A Glimpse of China In 1988 - Restored Photos From My Dad's Journey Through China #2

My dad spent his 20's to his 40's traveling the world. In his 1988 China trip he was one of the few foreigners going into previously blocked off areas in China. He was a semi-professional photographer and after receiving a dual degree in psychology and philosophy he continued to pursue a degree in journalism, with photojournalism being his passion. He was one class away from finishing his degree in journalism when his friend invited him on a trip to China. He took off, traveled through China, met my mom in Chengdu, and fell in love. They were reunited when my mom moved to the U.S. for graduate school a couple years later. I recently found his old slides and restored them to a digital format. I have throughly enjoyed this restoration project, as I get to sit around with my dad going through all of his old pictures and hearing his amazing travel stories. I want to share a few of them with you here, I hope you enjoy!

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“What goes in must come out” - In the truck pigs are being hauled into the city. In the baskets “night soil” (people’s sewage) is being transported to the countryside to be used as fertilizer.

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The Forbidden City

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Men waiting at the Beijing Train Station - My dad and his travel buddy were getting ready to catch a train down to Xi’an. They were the only Westerners with a train ticket. At the station there was a special waiting room for foreigners with big overstuffed chairs, AC, tea, and nice rugs, while outside there were many Chinese sitting on the concrete floor. This was despite the fact that my dad held the exact same train ticket and paid the same prices as the Chinese travelers.

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The stone forest in Kunming

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The contrast between the Forbidden City and the houses outside.

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This is my dad enjoying the street food of Beijing. There were thousands of street vendors all cooking with coal stoves. Pictured around his neck is one of the old film cameras he shot with. He always taped canisters of film to the camera strap to ensure that he never missed a photo opportunity.

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Kids at the Leshan Giant Buddha

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A Chinese guy approached my dad’s travel buddy wanting to practice his English. Every town they traveled to had an “English Corner” where there would be a nightly or weekly gathering to practice English among locals.

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A village between Chengdu and Kunming. Pictured are older homes contrasted with a few newer homes in the upper left corner. This was a few years after Deng Xiaoping supposedly quoted “to get rich is glorious”, beginning the revolution to wealth.

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The old delivery system - people pulling carts loaded with goods on a major street in Beijing.

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A local marketplace in Chengdu, my mother’s hometown

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Little boy at the Summer Palace - I

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Little boy at the Summer Palace - II

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Little boy at the Summer Palace - III

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