XIAMEN City – Six Filipino journalists wrapped up a whirlwind visit to China last September, two days after Eid’l Fitr, that took them through six Chinese cities and four hotels in eight days.
Representatives from Philippine STAR, Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, Manila Times and ABS-CBN met with their media counterparts, interviewed party officials, and surveyed cultural sites in the cities of Xiamen, capital Beijing, Fuzhou City, Quangzhou, Jinjiang and the former township of Shishi.
Xiamen, a southern port city fronting the Taiwan Straits and a known hub of goods headed for 168 mall in Manila’s Divisoria district, was the point of entry and exit. On the plane with the delegation to China was a merchant in the underground economy, whose stall in 168 specialized in Hello Kitty products.
The Philippine media were invited by the Chinese government, specifically the Chinese embassy in Manila while the hosts in charge of them once they got to the mainland were from the State Information Council, the party’s information and propaganda arm. They were to cover preparations for the 60th national day of the People’s Republic of China which falls on October 1.
The China Southern Airlines plane landed mid-September in the capital Beijing amid a discernible haze, the afternoon sun an orange pendant above filtering through. Chinese officials lost no time in dispelling the Western notion that China wanted to rule the world economy. They also suggested that Mao Zedong was less relevant now to the masses than Deng Xiaoping, though both remained great heroes, in fact the one-two punch in the anniversary celebrations centered on how the country’s history can be divided into 30-year cycles: Mao’s cultural revolution and Deng’s era of reform.
The journalists also met with officials from the People’s Daily, whose 60-year history parallels that of the republic and is now up to 20 pages with more than a million circulation; China Central Television which has some 18 stations of different programming unlike the two or three familiar to Manila’s cable viewers; China Economic Net, the main Internet portal in economic news and financial analysis on Chinese companies and their subsidiaries.
Foreign Ministry official Ma Jisheng, interviewed during a courtesy call at the ministry, said, “Close neighbors are better than distant relatives,” in highlighting the bilateral relations. He also downplayed questions regarding China’s growing military might, saying that it is not a matter of what weapons one has but policy.
Ma cited a Chinese saying that a knife can be used both to forage and to kill. The official was unaware of any existing extradition treaty between China and the Philippines, as most Filipinos languishing in Chinese jails are Filipina drug mules.
After a quick visit to the iconic Great Wall enshrouded in fog and a taste of authentic Peking duck, between endless rounds of toasts (kembei!) of a transparent Chinese liquor whose strength was between soju and lambanog, the media delegates were off to southern Fujian province to retrace, in a manner of speaking, the footsteps of ancestors.
A favorite giveaway or memento of officials in cities of Fujian province is a coffee-table book about stamps, the better to emphasize cross-straits relations. There are entire museums devoted to trade and cultural relations with Taiwan, and a major artwork depicts Taiwan and Fujian province as two branches coming from the same tree trunk.
The province is from where many great grandfathers of Chinese Filipinos hail, sailing across the Straits in search for greener pastures and in many cases, start second families.
There are also five-star hotels that leave an impression, such as Lakeside Hotel in Fuzhou City, which is actually the provincial capital and not Xiamen, living up to its breathtaking view of the west lake; Quangzhou Hotel with its old style interiors and architecture that evoked flashbacks to subtitled movies; and Honor Hotel in Shishi with its free Internet use in room which however had pop-up Chinese characters distracting the filer of stories.
Among dishes that left an indelible mark on the palate, whether in Beijing or Fujian, were chicken feet prepared spicy kinilaw style, a shabushabu type viand cooked at table that had flavorful aromas and a taste of fine dining, an appetizer of rellenong sea cucumber; desert of dragon fruit washed down with Chinese liquor to toast the senior citizenship of the people’s republic whose civilization may be as old as the stars.
The media men also met with editors and executives of local papers and TV stations, including the Shishi Daily whose layout had text on the spine, or the fold between pages.
The approach to the last stop Xiamen is accented by a view of Gulangyu Isle on the left side of the coaster, the island a five-minute ferry ride away and home to the piano museum.
The dizzying trip was about to end and we felt we could almost read Chinese characters dancing before our eyes, and the 168 merchant nowhere around. What else could one say but “kembei!”