Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Disjointed Musings about my First Decade of Travel to China
Wow! I can't believe it has been just over ten years since I first traveled to China. My first trip was in 2014: On 20 August, I presented a research paper at the China Goes Global Conference at Jiaotong University in Shanghai. Following the conference, I promptly went on a tour to all the typical tourist hotspots one visits on a first trip to that wonderful country. That is me (in the back with a black cap with red lettering) surrounded by a fine group of multinational tourists prior to the customary trek up the Great Wall.
The next photo was taken of me standing next to Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Gate.
One very interesting albeit minor occurrence oddly (or perhaps not) remains engraved in my mind although it had virtually little or nothing to do with my tour, or with China at all. This merits a brief digression. Those who follow major geopolitical events of this century may notice the coincidence of the year of my visit to China with the "Maidan Revolution" which took place in Ukraine (The Maidan coup had occurred several months earlier in February). Said coup unleashed a series of events that included the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which continues to this day.
Throughout my entire touristic journey in China, I was closely following the events unfolding in Ukraine as best I could (I was particularly pleased that I could access the online blog of the late United States Army officer and private intelligence analyst, and author, Col.Walter Patrick "Pat" Lang, Jr.. On one occasion our group was travelling on the tour-bus through Beijing and the topic of the Ukraine conflict came up. I was suprised by how our Chinese tourguide (a fine young fellow with an inquisitive mind) had accepted without questioning the western narrative of (largely) misinformation regarding Russia's alleged "actions" in the Ukraine conflict. When his words contradicted the authoritative analysis I had read of Col. Lang and others, I interrupted and corrected him. Astonished at how I came up with information that contradicted his own, he naturally asked me for the source and I responded (to his further amazement) that Col. Lang was a graduate of:
My intrigued Chinese tourguide asked for more information and I immediatedly provided him with the URLs for several entries to Col. Lang's blog, including the background to NATO expansion, the devious role and origins of the National Endowment for Democracy, the 'dark' origins of influential West Ukrainian nationalists, and a contrast between the opinions of propagandists and actual scholars, among others.
Now here is an interesting detail I always hark back to: In those days, Col. Lang had a blog app that highlighted the geographic location of people accessing his blog entries (via little dots of light on a world map) utilizing visitor tracking widgets and map integrations. When I first entered China, I noticed there were no "dots of light" within Chinese territory on Col. Lang's blog app (except one single dot of light corresponding to me!), which meant that nobody in China knew who Col. Lang was or accessed his blog. Most of his readers were either from Europe, the Americas or the Middle East (and Japan). HOWEVER, in the ensuing days after I gave my Chinese tourguide the abovementioned URL's, there suddenly appeared half a dozen highlights from Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities in China!! I can only surmise that my inquisitive tourguide had spread the word far and wide (knowingly or unknowingly), and that there was a growing interest in a different (and authoritative) depiction of the Ukraine conflict within China.
End of my digression!
My last trip to China was in December of 2024. There had been a number of other excursions previous to that one which included this place (can you guess the name of this famous river?):
...and this place (can you guess the name of this snow-covered peak?):
However, there are just too many places to mention at once.
I was reminded of a particular encounter during last December's trip to Dali in Yunnan Province while reading up on some current trends in international economics and commerce. I'm talking about the BRICS:
In the second half of the video, Mr. Walmsley noted:
No! Not that one! That is me in Tiger Leaping Gorge.
YES! That's it! That structure is part of the Chongsheng Temple in Dali. You know whose statue is inside? Cai Shen, the Chinese God of Wealth, who is often associated with the number eight. The number eight is considered lucky in Chinese culture, and "888 Cai Shen" is a term used to amplify the promise of prosperity and abundance. Meet Cai Shen:
Feeling Lucky, yet? Well, I do.
One very interesting albeit minor occurrence oddly (or perhaps not) remains engraved in my mind although it had virtually little or nothing to do with my tour, or with China at all. This merits a brief digression. Those who follow major geopolitical events of this century may notice the coincidence of the year of my visit to China with the "Maidan Revolution" which took place in Ukraine (The Maidan coup had occurred several months earlier in February). Said coup unleashed a series of events that included the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which continues to this day.
Throughout my entire touristic journey in China, I was closely following the events unfolding in Ukraine as best I could (I was particularly pleased that I could access the online blog of the late United States Army officer and private intelligence analyst, and author, Col.Walter Patrick "Pat" Lang, Jr.. On one occasion our group was travelling on the tour-bus through Beijing and the topic of the Ukraine conflict came up. I was suprised by how our Chinese tourguide (a fine young fellow with an inquisitive mind) had accepted without questioning the western narrative of (largely) misinformation regarding Russia's alleged "actions" in the Ukraine conflict. When his words contradicted the authoritative analysis I had read of Col. Lang and others, I interrupted and corrected him. Astonished at how I came up with information that contradicted his own, he naturally asked me for the source and I responded (to his further amazement) that Col. Lang was a graduate of:
...the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the Armed Forces Staff College. He ... [was] a decorated veteran of several of the United States' overseas conflicts. During the Vietnam War, he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and Military Intelligence. He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East and served in that region for many years. He was the first professor of Arabic at the United States Military Academy,...
My intrigued Chinese tourguide asked for more information and I immediatedly provided him with the URLs for several entries to Col. Lang's blog, including the background to NATO expansion, the devious role and origins of the National Endowment for Democracy, the 'dark' origins of influential West Ukrainian nationalists, and a contrast between the opinions of propagandists and actual scholars, among others.
Now here is an interesting detail I always hark back to: In those days, Col. Lang had a blog app that highlighted the geographic location of people accessing his blog entries (via little dots of light on a world map) utilizing visitor tracking widgets and map integrations. When I first entered China, I noticed there were no "dots of light" within Chinese territory on Col. Lang's blog app (except one single dot of light corresponding to me!), which meant that nobody in China knew who Col. Lang was or accessed his blog. Most of his readers were either from Europe, the Americas or the Middle East (and Japan). HOWEVER, in the ensuing days after I gave my Chinese tourguide the abovementioned URL's, there suddenly appeared half a dozen highlights from Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities in China!! I can only surmise that my inquisitive tourguide had spread the word far and wide (knowingly or unknowingly), and that there was a growing interest in a different (and authoritative) depiction of the Ukraine conflict within China.
End of my digression!
My last trip to China was in December of 2024. There had been a number of other excursions previous to that one which included this place (can you guess the name of this famous river?):
I was reminded of a particular encounter during last December's trip to Dali in Yunnan Province while reading up on some current trends in international economics and commerce. I'm talking about the BRICS:
The BRICS countries have established Hong Kong as the most important financial center in their new system, while HK's banks also serve as a conduit between China's factory sector and the rest of the world. The new BRICS economy, ironically, still uses dollars as the primary medium of exchange between member countries, while completely bypassing the US and SWIFT-regulated financial systems.Actually, why read it if you can (better) watch a video?
In the second half of the video, Mr. Walmsley noted:
Tether bought 8,888 bitcoin. Eight is a lucky number in China. Chinese pay a high premium to have a lot of 8’s in their phone number, or on their car license plate. It’s especially important in Chinese culture for their home address. These are the three lucky numbers, and why, and 8 relates to fortune.That statement prodded me to look through my photo collection from Dali. I found the photo I was looking for:
# posted by Dr. Mathews @ 2:01 AM 
