I"m leaving early Friday morning for a weekend in Hong Kong, one of my favorite cities in the world. I'm heading down for a speaking engagement, but will also have some time to meet up with old friends, and take some strolls down memory lanes.
My first taste of East Asia and Chinese culture was in 1979, when I spent the summer there. Wow, almost 30 years ago! That was also the summer that I made my first trip into China (we still called it "Red China" back then). It was the first year that China was 'open' for Americans to visit, so I signed up for a 3 day tour to Guangzhou. I also remember riding the bus up to the border town of Lo Wu, where we could climb a hill and gaze into "Red China," What we saw at that time was a rice-paddy filled valley. That valley is today the booming metropolis of Shenzhen. I never imagined then that 29 years later, China would be such a big part of my life! Amazing.