“Why is income tax so complicated?” A friend puts my frustration in perspective. “The Chinese invented bureaucracy thousands of years ago. The government of Canada is perfecting it.”
My wife Jacqueline and I appreciated Chinese bureaucracy during a recent tour. Her luggage was missing on arrival in Beijing. Pages of information were politely collected in Chinese and English. Later that evening the phone rang. A traveller with another tour group had taken her suitcase by mistake. It was safely retrieved somewhere in a city of 15 million people.
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“Why did you choose travel to China?” As a teenager I read The Keys of the Kingdom, by A.J. Cronin. The principal character, a Scots priest named Francis Chisholm, served humbly and heroically in China in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Chisholm was a practical priest, open minded and big hearted, who saw truth and beauty beyond the strict church structures of the time.
China has long been mysterious to me. The time and opportunity seemed right for a visit, and Revenue Canada did not take all my money!
Modern China, with its population of 1.3 billion people, enormous construction projects and business links around the world, is a place of huge contrasts. While climbing the Great Wall I reflected on the effort humans make to ensure separation from those they consider a threat. Watching the panda bears devour piles of bamboo, I reflected on how the world nearly lost these loveable creatures. During an amazing Chinese acrobat show, a magician tossed a live pigeon into the air. It instantly turned into feathers and became a handkerchief. “How did she do it?” Another Chinese mystery to ponder.
Chinese people are friendly, anxious to practice their English and eager to sell their wares. Young people welcomed us to their country and often asked to be photographed with us. Education and individual achievement are highly valued.
Curious about Chinese spirituality, I heard about a quest for harmony, balance and personal peace. Chinese herbs, natural medicine, a diet with lots of vegetables, time for contemplation and a moral code are components of a helpful approach to life. “Yin” and “Yang,” opposites held in dynamic tension, are similar to Western concepts of good and evil, right and wrong.
As twin diesels pushed our small cruise ship up the Yangtze River, the landscape of central China passed by slowly. Sampans which used to cross the river have been replaced by enormous suspension bridges. Occasionally I noticed a farmer with a wooden plow following a water buffalo. Yellow canola fields adorned the landscape. Most are small and planted and harvested by hand. Unfortunately, terraces tilled for thousands of years are being gobbled up by skyscrapers. Farmland is rapidly disappearing. Farmers protest but they regularly lose their land. When I asked who is replacing them, I was told the farmers now work in the factories. One wonders what effects the changes in traditional agriculture and land usage will have on Chinese society and food production.
While traveling in China, a familiar hymn came to mind: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise”
SuggestedScripture:Daniel2:17-23,Colossians3:14-17
Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon
