你好 中国 - Ni Hao China!

It had been long since we ventured out of India. Returning from the African continent in 1987, after serving there for almost two decades in the beautiful countries of Uganda and Zambia and then continuously working in the North Indian twin towns of Jagadhri and Yamuna Nagar, which also happen to be my home towns as well. 

A well-deserved break was a must. The last two decades have been a turbulent period for us in various ways. We had to establish ourselves in India with not much moolah in hand. The biggest worry was to educate children in the right environment so they could stand on their own as honourable and useful citizens of India. The second thing on our minds was to take care of the ageing parents back home. Now in hindsight, it appears we could achieve our twin objectives to a logical extent.

Our son Rajeev works in Mumbai as a banker and his wife Neeti is a marketing professional, and had been working with telecom and FMCG companies and now heads a FM radio station. Both are doing very well there, and we have been visiting them at least once a year.  

Our daughter, Neelima , a journalist, is working as a Senior Editor, with a business school, in Beijing, China. Earlier, she was in the US on a Fellowship with the University of California in Berkeley for a year and half. Her husband, Maulik, an architect who did his Masters from Berkeley, works as chief urban designer with an architectural firm in Beijing. Their long standing invitation brought us here.  It gave us immense pleasure to be with them after a prolonged wait.

So little over a week back, Meenakshi and I flew into Beijing - nearly after over ten days of painstaking preparation - getting the visas done, forex, etc. We flew in on an Air China Airbus A330 directly from Delhi. The flight took off from Delhi's swanky new Terminal 3, which has been constructed by the GMR Group - a symbol of India's resurgence. The flight took nearly 6 and a half hours - it was quite comfortable  though we could not sleep a wink. 

Despite a capacity of nearly 300 passengers, this Airbus A330 was less than a quarter full. Most passengers were from Punjab travelling to Tarraanto (Toronto) and other places in Cannadda (Canada) - I have tried to reproduce in verbatim the way rustic Punjabis call Toronto and Canada in a guttural fashion! These passengers were to transit through Beijing.

We touched down at Beijing in the morning. My first impression was obvious - Beijing, the capital of China is a great city with old traditions and modern flavours. The airport is quite well developed and modern with an internal subway system (metro rail) to take you for quite a distance to baggage claim belts.

Neelima was there to receive us as Maulik was in the United States for a week on work. The journey from the airport to their home in Shuangjing took about 40-50 minutes in a taxi. The ride was an eye opener. The roads are well paved without any potholes, no honking, and not many red lights to keep you waiting on the road. Traffic is very disciplined. There are so many flyovers and flyways to keep you going at a steady speed. Almost all the roads are lined with beautiful trees, well-trimmed hedges and beautiful flowers blooming with all sorts of colours. Greenery is there for all to see and enjoy. It was a lovely drive passing through the avenues of skyscrapers which are in abundance all around.

These days there is mild chill here in Beijing as the winter is fast approaching. We have started our 6 o’clock morning walks in the garden below the building where we are staying. We find many people doing various types of exercises like tai chi, some take their dogs out to ease themselves – in specially designated doggy toilets! Others are seen going to their work places, and small children going to school.

Change of security guards takes place in these well-planned towers clustered all over – the day-time security guards replace the night guards. These building guards are young, smart and very active, and can often be seen marching around like military men. Sometimes in the morning, we see someone fishing in a pond created for the water fountains. We wonder if it is permissible to do fishing as the fish therein are actually colourful and decorative meant for recreational purposes.

What struck us the most about Beijing is the cleanliness all around. There is no littering anywhere. As we go around shopping, we come across some workers picking up tiny scraps of paper, polythene and even small pieces of rubbish on the pavement. They put them in the dustbins which are quite well-placed at regular intervals. The good thing about the dust bins is that they are not shabby and the place around it is not dirty at all. If a hedge is being trimmed, all the trimmings are picked up and disposed of from the place at the same time.

As we watch from the window of our 12th floor (actually the 11th floor – because of traditional Chinese beliefs, a lot of Chinese buildings don’t have the 4th and 13th floors) apartment living room, we find the vehicles running smoothly at a normal speed on the road below. Drivers willingly stop at red lights even when there are no police personnel around to keep a vigil. No one misuses horns, and no one jumps the red light. Pedestrians also cross the road only on green lights meant for them to do so. This observation holds true even at 2 or 3 AM. All the roads have special paths for the pedestrians and special ones for the cycle riders who command due respect and are not despised.

  

Much like India, China too is an ancient land, with a long history, an impressive culture and deep ingrained sense of tradition. But the path to growth here in China is very different - its orderly and not chaotic as we see in India. We have a lot to learn from this ancient land!