CONTENTS Introduction Expedition to China We land in Hong Kong, next stop Beijing Hong Kong, consumer paradise The Friendship Hotel Our children get new names Pages from a storm A Colombian poet in trouble The Decade of Chaos A filmmaker pilloried Our first trip back Living in China for not one but many years Twenty-two lessons learned In a house with a courtyard, friendship flourishes Annals of change Back ground to the reform and opening-up Neo-Confucian China and consumption Beijing was a forest of cranes To contradict Voltaire, everything changes in China Beijing, rebuilt in ten years Remnants of the past and heralds of today My district, a neighbourhood of alleys The commercial face of the reforms The floating population and business fever The reforms through the eyes of two Colombian diplomats Revisiting Beijing China past and present International Watchtower China and the global crisis China's position in global geopolitics Cultural traits and customs Confucianism, still current and constant Bird walkers Caged crickets fight In China, grandparents are in charge The China that hosts the Olympic Games Characteristics of the new Chinese family Mao Zedong, the poet Review and interviews Launch of Twice The Life In China Seventeen years living in the grandeur of China China the novel Epilogue