375
BACKSTREETS OF BEIJING
NOTES ON THE EASTER, 1998 VISIT TO BEIJING
PENNY ROBBINS
MEREDITH TONG-DRAPER GEOFFREY ROPER
The idea of a visit to Beijing, the Branch's first, came up during the Easter 1997 visit to Shanghai when Council member Dr Joseph Ting offered to lead a trip to aspects of the capital seldom seen by the tourist. Despite a busy work schedule, Dr Ting came true to his promise and on Good Friday, the 10th April led a party of 26 members and guests, including Branch President Dr Dan Waters, to Beijing.
Driving in from the Airport we found that spring had already arrived with the highway lined with trees sprouting every shade of green that one could imagine, and blossom in white, pink and deep crimson. Everything, that morning, looked fresh and clean, and to those who had not been there for some years, more prosperous. "Bamboo", the tour guide supplied by the travel agent, soon let us know that Beijing was now sharing in the nation's wealth.
Dr Ting soon had us working hard and we went straight from the Airport to the Foreign Missionaries Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing, off Chegongzhuang Road, rather ironically tucked away in the grounds of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Cadre Training School, where a billboard proclaimed Deng Hsiao-ping's pragmatic message “learn from experience". At the Cemetery, for which the Ming Emperor Wanli had given land in 1611, we were met by Professor Liu Shuyong a research fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong University Alumni Association in Beijing, who had helped make many of the arrangements for our visit, and Madam Gao Zhiyu, President of the China Association for Matteo Ricci Studies, which had been formed in 1995. Madam Gao gave us a very informative guided tour of the cemetery. [Illustration One].
There are two main sections, one, which has three graves and another with almost fifty more. The principal grave is that of Matteo
375
BACKSTREETS OF BEIJING
NOTES ON THE RASHKB EASTER, 1998 VISIT TO BEIJING
PENNY ROBBINS
MEREDITH TONG-DRAPER GEOFFREY ROPER.
The idea of a visit to Beijng, the Branch's first, came up during the Easter 1997 visit to Shanghai when Council member Dr Joseph Ting offered to lead a trip to aspects of the capital seldom seen by the tourist. Despite a busy work schedule, Dr Ting came true to his prom- ise and on Good Friday, the 10th April led a party of 26 members and guests, including Branch President Dr Dan Waters, to Beijing.
Driving in from the Airport we found that spring had already ar- rived with the highway lined with trees sprouting every shade of green that one could imagine, and blossom in white, pink and deep crimson. Everything, that morning, looked fresh and clean, and to those who had not been there for some years, more prosperous. "Bamboo", the tour guide supplied by the travel agent, soon let us know that Beijing was now sharing in the nation's wealth.
Dr Ting soon had us working hard and we went straight from the Airport to the Foreign Missionaries Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing, off Chegongzhuang Road, rather ironically tucked away in the grounds of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Cadre Training School, where a billboard proclaimed Deng Hsiao-ping's pragmatic message “learn from experience". At the Cemetery, for which the Ming Emperor Wanli had given land in 1611, we were met by Professor Liu Shuyong a research fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong University Alumni Association in Beijing, who had helped make many of the arrangements for our visit, and Madam Gao Zhiyu, President of the China Association for Matteo Ricci Studies, which had been formed in 1995. Madam Gao gave us a very informative guided tour of the cemetery. [Illustration One].
There are two main sections, one, which has three graves and an- other with almost fifty more. The principal grave is that of Matteo
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