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China, A Little History, Part 12

Red China

The one and only Chairman Mao watches over Tiananmen Square for eternity. Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, Asia.
The one and only Chairman Mao watches over Tiananmen Square for eternity.

Civil War, World War II, and Back to Civil War

Back in 1934, the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists of the KMT and the Communists of the CPC was in full bloom.  In October, the KMT overwhelmed CPC forces in southern China.  The CPC began a long, slow retreat of over 5,500 miles to northwestern China.  This “Long March” (actually a series of retreats) took over a year and cost many lives.  As many as 90% of those who initially escaped the KMT didn’t make it.  But the CPC grew in isolation [Read more…]

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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 10

Well this is interesting.  According to my notes, the first thing I had to eat on Day 10 was garlic bread.  You would think I would remember having garlic bread in China.  But I don’t.  (It must have been overshadowed by the fantastic Italian meal I had the previous evening in Tianjin.  Also, it probably wasn’t all that memorable.)  I very much recall the fried squid rings I had while exploring in the Houhai area in the afternoon.  Hot and tasty!

For dinner, I was excited to go to Crescent Moon, a Uyghur Muslim restaurant.  There were 2 waitresses.  One was clearly Asian-looking, probably Han Chinese.  The other wasn’t Asian looking at all.  My guess would have been Greek.  Most likely, this waitress was Uyghur, an ethnicity related to Turks.  I needed to use the restroom after wandering all day.  I went through the door labeled for the restroom.  I found myself in the frigid outdoors.  I found the (very dark) men’s room up a cold, dark alley.  Weird.  But this is why we leave our own world to explore others.  Right?  Right!

image [Read more…]

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China, A Little History, Part 11

Second Sino-Japanese War

Sculpture of suffering citizens at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. Nanjing, China, Asia.
Sculpture of suffering citizens at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

The bloodiest war of 20th-century Asia was the Second Sino-Japanese War, or as it’s known in China, the War of Resistance Against Japan.  You know it as World War II.  (Okay, technically it eventually became part of WWII, but you get it.)  Notice the word “Resistance”, reminiscent of the European resistance against the Nazis.  Like Germany, Japan was looking to absorb neighboring lands to access natural resources needed to fulfill the needs of its densely [Read more…]