CHINA IN YOUR OPINION

I spent about 4 days in Shanghai in March and fell in love with the place....

Very few westerners know anything about china because you have a closed society for so long.

I personally think of china as a poor country where many people only just have enough to eat. I know also that this is changing rapidly.

I also admire china and chinese people for being great inventors (gunpowder, ceramics) and artists.

I admire some old chinese vases and paintings.

Yes I know a little of the history of China but not very well.
The ming dynasty and others, Chiang kai Shek, the long march, Chairman Mao, The gang of four are some of the things I was taught in school.
Limits on the number of children a family may have and sometimes infanticide. (Killing baby girls so that a baby boy may be born).
Blood shed in tianimin square.

I also know that some of the things I have been taught about china may not be true and real.

I think there are some bad people in china as there are bad people in the west. I also think there are many many fine and good and nice people in china just as there are in the west.

I happen to have looked into the Book of Changes, read about confucianism, and read a great deal about Chinese history. I greatly enjoyed The Romance of the Three Kingdoms--in fact, i know more about ancient and distant Chinese history than i do about recent Chinese history, although i'm not ignorant of that.

To me, the Chinese represent vast potential. If one looks at the success of the Chinese when they have left China--Singapore is a shining if not altogether admirable example--the idea that China will be an economic powerhouse is not at all odd. The Chinese have shown themselves to be hard-working, clever and often brilliant. I believe that the future belongs to the Chinese.

Re: CHINA IN YOUR OPINION

I visited China once, in 2003, when I attended a conference in Wuhan. My overall experience was very positive. There were only two things I didn't like. For one, when the wind blew from the wrong direction, it could be a bit hard to breath the Wuhan air. The second thing I wasn't impressed with were the bloodless bureaucrats who organized the conference.

But I was very impressed with almost everything else. The people were extremely friendly, and surprisingly easy to communicate with even when we had no common language. The young students (unlike the professors) were very curious about the research we were doing, and very willing to give and accept constructive criticism. Unlike the bureaucrats who presided over the conference, the students who did the actual work organizing it were admirably efficient and competent. I helped organize a conference myself once as a doctoral student, and I think we did a fair job at it. But your colleagues in Wuhan were just in a different league. It was a very happy week for me.

And then there is Chinese food, which (of course) came in a much broader variety and was generally much spicier than what passes for Chinese food in Germany and America. I'd fly back to Wuhan for the conference banquet alone.

Okay, that's it for now. These are my impressions of China so far.

thanks for your opinion.
I think most of foreigners don't know china well. It's a pity. compared with many westen countries china is poor and not well developed. And there are many disadvantages of its development .sometimes I feel sorrow,however,I love my country.I hope her will be more beautiful and strong.