China 1997 (Part 1)
Photos from a package holiday more than half a lifetime ago
In 1997, my Dad saw an offer too good to refuse.
In the travel section of our local newspaper, there was an ad promoting a trip to China including flights, accommodation, and tours for a crazy cheap price.
Mum and Dad had recently caught the travel bug after venturing over to see me in the UK in the summer of 1995. That was the first time they had been overseas and the first time they had owned a passport. They were wowed by the experience and keen for more.
So when the opportunity came up to go to places we’d read about in books and saw on TV - the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall of China - we jumped at the chance. The three of us went that October, my sister opting to stay at home.
We saw a lot during our week in Beijing. I barely remember any of the places, just a smattering of memories here and there. A chairlift, a taxi ride, our tour guide talking on the bus, Dad buying Chinese medicine, funny signs translated from Chinese to English.
One memory that isn’t fuzzy is the food. It was terrible. Our bus would pull up at restaurants and we were ushered inside. I was expecting the kind of fare we got served in Chinese restaurants back home - sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, Mongolian beef, prawn crackers, fried rice, yum! Instead, we were served bowls of tofu, vegetables, plain rice, and bony fish. Not ideal for a hungry 23 year old.
The hotel was dated, even for 1997. Despite the food and the hotel not being up to scratch, there was one other issue: there were many cultural (and sanitary) issues that came as a shock to us. I remember Mum being upset in the hotel room one evening: “It’s not like England, is it?” No, it certainly was not.
My parents weren’t too scarred by the experience: they went back to China five years ago to see the Terracotta Warriors.
If you’re wondering why I’m digging out these old photos, it’s because I’ve just returned from an 8 day trip to China. I’ll be sharing those photos soon - both film and digital.
Next up in ‘China 1997 (Part 2)’ I’ll share some more photos and talk about my growing interest in photography.
Nice to see these pictures of a slightly older China. As Michael, not Mike noted much of China, especially in the major cities, has been demolished in recent decades. I currently live in Guangzhou - the city formerly known as Canton - and we are fortunate that it has managed to cling on to a few older, more traditional neighbourhoods. I'm looking forward to seeing your contemporary China photos. Did you make it to Guangzhou on your trip?
This is cool to see, you went at an interesting time of development in China and particularly Beijing. I’m sure there was a lot that was different in your trip back. I know especially with the olympics in 2008, the Chinese government did a number on Beijing in terms of cleaning it up, carving off the “rough edges” but in the process destroying a lot of interesting cultural things as well.