Thousand Days in China

The original view of a China expert

Bettine Vriesekoop leaves for Beijing in August 2006 as China correspondent for NRC Handelsblad. As a table tennis player, she has regularly visited The Middle Country since 1980, but this is different: now, as a single mother, she has to build her life on the other side of the world.

Bettine candidly tells how she has to find her way as a journalist in a bureaucratic country through trial and error. In the run-up to the Olympic Games, she reports on the uprisings in Tibet, the earthquake in Sichuan and the confrontation between East and West.
Bettine also writes about her own daily life in the metropolis: about Wang, her domestic help, her assistant Colin and about the hard work as a correspondent in a crucial phase of China's development. About the fear she feels when she goes on a report and has to leave her son behind in Beijing, but also about the satisfaction of her learning process and enriching experiences.