{"id":120230,"date":"2011-04-11T21:27:14","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T04:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=120230"},"modified":"2011-04-11T22:08:24","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T05:08:24","slug":"the-grand-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/04\/the-grand-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grand Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evan Osnos leaves his post in Beijing to travel through Europe with a Chinese tour group and then write about it for the New Yorker<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nWe settled into coach on an Air China non-stop flight to Frankfurt, and I opened a Chinese packet of \u201cOutbound Group Advice,\u201d which we\u2019d been urged to read carefully. The specificity of the instructions suggested a history of unpleasant surprises: \u201cDon\u2019t travel with knockoffs of European goods, because customs inspectors will seize them and penalize you.\u201d There was an intense focus on staying safe in Europe. \u201cYou will see Gypsies begging beside the road, but do not give them any money. If they crowd around and ask to see your purse, yell for the guide.\u201d Conversing with strangers was discouraged. \u201cIf someone asks you to help take a photo of him, watch out: this is a prime opportunity for thieves.\u201d I\u2019d been in and out of Europe over the years, but the instructions put it in a new light, and I was oddly reassured to be travelling with three dozen others and a guide. The notes concluded with a piece of Confucius-style advice that framed our trip as a test of character: \u201cHe who can bear hardship should carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n

We landed in Frankfurt in heavy fog and gathered in the terminal for the first time as a full group. We ranged in age from six-year-old L\u00fc Keyi to his seventy-year-old grandfather, Liu Gongsheng, a retired mining engineer, who was escorting his wife, Huang Xueqing, in her wheelchair. Just about everyone belonged to the sector of Chinese society\u2014numbering between a hundred and fifty million and two hundred million people\u2014that qualifies as the country\u2019s middle class: a high-school science teacher, an interior decorator, a real-estate executive, a set designer for a television station, a gaggle of students. There was nothing of the countryside about my companions\u2014the rare glimpse of a horse grazing in a French pasture the next day sent everyone scrambling for cameras\u2014and yet they had only begun to be at home in the world. With few exceptions, this was everybody\u2019s first trip out of Asia.<\/p>\n

Li introduced me, the lone non-Chinese member of the group, and everyone offered a hearty welcome. Ten-year-old Liu Yifeng, who had a bowl cut and wore a black sweatshirt covered in white stars, smiled up at me and asked, \u201cDo all foreigners have noses that big?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evan Osnos leaves his post in Beijing to travel through Europe with a Chinese tour group and then write about it for the New Yorker: We settled into coach on an Air China non-stop flight to Frankfurt, and I opened a Chinese packet of \u201cOutbound Group Advice,\u201d which we\u2019d been urged to read carefully. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,2,5],"tags":[415,392,505,809],"class_list":["post-120230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-economy","category-society","tag-europe","tag-middle-class","tag-tourism","tag-travel","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Grand Tour<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2011\/04\/the-grand-tour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Grand Tour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evan Osnos leaves his post in Beijing to travel through Europe with a Chinese tour group and then write about it for the New Yorker: We settled into coach on an Air China non-stop flight to Frankfurt, and I opened a Chinese packet of \u201cOutbound Group Advice,\u201d which we\u2019d been urged to read carefully. 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