China Part I

Tianemin Square



I am a pro now with the chop-stix

The Beijing Crew in front of the Bird's Nest!

Myself, Mike, Wongwei, Fengxiang, and Nick Barnes

I just returned to the Maryknoll retreat house in Hong Kong last night. I enjoyed the past two weeks on the mainland of China. Ho had the opportunity and wanted to put up a few posts while I was there but the communist government has this website blocked. To be honest this was the only real personal negative experience I had of the communist country. I wasn't able to check facebook or create a new post on my blog, other than that I really didn't feel as if I was in a communist country except for talking to other people and listening to their experiences.

On July 1st, flew to Beijing. We spent four nights there at a youth hostel. This was the first hostel I have stayed at, and it was a much better experience than I had expected. For four nights it was less than $40 (U.S.). Lodging and food is so inexpensive for foreigners. I should qualify that. Food that isn't from an American chain is very inexpensive, however, a coffee from Starbucks, McDonald's, a blizzard from DQ costs as much as it does in the States. With that said, you can understand how expensive those items are for the Chinese. Electronic prices are also relatively comparable to the States. Most nights we ate a full dinner for less than $3 each.

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Why is this? China "pegs" their currency. Meaning the government artificially injects Chinese dollars into the market so that the supply increases which causes (all other things held equal) the value of the Chinese Yuan to decrease. The U.S. for years has been trying to get China to stop this because it creates an unequal balance between our exports and imports with China. We buy all their goods because they are inexpensive, but they buy very few of ours and we buy few of ours because we can get them cheaper overseas. This is one of the reasons why a lot of our manufacturing companies are struggling and moving overseas. So with everything there is a tradeoff. This strategy of keeping the Yuan devalued helps Chinese businesses, American visitors (me) to China, but hurts the Chinese consumers, and American businesses.

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Now that we are done with the economics lesson, I shall continue. In Beijing, we visited the Great Wall, the Forbidden Kingdom, the Temple of Heaven, the Water Cube (home of the swimming events at the 2008 Olympics), the Bird's Nest (home of the opening and closing ceremonies along with the track and field events), and Tianemin Square where I saw Mao Zedong. Mao is the first Chinese chairman, he is the founder of the Communist party. He looks as if he is an incorruptible saint. They have him lying dressed in a suit in a glass room and people are allowed to walk in and see him. The guards keep the people moving and you are not allowed to take pictures. I'm not sure how they have him looking so good, it may be just a wax replica of him or they may have electricity running through his body ( his face seemed to glow orange).

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We also visited two parishes and the seminary there. Both these churches looked like a church you would find in Europe or the U.S. there wasn't anything distinctly Chinese about them. The people have a great love for our Mother Mary, they have a great reverence for the Eucharist and a particularly strong devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They are drawn to the Sacred Heart of Jesus because it is an image that attracts all and speaks to all cultures. Every culture including the Chinese refers to the heart as the center of the person, so the Chinese can really relate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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On July 5th, we took a night train up to Jilin City which is to the north-west of North Korea. We attended mass at the local parish there a couple of mornings, visited the seminary, and the catholic social services center there as well. They do good work but don't get help from the government. They allow it though because they do work that the government doesn't have to.

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On July 8th, we traveled south in a bus and spent the night at a rural parish where 4000 of the 4000 inhabitants are catholic. It was so great to see. It was just as you see in the movies of old parish life and what some of our older blog readers would be familiar with. At mass the children all sat up front with the boys on the left and the girls on the right. The men sat in the back on the right and the women sat in the back on the left. The two sisters at the parish were up front making sure the kids were behaving. More than once the sister would take one of the boys back to sit with her. Mass was at 5:30 but the church was full at 5pm. The teenage girls led prayers including the rosary before the start of mass. It was very encouraging to see the faith of this small village. The next morning we celebrated mass at 5:10am. It used to be at 4am but the priests wanted it later so they compromised. Why so early? First, everyone in the town farms. Second, because Mao ( the dead guy they have on display for everyone to see) wanted everyone in China to be on the same schedule, he implemented one time zone for the whole country! So when I was there, the sun rose at 3:30am. We have four time zones in the States and we are comparable size to China, so you can get an idea of what it would be like to have one time zone.

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I'll write Part II tomorrow. There is just so much to talk about. The people have been so generous and kind to us. Part of the reason why Maryknoll has this program for us is so that can experience China and in particular the Catholic Church in China and someday return as missionaries for 3-5 years with the consent of our bishops. It is something that feel I should consider. I have truly only been receiving the generosity of others here. I haven't done much and want to return the favor in some way, someday. So God willing, I'll be back here some day.

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The interesting thing is that it won't be for awhile. This is because China will not allow any foreign priests into the country. They will shut down whatever you are doing within a matter of months. The priests in China are strictly teaching, and celebrating a mass here and there as a substitute. So I was confused, all these Chinese priests we met said I hope you come back some day, but why would I come back just to teach English and have some pastoral work on the side. So I asked one of the priests about this confusion, something has to give. He said that he doesn't think communism can last here. The only thing holding the country together is the communist party. China is too big and the more it grows economically the harder it will be for so few of people to control this great number of people. He thought in thirty years there will be not be a communist party in charge. What will the country look like then? He didn't know, maybe a number of smaller countries, sort of like the U.S.S.R after the fall of communism there. Now I don't know how common of a view that is but it seems to make sense. I think that is why in Hong Kong there are many, many priests and religious. They are all just waiting for the opportunity to get into China.

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But while there is a communist party in charge, there is little that a foreign priest could do.