NANJING/HANGZHOU, July 15-20, 2002 — Professor Li Mang, my former student from 1986, gave a fine reunion dinner for two of her friends, one a middle school classmate and both comrades in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

I was invited along with the two husbands of the two women friends and one daughter. A sumptuous meal was served in the usual manner: a great lazy susan rotating in the middle of the table was laden with three kinds of seafood—crab, lobster, perch—and varieties of vegetables, mushrooms and fruit, many rarely if ever seen in the U.S.  It was a lucky break for me that Wang Dongsheng and Jin Xinli were there from Hangzhou, my destination the next day. These two women had invaluable connections in that city.

There are five cities that preceded Beijing as capital of the Chinese empire: Hangzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Nanjing, and Xi'an. I had already visited all but Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province and a center of industry and culture. Besides my wish to complete the visits of capitals, I knew that Hangzhou was an exciting city with an internationally recognized silk factory and a center for advanced topographical survey techniques. I planned to tour both of these establishments relying on the contacts of Jin Xinli and Wang Dongsheng, respectively.

Hello Hangzhou

The train runs east to Shanghai and then south to Hangzhou. A bus follows a more direct hypotenuse but takes longer. Since I was scheduled to depart for the U.S. from Shanghai, I would be but two hours away from the airport in Hangzhou.

Next day, the manager of the silk factory guided me through the mysteries of both the factory and its museum. My first discovery was that, using brocade, a few skillful workers are able to copy such famous paintings as the Mona Lisa and Two Lovers. Unless one sights this needlework at an angle and from a distance of a few inches, he will believe he is looking at the original paintings, so exactly detailed are the compositions.

Following other revelations of the museum, I watched the actual weaving of silk by elaborate but outdated machinery. As in America at an earlier date, the machinery is programmed by punched holes in a long strip of stiff paper. Computers are now a faster and more reliable method of weaving.

At the end of the tour, the genial manager served me tea in a large room devoted to the sale of a wide variety of silk materials. I did not try to resist buying a black silk bathrobe with a dragon brocaded on the back, several scarves and pillowcases, and a heavy tablecloth depicting scenes from ancient Hangzhou.

Later in the week I visited the topographical survey center serving the whole of Zhejiang Province. It was startling to see that the province has been divided into squares, photographed from the air with stereoscopic cameras. I was then given special glasses to wear so that, on a computer, I could see the landscape in three dimensions. Each scene can be viewed from various angles. It struck me that this topographical intelligence must be like the information in America's cruise missiles, which enables them to follow the mapping stored on board. With such guidance, the missile can reach its target, avoiding obstacles like hills and buildings. I doubt that China has such missiles since their military has wisely forsworn any attempt to match America's technological advances in warfare.

Mr. Ye (pronounced Yeah), who guided me through the computer exercises, invited me to his home for dinner that evening. The dinner table was, again, the lazy susan displaying a wide variety of foods. Most interesting were the several generations of Ye's and friends: grandparents, parents, and children. Only two young girls enrolled in a Shanghai middle school were fluent in English. However, language did not dampen our spirits. I competed with Mr. Ye who challenged me to pick up two peanuts at a time using chopsticks. He was surprised that I did better than he did.

Someone suggested an exercise I have used among Chinese children, that is, comparing what various animals seem to say in each language. For example, in English, the rooster says "cock-a-doodle-do" but in Chinese he says something I cannot duplicate here. A horse says about the same thing in each language, as does a donkey. There is always laughter when I ask, What does the fish say? As an audience seems bewildered, I try to make a bubbly sound.

Chinese are usually amused when I attempt a few words in their language. When I had eaten my fill and was offered more food, I said, Wo baola, meaning "I am filled." I learned in my first stint in China that this was the second most useful phrase. The most useful? It's Nar yo cesua? which means, "Where is the bathroom?"

All in all, these days were among the most eventful before my departure for America on July 22.