was being renovated while we were staying in the other half. Now, it’s not the same cities. None of them are the same cities, they’re magnificent. They rival any in the world. But we didn’t see that, we only saw the construction.
The flowers and trees are everywhere now. Everything’s so lush. They’ve put in drip systems. That didn’t exist either.
Everyone was warning about pollution, I didn’t sense it, nothing to what I was expecting. It’s not any more polluted than any of our cities. I think it’s the press.
There are more Western toilets for women now, not just the squat toilet. The trick is to go to the handicapped stall.
I’m not criticizing China. It’s breathtaking how much they’ve progressed in 7 years. The infrastructure, the roads, the gardens. The people are well fed. It’s a different country.
Mama Lois on changes in people
I think the people are more open & friendly than 7 years ago. They were very closed up and afraid to talk to us, very conservative. Now I think they’d answer anything. Very pro-West. I think the government has changed, and the capitalism has come out so strongly. They’ll never go back to what we think of as communism, they’ve tasted it now.
The few temples I saw were more historical, little sense of belief. I think that’s true now too. I saw a few monks in the Forbidden City, that’s it.
There were more soldiers then. The cities were like armed camps. They were around the hotels, they were everywhere. Now they just guard the sites.
Last time, October, we saw a lot of poor peasants in the fields. They didn’t have oxen; they were just pulling the plow with the yoke on the man, and the woman walking alongside.
Mama Lois on Dazu changes
Dazu is a world Heritage site, 800 years old, with Buddhas carved into the cliff, from small to huge lying down. The site itself hasn’t changed, just the approach to the site. The road to the site now is smooth paved, stone walls to either side. Before, a windy unpaved road with pretty steep drops, no protection, so narrow that two buses couldn’t pass; someone would have to give way and get off to the side as best they could. Now, on either side, they’re building beautiful buildings. It used to be just farmers and huts, now you see buildings going up and towns coming up. New housing, new roads. People here look prosperous now, they didn’t before .
I don’t remember the plaza at all. When we went into Dazu, the big fancy plaza wasn’t there, just a big dirt & gravel area with lots of vendors. Now, nicely paved wide plaza, big statues, computerized entrance gate, no vendors. No fancy turnstiles, today there were two. The lower plaza was also just dirt, and full of vendors. The change is unbelievable. Once you started down the ancient stairs, it was the same. There were never any vendors downstairs, but the above was loaded with them. It was fun. I don’t know why they got rid of all the vendors; maybe they thought it was too third world.
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