References

Seniors' China Tour

"The only affordable tour of China focusing on seniors' interests. Through personal first-hand interaction, learn about Chinese culture and the secrets of longevity"

Papers from Seniors after China Tours

For a Reference, please send email to :

info@China-Hiking.com

A delegation of SENIORS from Province of Prince Edward Island visited

University of Senior Citizen in China in October 2001.

A record of Video Tape is available with this Tour.

If you are interested you can contact some of the following :

FRANCES SARK TEL: HOME( 902 )831-2027

15 days of Tibet Nomad hiking experience
click here

First Seniors Group to visit "University of Senior Citizens of China" To celebrate 1999 as "International Year of Elderly"

By: Eve Gardner

In late March our long-time friends Jean and Bill Hoag called to say that they were going to China on a tour and asked if we would go too. The tour was designed for Canadian seniors to visit Chinese seniors in this "International Year of the Elderly". A 10-day tour, it cost CDN$2800 per person (based on two sharing) from Vancouver and back, including transportation, food, and lodging, as well as tickets to sites and events. The tour was heavily subsidised by the Chinese government and managed in China by the China H. O. I. Travel (an arm of government, I think).

The inspiration for the tour came from people at the University of Senior Citizens in the city of Shi Jia Zhuang in Hebei province. Our Canada tour leader was Tony Pau, born and raised in China and now Canadian, who has been resident in North America for some years. Highly educated, extremely knowledgeable, and deeply intellectual, Tony has a great concern for China, past, present, and future. He leads several hiking tours in China each year and now works closely with the Chinese government to help westerners to understand the country. This isn't to imply that he's sympathetic to communism but rather that he is interested in opening China to the world.

This was the first seniors' tour from Canada (there have been some from Britain and Australia) and wasn't widely advertised. We became a group of 11 tourists, 7 from Edmonton area, 3 from Toronto, and 1 woman from New Jersey who had heard about it and asked if she could join. We left Edmonton April 19th, met the Torontonians at the Vancouver airport and proceeded to Beijing where we met Betty Lou who flew from New Jersey via Detroit. We were a small group in a small bus who spent about 14 hours a day together along with Tony, our local guide Mr. Li, and our driver who was the most proficient driver any of us had ever seen.

Nine days was just about the right length of time for a group of diverse strangers to spend in such intimate company and we all enjoyed it immensely.

This was definitely a working holiday. We were up by 6:00 am and finished each day about 9:30 pm. We stayed in good hotels, ate the very best food (western breakfasts and Chinese the rest of the time) and we were shown as much of Beijing, Baoding, and Shi Jia Zhuang as we could possibly see in the time we had. We were entertained at the seniors' university; at the apartment home of a retired lady and her two married children and one grandson; and several times in restaurants. One such party ended with karaoke singing by our hosts and social dancing. We were taken into average homes, dark hovels, and new apartments. We went to street markets and high-end malls and we were mobbed by hawkers at every historic site. We visited a jade factory and store, and a traditional medicine store with doctors prepared to diagnose and prescribe for our ailments. We exercised with seniors in a great park for an hour before breakfast one morning. We went to watch Peking Opera and Chinese Acrobats, visited the Forbidden City and the Great Wall and other historic sites. We saw beautiful gardens and awful back-lanes and unbelievable traffic. It seems that there are no traffic laws, just an understanding that traffic generally stays to the right. It all works because of the way it has evolved and because people of China, unlike North Americans, try very hard not to kill or be killed on the streets; road-rage is completely unknown.

We were there because China is in desperate need of help for its problems and it needs the world to know this. Millions of people live in the type of windowless brick house that Pearl Buck wrote about in the '20s. I'm reading The Good Earth again and, for some people, things haven't changed all that much except that the horrible famines no longer are part of their experience. Of course, at least in the cities, there is more equality of the sexes and people on the streets are generally very well and fashionably dressed. In the distant rural areas things are, perhaps, quite different from what we saw.

Unemployment is extremely high even though most work is still being done by hand with no machinery. Farmers still work bent over in the fields; stones of floors in ancient historical buildings are being re-set by hand and pounded into place with large wooden posts. China is being rebuilt and it's an astonishing sight. Highways are being built with rows of trees planted along them but there is no heavy highway equipment to be seen. Buildings are going up but one sees few building cranes. We were assured by one guide that the whole country is moving forward in the same way but they don't have the technology or the know-how. What is really disturbing is the thought that if they begin using the equipment we use there will be many millions more thrown out of work. The Chinese continue to be the same creative and hard working people they have been for a thousand years and many are becoming entrepreneurs but the country will have to find a path between our technological system and their traditional feudal system. The one-child rule is pretty much accepted by everyone as being necessary; they all have to live each day with the problems of over-population.

In one event of our trip Bill Hoag tripped and fell one evening on an ill-lit street in the city of Baoding, nearly severing a large chunk of a finger. He was taken to the local hospital which Jean said was frighteningly primitive. He had 10 or 12 stitches and shots of antibiotics and all communication was carried on by our wonderful guide Li Yihu. The following morning when Bill went back to the hospital to have fresh dressing applied the wound began to bleed again as they removed the first bandage. Jean was terrified of infection. We then travelled to Beijing as scheduled and Hoags had their insurance company recommend a hospital there. Bill was taken to an American-Chinese collaborative hospital which Jean described as the most beautiful hospital she'd ever seen and Hoags were well pleased with the treatment he received there. Such is China. Bill is recovering nicely.

