Author: Dan

We loved Lijiang!…the Jackson Hole of China and our first 5 star accommodations! Our hotel, The Crowne Plaza, was directly next to the ancient city which has been transformed into a picturesque tourist destination. Water features are the recurring theme….waterfalls and canals running throughout the narrow shop lined streets, restaurants and markets. If it’s made in China you will find it here. We visited this area again and again looking for souveniors, dinners and ambience….we were never disappointed.

The next morning found us climbing in altitude again this time to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain National Park first by bus and then via cable car. At the top was the Yak Meadow, home to another Buddist Temple and the base of the Mountain. Unfortunately for us the clouds kept the summit of the mountain hidden. After that we ventured into the village that was home to Dr Joseph Rock. He lived and studied in this are for 27 years and was well loved by the local people. A wonderful little side trip.

The next day we visit the local park that houses a man-made lake formed from an underground spring that is the headwaters of the water in the ancient city. We all agree it is a serenely beautiful park. Afterwards Dan and Howard head off for a game of golf while Kristi and Marcia head to the spa for a much needed massage. Can we stay an extra day?!

But we are off to Shang-Hai via Kumning and the World’s Exposition.

Xian was the capital for China for many centuries and is home to many of the treasures of the country. A contemporary second tier city with a population of approximately 10 million. It shows all of the conflicts of urban growth; past and future….air pollution at its worst & subways under construction….coal fired power plants & wind farms….massive in-migration & thousands of new apartment buildings….and then there’s the poor tree lined boulevards trying to survive.

Our guide Neil starts us at the Museum of the Terra-Cotta Soldiers. We are all blown away by the scope of this undertaking……there are 3 pits of which only 2 are currently under excavation. Discovered in 1974, having been lost for thousands of years, this find represents a level of artistry, organization and wealth unknown in the West.

From there we went to the city wall. It was 100 feet deep, 100 feet high, had a moat, guard posts along the way and at all 4 corners. It was truly “the Great Wall” of city walls…..an astonishing feat for the Zhou dynasty….582 BC…..before the Caterpillar dynasty!

The Tang dynasty was responsible for the evenings entertainment…..a wonderful presentation of music, dance and acting…..truly on the level of a Broadway show.

Giant Big Goose Pagoda….652 AD…..a temple that was built to last. If we could build like this today all of our infrastructure would still be standing for centuries. In the 25 years since Dan was there the redevelopment around the pagoda is almost Disney-esque at a quality level that Walt would be proud of.

After 3 days we are off to Lijiang via plane with a quick change in Kumning.

It’s 6 am and we are off for a 12 hour ride on the only pressurized train in the world. Our average elevation will be 13,000 ft with a peak over 16,000 ft.

We travel in a first class compartment with four bunks, over and under. Additional oxygen is available at each bunk. We are the only Westerners on this train….as usual.

The trip starts out with snow capped mountains, plenty of yak and herdsmen but very sparsely settled.  The train has opened up Tibet and with it comes new electric lines, rebuilt roads and cell towers. Clearly, life was simple…yak, yak butter, yak meat, yak clothing, yak, yak, yak! While still simple for some, it’s off to the city for a better life for many. For the Chinese government, their development of the smaller cities is essential to keep folks near home. There were a number of train stations that were not yet operating and so the journey continued…..talk about thinking for the future.

The middle of the trip brings hours of monotonous high plains….Kristi and Howard decide it is a perfect time to catch up on some much needed sleep. At 16,000 ft the attendant tells us that we are passing the highest lake in the world….it is the color of the Caribbean Sea. The only inhabitants taking advantage of the views are some yaks and sheep. We all speculate that there will be a 5 star resort here in 5 years……with oxygen masks!

We arrive in Golmund….it is now 9:30 and we have been on the train for 12 1/2 hours. It is an industrial city of 270,000….the smallest city we will visit on this trip. It is also home to the second largest salt lake (after the Great Salt Lake in Utah) which we visit in the morning.

The Chinese are harvesting the salt and other minerals employing 20,000 residents. We witness a shift change on our back to the city….we count 68 transit buses transporting the workers to the plant. Unbelievable.

But even more unbelievable is the news that the road to the airport has been shut down for a military exercise. Our industrious guide quickly takes charge of the situation and commands a couple of tuks-tuks to get us to our destination. Of course the airport is shutdown as well and all flights have been cancelled. Howard negotiates a lunch at the police commissary and it is excellent. The most important question of the day comes from our host who wants to know if American policeman can have a moustache and if suspects really stop on command….LOL!

Finally on the plane on to Xian with a layover in Xinging.

We arrived in Lhasa by air from Beijing in the afternoon with great anticipation of both the scenery and the spiritual presence of the capital of Tibet and home of the Dalai Lama.

We stayed at the Sheraton Four Points, 11,450 ft above sea level. The streets are filled with Tibetans in traditional dress for the older generation and western dress for the younger generation. First stop was Norbulingka, the summer palace, that was rebuilt after being damaged during the Chinese invasion in 1959. Next stop was the Potala Palace, the shared residence of the King and the Dalai Lama for many centuries. Here we got our first taste of the current Tibetan Buddhist religion and the relationship between the monks and the followers. The interior of the this temple, like the others we saw, was dirty, poorly illuminated with rancid yak butter candles and a few lights, obsessed with money in small denominations everywhere and totally void of any spiritual grace.

The older generation of Tibetan’s are clearly dedicated in their religious practices witnessed by the prayer wheels, flags, and pilgrimages. On the other hand the monks appear as insolent beggars who refuse to do any work on behalf of either their followers or historical assets. It was very disillusioning.

