Report From China

By Susan O'Doherty. I am writing from Beijing.
That sentence gives me goose flesh. When I was growing up, on suburban Long Island, a trip to visit my grandparents in Florida was exotic. My parents were conservative both politically and behaviorally, and were somewhat xenophobic. (They grew more adventurous after my father retired, and in fact visited a China in the 1980s, but their travels consisted of organized tours in which a bunch of smug Americans observed quaint natives from a distance.)
We travel as often as we can, but I have to admit this trip panicked me a little. Read more...