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August 12, 2005 - Going home

Today was my last day in China. After 80 days I was so ready and eager to go home. But the day was not over until I met two of my high school classmates PW and ZL. I saw PW last year and ZL a few weeks ago in my hometown Shiyan. PW worked as a surgeon in Shanghai. ZL just came back from his European tour and was here to spend a few days with his wife and daughter before returning to Shiyan. PW, ZL and his daughter met me in my hotel room in late afternoon. PW also brought a box I mailed him from Wuhan because I did not want to bring all the stuff with me while traveling. We went to a Guizhou cuisine. ZL ordered a lot of dishes because he missed Chinese food while traveling in Europe. On the dinning table, one serious topic regarding health care reform came up. China, like in the States, was facing a health care crisis. Most of common people couldn’t afford health care. This created resentment. The government was trying to reform the system that was currently state owned. The question was what direction to go. The choices were either market based like in the US or the welfare based line in Canada and Europe. At present, market based reform was ruled out. But with so many people it was nearly impossible to have a welfare system. Being a doctor, PW did not see much hope for a resolution in his lifetime. Maybe he was too pessimistic.

After dinner we went to German bar called Pauline along the HuangPu River. We had Munich dark beer and some other snacks. From our seats we could see the lighted Bund across the river. It was very pretty. We stayed there until almost midnight before I had to say goodbye and came back to pack for my trip tomorrow.

One thing happened today made me a believer of China’s transformation. I went to my Chinese bank’s online banking website and found out that the hotel I stayed in Xiamen had refunded me the money for a night I did not stay but paid for. Based on this experience I think China will become more and more credible and easier to do business with. This is definitely a good sign.

posted by Unknown @ 6:24 AM