Pride and punctuality
within a few years, China would have undergone a startling change.
The capital, Beijing, has gone from being in a state of ‘ morbid depression’ to ‘a glorious modern megalopolis . . . one of my favourite cities in the world.’
While she admires the way millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, Keswick also mourns what has been lost. Ancient towns and buildings have been ruthlessly swept away in the rush for progress, sometimes all too literally.
When the Three Gorges Dam was built on the Yangtze, it flooded thousands of towns and villages and displaced 1.4 million people.
Keswick is an engaging, lively guide and she is at her best when writing about the Chinese landscape.
In Yunnan, said to have some of the most fertile soil in the world, she marvels at thickets of forsythia and forests of camellias — a reminder that about half of the plants growing in British gardens originated in China.
There are useful nuggets throughout the book on how to behave when doing business with the Chinese. Even the smallest attempts at speaking Mandarin are met with delight.
British self- deprecation, on the other hand, goes down like a lead balloon. Commenting that China’s spanking new roads are so much better than British ones is seen as demeaning. ‘ The Chinese are attracted by success and by selfconfidence, and these generate respect,’ she counsels.
Above all, be punctual. Being late is unacceptably impolite, as the Queen found out on a state visit to China when, most uncharacteristically, she arrived three minutes late to an engagement.
The following day, the Chinese retaliated by being exactly three minutes late for her.