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1do try to explain that 1am an ambassadorfor worldpeace-that 1talk with many heads of
governments-that they al/ have greater problems to f ace than any man can solve.
TRADITIONAL ART and architecture blend with the modern in Peking's (Beijing's)
inner city. A family, previous page, tours the once "forbidden" inner city.
Yamashita, a ranking member of the
Japanese Diet. They heard the GOOD
NEWS of the coming KtNGDOM OF
Goo-though in this solidly atheist
communist country, 1 described
what's coming, in our time, but not in
Bible language.
The National Library
Wednesday, near noon, December 5:
This morning we left the S tate House
at 9 a.m. and visited the national
library. This was a most interesting
visit. The library now is housed in
one of the older buildings. They are
rapidly building up the volumes of
books to a standard that will be a
credit to the most populous nation on
earth .
We were shown and allowed to
examine sorne of, the most ancient
volumes, one an ancient scroll, a long
roll, all done by hand about the 4th
century, A.D., others up to 400 years
ago. 1was presented a beautiful book
in color showing many photographs
of China as it is today.
From the library we were driven in
the limousine placed at our disposal
to the "Forbidden City," a walled
smaller city within the city, which
was the residence of former empe-
4
rors. T here are many buildings,
courts and gardens within this "inner
city," all in the ancient Chinese
architecture, with much stone carv–
ing.
On our arrival at the airport last
Sunday, late afternoon, limousines
had driven up to our aircraft, and we
were driven to the city and to our
quarters in the State House.
Immediately I noticed swarms of
people everywhere on foot. After
three days in Peking [Beijing], it has
seemed that millions of people swarm
the streets, walking, with multiple
thousands of people on bicycles. Very
little automobile traffic until we were
nearing the city center, and then
automobile traffic became more like
the United States, mingled with
swarms of bicycles, and still crowds
afoot on the sidewalks.
The more modern buildings in
Peking are large and spacious. One
experiences the sense of BtGNESS and
SPACIOUSNESS here. Of course Peking
is a city of around seven million
population, about the size of New
York or London in population, but
utterly different in atmosphere. This
was distinctly CHINA!
All the above was written while in
Peking, haphazardly, a bit at a time.
lt
is somewhat disconnected, but
since it was writtenon the spot while
there, I will leave it.
We are now in Tokyo. There will
be a large banquet here Saturday
night, with members of the Japanese
Diet and wives, ambassadors a nd
wives from other nations, and mem–
bers of the Chinese Embassy pres–
ent.
I will try now to reconstruct the
report of our visit to China in orderly
sequence. But Jet me first say, it
probably was the MOST IMPORTANT
and most successful trip I have ever
taken.
China Visit Begins
We arrived in Tokyo, after a two-day
rest stop at Honolulu, Hawaii , on
Friday evening, November 30. On
Sunday, December 2, we new to
Peking [Beijing]. On arrival there, as
stated above, government limousines
drove to our aircraft. We were not
required to go through the usual
immigration and customs in the ter–
minal. Our passports were taken as
we entered the limousines and re–
turned to us as we boarded four days
la ter.
We were driven to the govern–
ment's guest State House. T hat eve–
ning there was a small dinner hosted
by the president and vice-president of
the Peking[Beijing] University in my
honor- and a 10-course dinner. It
was my first experience in Chinese
di nners. 1 ate enough for an entire
dinner on the first course- not real–
izing nine other courses were to fol–
low. T here were many toasts given to
me, to Mr. Rader , to our wives and to
others. I was allowed to drink the
toasts with water instead of wine.
Monday night, December 3, was
the largest dinner, with approxi–
mately 400 present. These included
government and university officials
and their wives, primarily. The
speaking was led off by the ambas–
sador from Liberia, who was sea ted
to my left. Then Mr. Rader was .
called on for a short speech, after
(Continued on page 39)
The
PLAIN TRUTH