Off to Sera Monastery, lunch, then off to a Temple in town. In each city we had a local guide and driver, in this case the guide could not seem to get the message that ‘shopping at in-laws’ was not the priority…after HY intervention we had a new guide in the morning.

Clearly we did not have an ‘altitude strategy’. All suffered from headaches, weakness, etc….Dan was down for the count. With Howard’s aid, Dan was treated by a local doctor with 20 years experience with the Chinese Airforce and a specialist in altitude sickness…oxygen, IV’s, many pills and recovery by the AM for the 6am departure for the train.

Beijing was the start of an extraordinary 18 day trip for Dan, Marcia and Kristi thru China hosted by Dan’s mentored son Howard Rafla Yuan. Howard is from a distinguished Chinese family that was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. With help from his family and the Williston Northampton School, Howard got to the USA in 1983 and completed his education with a Ph.d in Ceramic Engineering. He has been back in China for the last decade running a very successful subsidiary on an American company. In addition to being our native speaker he provided a unique perspective on these two cultures and their futures.

After 15 hour flights, we arrived at midnight on the 27th and were met at the airport by Howard. The first day included a visit to the Great Wall atMutianyu with a cable car ride up and a toboggan ride down. Later in the day we visited the Forbidden City, followed by dinner and a night visit to the site of the Olympics.

Dan had first been to Beijing 25 years ago and can attest to the enormous change that has taken place to both the people and the place. This is now a first world city of 15 million.

Dan’s first introduction to China was in 1983 when he acted as a shaprone on a Williston Academy student trip to China.

In the course of this three week trip at the very cusp of the transition from Mau to a more progressive society, Dan met ‘Charlie’ Yuan, a Williston alumni from the 1920s. Charlie was an amazing character who was the grandson the first President of China in 1908….boy is that another story. It turned out Charlie’s grandson was current at Williston and Dan was asked to look after the young man alone in America.

That was the start of a thirty year relationship between Dan and Howard Raffa Yuan. Arriving in America with no money and very little english, Howard spent one year at Willison and graduated in the top 10% of his class with a standing ovation at his graduation. Howard got a full scholarship at Wesleyan University and worked hard enough to have a years tuition invested at Fidelity when he graduated. On to Alfred University for a doctorate in Ceramic Engineering, one of 12 in the country that year.

Despite the fact that Howard swore he would never again set foot in China, an opportunity presented itself in the mid 90’s that would change his stance. At the time Howard’s company had developed the material that produces the holographs on currency. China wanted to join the 180 other countries using this material. The short of it is Howard goes back to China to open a facility in Bejing and go on to head up China operations for his company….there is also a long story. Howard now splits his time between California and China.

The opportunity to view China today with a bi-lingual and bi-cultural host was a dream. This trip with Howard, Kristi, Marcia and Dan was magnificent in so many ways.

Leaving beautiful Lake George, we headed off to Vermont to visit Sy and Debora Raboy who have a house for the entire family at Stratton Mountain in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The morning of the 4th we traveled up Rt 100 in VT stopping at a variety of potters, woodworkers and artisans. While late in the day, we decided to take our chances at the top of Mt Washington, NH, New England’s highest peak. Up the cog railway built in 1869 to the summit at 6,200 feet. Marcia could not believe we were above the tree line, luckily the clouds cleared for part of our visit.

After a night in North Conway, we headed to Maine via Lake Sebago with a stop in Portland for lunch. Bob and Tancy Rapp, new RV’s themselves provided their usual great hospitality. After a tour of Pemaquid Point, it was off to Cow Island for the weekend with our hosts Sam and Wendy Plimpton and their many guests. This is hospitality in the old style with gracious hosts, great company, awesome food and wine and a setting to remind us of what life can be like in its purest form.

After Cow, it was back to the Rapps for a round of golf and dinner with another fraternity brother, Mike Gero and his wife Malli who would then host us for a couple of days at their home at Tenants Harbor. At Rockland, a community that has lifted it self out of misery to become an art center, we stopped at the Owls Head Auto Museum and the Farnsworth. We then headed to the Boston area.

Last stop was with Jim and Lori Hamilton in Cohasset, MA with many dogs and lots of humor. Finally, we got out of the small car with the small dog and got on a plane for Miami.

Having left True West (the Large Road Vehicle) for servicing, we got in the Small Road Vehicle and headed for the Hampton Inn in Fairhaven to get reorganized and get the laundry done.

On the 28th, Nan Neth and Jim Wolf took the ferry from Martha’s Vineyard with their clubs and we got in 9 holes and a lot of laughs. After a lunch at Elizabeth’s in Fairhaven, we dropped them at the ferry and headed for the Berkshires. George and Sue Ulrich put us up in their colonial home in Worthington which we used as a base to cover Dan’s old stomping grounds. The Worthington Country club provided both golf and a fine dinner.

Our swing thru the Berkshires had us up Mt. Greylock, highest peak in Mass, then over to the Clark Museum in Williamstown, down to the Rockwell Museum after a lunch in Lenox and into Great Berrington for a B&B stop.

The next morning we stopped at the Hancock Shaker Museum outside of Pittsfield, MA before heading over to Saratoga Springs, NY. There we stayed in a B&B that was a Skidmore College dorm when Dan was at Union College about ten miles away. Tom and Claudine Hedbring were kind enough to take us to dinner at the Saratoga Country Club and let us use the company table at Saratoga Raceway the following day. Marcia was responsible for all of our losses.

In the morning, a round of golf at the Sagamore on Lake George followed by lunch. Then it was off to the Green Mountains of Vermont for a visit with Sy and Debora Raboy.