Communism isn't revered by the younger generations; my impression is that they see the Communist government as simply the group of people in command at the present time. It is, in fact very difficult to comment on Chinese politics after such a short visit. Our guides narrated a great deal of Chinese history as we toured the historic sites and museums and I found it interesting that these young people spoke of such things as the Cultural Revolution in the same way that they described many other violent events in the long history of China. To them these are simply events of the past, not to be explained or defended, just enumerated. China is most fortunate not to have imploded as Russia did and this has much to do with the philosophy of the people which is based on Confusianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. They have the patience and the ability to wait while working to improve a situation. Possibly the average Chinese person isn't aware of the argument about human rights going on between his country and the west. Having seen how China is reaching out to the world I'm guessing that attention will slowly be paid to human rights under pressure from other countries. Premier Zhu is only one man who has to work with many other people and the Chinese are not about to lose face by immediately acceding to the demands of foreign governments.

I'm still rather bemused by our good luck in being part of this tour. We were certainly not a chosen group nor are we people of influence anywhere. All that was asked in return is that we spread the word that China is open - for business, for tourism, and for friendship. China is very real to me now whereas formerly I think it seemed a sort of mythical place. Also, I now understand why many of the people of Hong Kong were happy to be reunited with the mainland.

I've been asked if I think China is really open. Certainly it is open to friendship (although the public attention to us might have been different had we been in Beijing when their Belgrade embassy was bombed). Strangers sometimes smilingly took our pictures as we photographed our surroundings. Several times strangers asked us to pose with them for photographs. Generally those who speak English comment freely on the reality of life in China, there was no sense that they were afraid of saying the wrong thing. Also, we were free to go out on the streets alone; we didn't have government guides attending us every moment.

There were uniformed security guards, police, and soldiers on the streets but we had no more sense of being watched than we do here. China is working hard to expand tourism. Historic places are being refurbished wherever we went and our guides were very knowledgeable. Tiananmen Square wasn't open to us; we had to look at it from across the street in the Forbidden City. It was closed while work was being done on it but, of course, for political reasons this anniversary time was a good time to do the work. None of this is to suggest that China is democratic; it's not, but it's a far cry from the days of Mao Zedong. As for it's being open to business I'm not competent to comment; our tour didn't cover that at all. One sees that Beijing is being westernised to some extent; there are lots of familiar western company names along the streets. I do know that cousins of ours who own several businesses including a cement plant in the town of Rimbey, Alberta were approached by the Chinese to take their expertise to China and they have done so. We have heard this through the family grape-vine and haven't yet had an opportunity to talk to them. We expect to see them at a family reunion in August.

Eve Gardner
Ph: (780) 435-1103
Fx: (780) 440-0543
3816 - 108 Street N.W.
EDMONTON, AB
T6J 1B7

November 8 to 17, 1999 trip

Helen Creelman ( 506-459-7107 )

Dale Morris ( 506-454-4070 )

Anne Robinson ( 416-225-5659 )

Loretta Gaurin Savoic ( 506-459-6107 )

Allison Turner ( 416-785-4833 )

"...Tony, I love your humour and rapport with all of us, and making this experience one to brighten my 'fading' days

.....Hoping to be in a trip to Yellow Mts...Allison Turner

"...Tony! Thanks for your forsight in planning this trip -- one of a life time. I'll spread the word...Helen Creelman

Written by Mary Rogers, Morrisville, Pa. U.S.A. (angelene@earthlink.net) November 21, 1999

I just returned from a 10 day tour of the Beijing area in China with 18 senior citizens from Canada and United States. I looked forward to seeing China's national treasures, e.g., the Great Wall, Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace, as well as cultural performances such as the Beijing Opera. However, I believe that the real treasures of China are its citizens. Through the Seniors' China Tour offered by Kentours in Toronto, Canada (info@china-hiking.com), Mr. Anthony Pau made it possible for us to meet, mingle, and communicate with many Chinese senior citizens. They are a warm and friendly people offering us their hearts and homes.

We were graciously welcomed into the Shijazhuang home of a Chinese family. The mother, sons, daughter-in-law, grandchild, and senior friends were in attendance. We shared making and eating wonderful Chinese dumplings and enjoyed a tasty, bountiful meal. The warmth of this family was truly evident and many hugs were generated.

Mr. Pau offered us the opportunity to observe seniors in various classes such as brush painting and computers at the Senior University. One evening, we witnessed a gala musical and dance performance given by several Chinese senior women who attend the University. Our group reciprocated by singing three songs for an appreciative audience. Following the program, we all dined together, communicating through gestures, smiles, words, and warm grateful hugs.

Other opportunities to mingle with senior citizens were offered by Mr. Pau. We exercised, sang, and danced together on different days in various parks. The Chinese citizens easily accepted our presence and encouraged us to join them in these activities.

Trips such as the Seniors' China Tour make it possible to foster relationships between peoples of the world as well as nations. Credit is due Mr. Pau for his generous efforts on behalf of all of us.