This is the sixteenth in a series of articles and images from NDH correspondent, David Sand, on the road in China with John-Roger, John Morton and 106 traveling peacemakers.
August 30
A little walking tour of Hong Kong in the morning. You got your teeming streets, you got your tenements, your billboards, your outdoor markets, your skyscrapers.
I experience the consciousness here as so different from that on the mainland. There is a much more highly developed sense of individuality and responsibility to self, much more of an awareness that whatever one is experiencing is one’s own creation. And at the same time, there’s a lot more desire-energy, many more ways to distract oneself, an abundance of stuff that can be used to bury the energies of the heart. We take the ferry across the harbor for a walk in the financial district and a little architectural tour.
A newlywed couple is taking pictures in a park. A tram takes us to a hilltop for our “farewell” lunch (our last official meal together although we have another full day in Hong Kong and don’t leave until September 1st). Beautiful views from the restaurant.
Then, a talk from a rug designer living in Hong Kong who’s creating and exporting silk rugs that are manufactured in mainland China. He gives us a fascinating talk about doing business in China.
It’s much more a process of establishing and maintaining connections with people, rather than the more rational, legalistic and businesslike manner of the west. He gives us an inside look at the Chinese social system, too: how there is definitely a stratified social system, but status is defined differently from the way we define it in the U.S. His contact with a well-known university professor opens doors for him all over China because professors enjoy such high status there. The combination of his being an artist (another high-status position) and the status of the university professor wins friends and influences the government and trading company officials whose assistance he needs to wade through the red tape that plagues China’s economic system.
And of course no talk on Chinese culture would be complete without a demonstration of the power of “chi” energy by Paul Kaye, who miraculously overcomes assailant Graham Holley with a few waves of his masterful, mystical hands.
And of course no farewell lunch would be complete without closed-eye process by guide Steve Beimel recalling all the things we’ve seen and done and a blessing from John Morton.
We’ll tour a bit more tomorrow morning, have some more free time in the afternoon, I’ll send you my last report, and then the next day some of us will leave for home, some will go on to Australia for the staff tour there, and a few will go on to exotic locations like Tibet and Florence. Gotta take another bath.
Click here to view Children of China Special Feature
Click here to view Day 16 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 15 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 14 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 13 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 12 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 11 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 10 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 9 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 8 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 7 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 6 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 5 of the China Trip
Click here to view Day 4 of the China Trip
