Travelling in China in the 80's

Post by **Bamboo Grove** » Tue Feb 18, 2020 2:25 am

I know some folks here have lived and/or visited China already for a long time. Did any of you travel there in the 80's? My first trip was in 1986 when I took the trans-Siberian train on my own from Moscow to Beijing and spent about four weeks in China. A bit longer than I had planned as I missed my train back and had to buy a new ticket in Beijing.

This was followed by longer trips in 1987 and 1988 and the final trip on trans-Siberian was in 1989 when I arrived in the middle of Tian An Men incident and had to leave China quickly, only to end up in Bangkok and Thailand.

I just saw this article and it brought back a lot of memories of how things were then. The photo of Shanghai's Nanjing road is from about the era I first visited Shanghai and if you've been there recently, you can understand my surprise when I wnt there for my second time in 2017.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-mag ... B1C4Tq-FXo

Post by **Ratsima** » Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:55 am

I went in 1982 on a tour my mother had arranged: Beijing, Shanghai, Datong, Taiyuan and Xian. For me the highlight was the steam locomotive factory in Datong.

I went again in 1992 on another tour arranged by Mom. The plan was to cruise the Three Gorges before the dam was built. Unfortunately, my stepfather had a heart attack in Shanghai, spent a month in the hospital there and then died. I had many strange and wondrous adventures during that sojourn in Shanghai.

I haven't been back.

After my Mother died I found this photo amongst her stuff. I believe it is of an old bridge over the Puhuitang River in Shanghai. I have no recollection of being there. It must have been taken in 1982.

Post by **Bamboo Grove** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:21 pm

I had a look at Putuitang -river as the name was strange to me. It's in Qipao -area, a bit outside the centre area of Shanghai. I went there in 2017 and took photos of these two bridges there. Must be the same area. It is now a big tourist area as a model of ancient water villages of the area.