A Gold-Gray Mirror

If you imagine the north of China in Denmark, the south lies far into Africa and the east extends beyond Kazakhstan. China is an immense empire, in which the Netherlands fits 322 times, with every conceivable climate, population group, problem and solution. A country that has appealed to the imagination of the West for centuries. And the empire where, whether we in this delta district council like it or not, the most important decisions will be made this century. In order to understand a little more of the mysteries, backgrounds and enormous changes in China, Henk Raaff travelled with the Trans-Siberian Express via Irkutsk and Oelan Bator to Peking. From there he travelled for months through the western desert around Golmud, the Tibetan highlands, the tropical border regions along Burma and Vietnam and the Chinese east coast. By train, by bus and on foot through rural villages and old and new cities with millions of inhabitants, Raaff spoke to Chinese and Westerners living in China. Part of the travel report appeared in the Volkskrant. A Gold-Gray Mirror provides indispensable background information for anyone wanting to understand contemporary China, but above all it is a fascinating and highly personal portrait of one of the most mysterious countries in the world.