By Bob Van Leer

  (TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Tuesday, May 21, 2002) - We spent our first full day in Taiwan sightseeing and meeting with public officials.

  We arrived in Taipei yesterday evening after a 12 hour, 35 minute flight from San Francisco aboard a United Airlines Boeing 777. The plane took the great circle route and went directly over Medford where I started. We continued on towards Alaska and then across Japan to Taipei.

  The tour was organized by the National Newspaper Association and 32 persons, including myself, are on the trip. It is sort of an old home week. Of the 31 others along, I was already acquainted with 22. The group is from across the United States - North Carolina, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oregon and points in between.

   The trip is for almost two weeks and includes stops in Hong Kong and Beijing in mainland China.

  Betty elected not to go on this tour because of the great amount of walking involved.

  In Taipei the weather was hot and muggy. This is subtropical country and the Tropic of Cancer runs through Taiwan.

By Bob Van Leer

  (TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Tuesday, May 22, 2002) - Taiwan has the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome - it gets no respect.

  Dr. Michael Kan, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan, told us, "We are a major economic entity". He said ROC is 13th or 14th in international trade, and number 7 in outbound trade. He said 70% of the laptop computers in the world are produced in ROC. Yet ROC has formal diplomatic relations with only 28 countries including such heavyweights as Republic of Nauru and Burkino Faso. No major nation recognizes ROC as a separate state.

By Bob Van Leer

  (TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Tuesday, May 23, 2002) - The highlight of today's activities was a meeting with Chen Shui-bian, president of the Republic of China.

  Pres. Chen reiterated that Taiwan doesn't get any respect. He said the Republic of China (ROC) is the 14th largest trading nation in the world but has not enjoyed the dignity it deserves. Taiwan was admitted to the World Trade Organization but denied participation in the World Health Organization.

By Bob Van Leer

  (HONG KONG, China, Friday, May 24, 2002) - This evening we went to a reception at the U. S. government-owned home of Kenneth Jarrett, acting consul general of the U. S. on top of one of the tallest peaks in Hong Kong.

  The weather was a little hazy, but the view was still magnificent. The U. S. Embassy is in Beijing but the trade in Hong Kong makes the consul's job in Hong Kong a busy one.

  We left Taipai for an early morning Cathay Pacific flight that takes an hour and 20 minutes. A story in the Asian Wall Street Journal said this is the world's busiest flight route.

By Bob Van Leer

  (HONG KONG, CHINA - Saturday, May 25, 2002) - Our first meeting today was with Stephen Lam, press assistant to the governor of Hong Kong.

  He called Hong Kong the most transparent, free and liberal society in Asia. But from other sources we hear there are invisible lines. You don't know where they are until you cross them and then you are subject to discipline.

  Lam said Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China and the agreed policy of "one country-two systems" worked out with the British before the handover five years ago is being faithfully implemented. The British pulled out when the 99-year lease for parts of Hong Kong expired in 1997.

By Bob Van Leer

  (BEIJING, CHINA - Monday, May 27, 2002) - This morning we got up early and took a two hour, 40 minute flight to Beijing, capital of China.

  We flew an Air China Boeing 777, not the line owing the plane that crashed and killed almost 300 persons two days ago. That was China Airlines.

  Beijing has a perpetual haze, otherwise the day was bright. Beijing's population is in the 11-12 million range.

VISITING A JADE PLANT AND ON TO THE THE GREAT WALL
By Bob Van Leer

  (BEIJING, CHINA - Tuesday, May 28, 2002) - Today was a day of sightseeing, too much sightseeing, starting with a visit to a jade manufacturing plant and then a 50-mile trip to the Great Wall.

  The road to the Bodaling section of the wall, one of four sections open to tourists, has been greatly improved since Betty and I visited the wall in 1991. Much of the wall not accessible to tourists is crumbling, our guide said. There were no traffic jams at all this time on the way to the wall. The Bodaling area is steep, rocky, mountainous and dry. In 1991 much of the area was freshly reforested with pine and cedar. I was interested in seeing how the trees looked 11 years later. The pines, the fewest planted, have done the best. The cedars have grown from about three feet high to 9-10 feet in 11 years.

By Bob Van Leer

  (BEIJING, CHINA - Wednesday, May 29, 2002) - Today was our last day in China and our guides made the most of it. We met with government officials, toured a newspaper, did sightseeing and shopping and finished off with a traditional Peking duck dinner.

  We met at separate meetings with Ming Wei Zhou, vice minister of Taiwan Affairs and Zheng Zegnang, deputy director, General Department of North American and Oceania Affairs.

  Taiwan really bothers the Chinese. Most of our meetings have been dominated by talk of Taiwan. All agree there is "one China" but who represents China is the question. Chiang Kai-Shek and his party the Kuomintang, lost the war on the mainland to the communists and retreated to the small island of Taiwan off the South China coast. The Korean War complicated the issue and made reunification impossible at the time.