A WEEKEND IN CHINA IN 1978 By Judy Evans

I was posted to the British Military Hospital in Hong Kong in September 1976. Two or three days later came the news of the death of the Chinese ruler, Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong). He had ruled for 27 years and under his dictatorship China was a completely closed country. During the following two years, there were gradual changes until in 1978 it become possible to visit by joining an organised tour.

I was working, on attachment, in HMS Tamar and the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service sister and I decided to seek permission to join such a tour. This was granted although security briefings were necessary both before and after travel and we were warned of possible problems which we might encounter. We had to obtain visas and told to keep our passports with us at all times.

We joined the tour at Hong Kong railway station for the journey up to Canton (now Guangzhou). The train was elderly but comfortable enough for the relatively short journey and we were regularly served cups of tea from a large thermos flask into china mugs as the journey progressed. We travelled through the New Territories and then had to disembark at the border for our papers to be checked and then on we went. We passed paddy fields with mainly women working in the fields, few cars but many bicycles and rickety, ancient lorries.

At last we reached our destination, the rather grand Canton railway station. I recall that there were approximately twelve people in our party with a guide from Hong Kong but we met our Chinese guide when we boarded the minibus which would transport us around the sights.

The highlight of the visit was undoubtedly Sun Yat -sen’s Memorial Hall which was obviously a place of huge pride. He had been the first chairman of the Republic of China and died in 1926 and the Hall was completed in 1931. It was indeed very impressive and surrounded by beautifully tended gardens. 

However, in these early days of tourism there was not much else to see. We did visit a couple of factories, one of which produced the tiniest clay figures of which I bought a couple which survive to this day. 

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We were taken to a state owned department store but there was little to buy. There were a few Chinese state owned department stores in Hong Kong with much more stock than here. Everything was poorly made and rather tacky. My impression is of crowded streets with people dressed in grey and many many bicycles. There was an attempt to tell us how good things were but the comparison with Hong Kong could not be denied. We were not encouraged to walk around without our guide. 

Our hotel was clean but very basic but what could we expect? Cantonese food is perhaps the least tasty of Chinese cuisine and back then even more so perhaps with congee which is a rice porridge and very bland at breakfast and meat and vegetables in a thin sauce with rice for the other two meals each day. The beer though was most satisfactory!

Being a tall Caucasian woman, I found myself being stared at quite a lot. I smiled and they tended to look away! We returned to Hong Kong where we were debriefed by a representative from the Intelligence Corps at HQ British Forces but we could report nothing out of the ordinary. We had met great courtesy throughout the visit but we were happy to get back to the hustle and bustle of capitalist Hong Kong from where I was to be posted a week or so later. I was fortunate to have been in the country when I was, as over the next few years China was to change out of all recognition.

Judy Evans