Dr.David Iancu Family China Visit

I think I’ve always been fascinated by this faraway country――China. When my father was opening his China items box, items that he brought back at the end of World War II, I was entering a world of wonder. He would take out the medals received from the commander of his unit, where he had been the chief medic; he would take out the ivory chopsticks and show us how to hold and how to use them; he would take out his lion shaped jade seal bearing his name, and he would show us how to write our family name, Iancu, in two Chinese characters: “Yang” and “Ku”. And how many other things he would take out, every one with its own story…

I never ever thought that I could get to see with my own eyes the places that father talked about in his stories. All was part of a world that we, the kids, did not have access to. The day dad received the invitation from his comrade in arms and friend Wang Bingnan, who at the time, in 1978, was the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, to visit China together with my mother, all of a sudden the dream became reality. Their travel impressions, put down on paper in 1979, brought the places and the way of life in China closer to me. We started to keep in touch with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Bucharest, from where we were receiving on a regular basis the magazine China, from which we were learning many interesting things about the Chinese culture and customs, about natural wonders and historical monuments, and also about the new accomplishments and paths of development.

In 1990, however, due to his illness and advanced age, our father passed away, and with his departure our family’s ties with China fell into oblivion.

After 14 years, when a Chinese delegation led by Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Romania, I was invited to the Cotroceni Palace (Presidential Palace), in the name of my father’s old friendship with the Chinese people. I was extremely honored by this invitation, so I did not hesitate to respond.

At the reception, I had the great surprise to receive from President Hu Jintao the official invitation to visit China together with my siblings. The emotion was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even find words to thank him for this great honour and joy to see a dream come true. The dream to see for real the places I only knew in my mind’s eye since my early childhood. I immediately announced to my siblings, each living and working in a different part of the world, and decided for the best period to go together on this trip. We chose the end of August and beginning of September, two weeks to see together the places our father had been to so many years ago.

On August 22, we all arrived in Beijing, where we met for the first time since our father passed away in 1990. We were greeted by Mr. Zhao Jianyu, who spoke Romanian and had been sent by the Department of East European Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Dong Kaijian, director of the Department of European Affairs of the CPAFFC, and Mr. Zuo Fengqiang, from the same department, who all accompanied us through our journey in China.

The first impression I had on the way from the airport to the hotel, was that I had arrived in another country than I had expected. Highways with four lanes in the same direction, modern buildings of glass and steel, and signs of big international companies, all made me think I was in a western country.

Only the Chinese signs confirmed to me that I was right. It was China! Another China, the one I did not have too much information about. I did not know what to appreciate first: the welcome, the exceptional accommodation, or what we saw around us. Then there was the great local food, almost every dish was unknown to us. If in the beginning, eating with chopsticks challenged our concentration and skills, soon it became a habit, and we were able to focus on every dish, tasting and enjoying it. Everything was new tor us.

The welcome in every city, starting with Beijing, touched us. In Beijing we were met by the president of the CPAFFC, Mr. Chen Haosu, who spoke lots of friendly words and expressed gratitude for our father’s contribution to the victory of the Chinese Army against the Japanese aggression during World War II.

The CPAFFC branches at the places we visited organized excellent programmes for us. We saw the most interesting places, the best shows, and we had the best food. We visited the municipality of Chongqing, where Dr. Iancu met Zhou Enlai in 1940, when the Chinese government had moved there.

We found a modern city with very high buildings placed on the rocky land of the shores of the Yangtze River. Looking at the city, I was trying to imagine how this place looked like 65 years ago, when my father was crossing the stormy river in a boat, when there were no bridges between the two shores.

Our next destination, Kumming city, the capital of Yunnan Province, was another big surprise. The modern city with a very well developed highway network, offered us the view of a city placed in the middle of nature, surrounded by rice terraces and greenhouses with flowers and of course the World Exhibition of Gardening. The Stone Forest, close to the city, was another impressive sight――the coral fossils, twisted paths, leading up and down in the shadows of the rocks.

Yunnan Province has a lot of surprises. Lijiang is a town with very charming small streets, offering at every step the scene of a peaceful life, combining art, tradition customs and ancient culture of its inhabitants of various ethnic groups. No wonder so many tourists are looking for it. Placed at 2,400 m altitude, at the foot of the 6,000 m high mountains, the fresh air of Lijiang is filling your lungs.

From the patriarchal life of this place, we flew the next day directly into the heart of the most modern civilization――Shanghai.

A city that everyone in the world is talking about, known for its development rhythm, which you can not imagine as it really is, until you get there, and see it from the television tower, “The Pearl of the Orient”, 260 m high. This is a real miracle which could not have been accomplished without an enormous concentrated effort.

In the Pudong area, everything was going on according to plan: international contests for its most functional systematization were organized; the most appropriate solutions and options proposed by the world’s greatest urbanists were chosen, setting in the end the future plans and guidelines to be followed. Having a very solid base, with a faultless infrastructure, it attracted the world’s largest investors, who came to build the most modern office buildings for their companies. And this happened as planned, leaving spaces for gardens and markets and for sunshine to reach inside the buildings.

We felt really small, overwhelmed by the city’s majesty, especially in the Pudong area, which used to be a fisher and farmer village 20 years ago.

We walked along the commercial area among hasty young people, dressed in the latest fashion trends, but we could also see how the historical monuments, traditional gardens and parks were preserved.

Like in all the other places we had visited, we were welcomed by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and we had the chance to meet after 19 years, Mrs. Zhao Jingpu, Dr. Clejan’s widow. Clejan was among the 19 doctors who contributed to China’s victory against the Japanese in World War II, by working on epidemic prevention, fighting against the outbreaks in the Chinese army, training the medical staff, organizing hospitals and improving the treatment conditions of the wounded, in the tough period of 1940. We had met Dr. Clejan’s wife during our childhood, when she arrived with her husband from China. She was our first contact with the Chinese language, the food, and the Chinese traditions.

After our return to Beijing, while regretting that the time was not enough to visit so many interesting places, we had to settle on only a few of them to visit: The Palace Museum and the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, built in the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the reknowned painted wooden buildings and the gates which you pass through from one garden to another.

We walked through the Tiananmen Square, visited the temple with the biggest bronze bell in China, and last but not least, we climbed up the stairs of the Great Wall, which left us a profound impression and the real image of the achievement made with sacrifice of lives. This wall is a structure that crosses the mountains through precipises and abrupt slopes, resisting time and invaders. Absolutely impressive!

One of the most important meetings of our China visit was the one with State Councillor Mr. Tang Jiaxuan. We had a friendly discussion, followed by dinner.

We were impressed by Mr. Tang’s personality, by the warm and kind way he talked to us, and the way he listened to the impressions of our journey in China.

Another invitation that honored us was the one at the CRI radio station where we were welcomed by Mr. Zhao Tieji, vice-president of the CRI, who offered us a dinner. We had talks with Mr. Zhu Kewen, the head of the Romanian editorial department, and with some members of the staff, whom we also gave a short interview.

The impressions are not settled yet. Time will probably do this, but it is sure that we have gathered unforgettable memories, which we will share with our friends as soon as we return to our country. Nothing we knew before this journey can be compared with our experiences in China. Absolutely everything in China has left us strong impressions and we still have a lot more to say about the country and the visit has increased our interest in China and desire to come back again to this place of endless beauty and diversity.