Experiencing the Greater Pearl River Delta during early years of development
Between 1992 and summer 1993 I had lived and worked at Guangdong Foreign Languages Normal School in suburban Guangzhou. I was there on a provincial governmental international exchange program. In late June '93, mentally "preparing" for my return to Scotland but within myself I wanted to explore more of China. Would I ever be back, I kept wondering? However, as I have often discovered in China, great moments do happen. I had been teaching graduate classes who were then packing up to go home when an invitation came my way. "Bruce, we know you really want to see China. Please come with us to Taishan for a few days?" "Where?" "Taishan near the South China Sea in a beautiful area west of the Delta."
A few days later, Linda Chen and her classmate Jessica were leading me to a Guangzhou bus station for a five-hour journey to Taishan. I discovered I was not staying within the city itself but in a large central village, Wencun ("hot springs"), surrounded by smaller agricultural communities including one where Linda had grown up. I had hardly been booked into a small guesthouse when a warning was issued. "Typhoon is coming!" An exciting introduction to rural coastal Guangdong life! Cities such as Taishan have located far back from the coastline partly because of a recurring typhoon danger alongside earlier threats of piracy.
Taishan was a community I quickly appreciated not least for its relaxing, almost sublime, atmosphere, to me it was therapeutic. It had also retained so much of its heritage. People seemingly apologetic would say, "Oh but it is old" to which I would reply, trying to look "astonished" and say, "It is wonderful. Please do not change it!" This was at a time when China was changing, when there was little concept of preserving the past and everything should look modern. Those days have thankfully changed.
