We watched the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics Friday night. I think we can all agree that they were very impressive.
I was interested in seeing them because I’ve been to Beijing several times. I taught in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, on four separate occasions, and visited Beijing at least once on each trip.
The first time I went to China was in 1987, when the above picture of Tiananmen Square was taken. China had been ‘open’ for several years by then, but foreigners were still relatively rare. I managed to attract quite a bit of attention wherever I went.
There were still relatively few automobiles in China at that time — the black bicycle was the usual mode of transportation for most people. Most older people wore dark Mao suits, and although young people wore white shirts there really wasn’t a great deal of color in the clothes ordinary people wore.
My most recent trip to China was in 1994 – 1995 and by that time things had really changed, at least in the cities. There were many more automobiles on the roads, but they were still outnumbered by the bicycles. But now the bicycles were every color under the rainbow. The clothing of the ordinary citizens, especially the children, was also very colorful.
The announcers Friday night commented several times on the politeness of the Chinese. I found the average Chinese to be very friendly and considerate on each of my trips, and I have many wonderful memories of China and the Chinese people.
Senior Moments 
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