the 8th wonder of the world!

China.. a place I went to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and Terra Cotta warriors to just name a few. But what I came back with was much more than just some pieces of a glorious past...the whole present and the "future to be" mesmerised me.

But first the history that left me speechless...the granduer of it all...standing at the Great Wall there was a moment when seeing was disbelieving...if it was possible to look back and ahead at the same moment..there was a moment so...the chilling winds from Mongolia ingrained it ever so more of the balance between man made structures of years gone by and nature in its entirety.

What moved me too were how well the land had preserved its history yet not stopped itself from moving on.

As for the impressions of culture, economy and politics...well left its mark larger than life. Even a visit to two cities in this vast land mass brought out realities from the core.

The concentrated development of productive livable cities amazed me. If we are talking of growing giants in the "super power" arena..well this giant has reared its head way way beyond the clouds but not lost track of its arable lands.

Reports of the Shanghai Conference (2004) somehow flashed before the inner eye every time I stepped into a corner of a street. The natural flow of things and the perfect balance between modernity and tradition. A muslim market with traditional fare, a night market not only tgo attract tourists and a mall where designer boutiques are the order of the day...nothing felt out of place...just integrated into the natural flow of things.

China doesnt deny its poverty. China doesnt deny its masses. China doesnt show the arrogance that we witness in a lot other developing "superpowers". I am not here to run any one nation down and praise another. All I can say is there is a welcoming attribute that the land has without wanting to cheat you off your mark.

There are two sides of the coin am sure , but what meets the eye has a definite semblance of truth . A strong government at the centre defintely does make a difference and a society denied of sectarian differences definitely leaves a positive mark.

I took my time to take off from just visiting the tourist attractions at one point to just let it all sink in...to let a place just touch me in its true sense..to just look through tv channels even if I understood not a word...or to read the daily news and just walk around places which were only where the resident went and pick up a CD with local songs...to get a whiff of the scent of the city and not just through its food and shopping. And what echoed out loud was a concerted effort for the whole land to move ahead and regain not only a fomer glory but something much beyond, without letting go off its roots.

Of course there are the dark corners...of course there are things hidden from the tourist eye...but whatever is visible is much more than a lot of other lands...

I need to venture back to get a closer look at this country where just a fragment has left me wondering, speechless in parts and curious to venture inwards.