Some things I learned from Gene Gilliom's China talk

Gene Gilliom has is a Professor Emeritus of social studies at OSU and led a tour group to China last year. He gave a talk on old versus new culture in China. He also is in Torch Club with Seelbach. He has been traveling there since the mid-1970's so he witnessed the tail end of the Cultural Revolution. It officially ended with Mao's death in 1976.

His group visited Beijing, Datong (where a lot of the coal mining is), Hohhot (the capital of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region-not the same as Mongolia. The name means "blue city" in Mongolian), Dalian, Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin, QingDao (where the beer comes from-German influence), Suzhou and Shanghai. One lady in his group broke her arm and a few ribs when her horse bolted in the Gegentala ("the place of grazing in summer") Grasslands of Inner Mongolia and had to stay in the hospital for 10 days. In China, you pay for your hospital stay and services up front. The tour company lent her money and sent an interpreter to help her. Your family provides linens and similar services, the hospital does not. Interesting but what a shitty way for her to learn that.

I also learned:

• 500 million people live in the Yangtze River Valley
• 1000 new cars a day enter the Beijing roads
• Since 1980, there are have been ~5000 buildings over 15 stories tall erected in Shanghai alone
• The name China comes from the Emperor Chin
• The migration of people seeking work from China's interior to the coast represents the largest migration in human history