over the past few days I have been reading the great Colin Thubron's travels in China of 1985-86, just as it was opening up. It is a largely forgotten book about a lost in-between time -- a melancholic period after Mao's insanities but before McDonalds arrived.
Some excerpts.
Some excerpts.
1. A city of cycles 
2. 'Flying Fairy Brand Fireworks'
3. 'Friendship stores' and special privileges
4. malnourished bodies
5. 'capitalism w/ Chinese characteristics'
6. Cultural Revolution
7. The timeless prestige of indoor pallor
8. a hotel in China -- prefabricated in other countries
9. Peasants step on escalators
10. A thermos of boiled water
