Product Description 'The recent YouGov Opinion Poll found that the Chinese were the most optimistic people in the world, with 41% responding to say they thought that the world was getting better and 33% responding to say it was getting worse; the figures for Britain were that only 4% thought the world was getting better and 65% thought it was getting worse. I realised that if I were to accurately view the real China, then I needed to change the lens I was observing it through from cynical and pessimistic to sentimental and optimistic. Not to do so would be akin to trying to understand the meaning of Chinese characters using the Latin alphabet.' 'My chosen mode of getting around on my three-month visit to China was an unusual one--walking. I was undertaking a charity walk from Beijing to Hangzhou, roughly following the Grand Canal connecting the two cities and extending some 1,000 miles....... When you walk, you need to engage with the communities you walk through in a real way--seeking food, water, shelter and advice on directions.' 'In each country I walk through, eighteen so far, what strikes me most are not our differences which are trivial, entirely cultural and massively over-stated, but our similarities which are vast, awe-inspiring and largely unexplored.' ---- the author.
Author The Rt. Hon. Lord Michael Bates, Member of House of Lords, former Deputy Chairman/Deputy Speaker, House of Lords; Minister of State, International Development, former Minister of State, Home Office, UK. Charitable work includes: Walked 1865 mls from Buenos Aires to Rio for Olympic truce & raised over 250,000 for UNICEF (2016), Walked 1059 mls from Beijing to Hangzhou raising over 90,000 for the Red Cross (2015), Walked 1041 miles from London to Berlin raising over 40,000 for Friedensdorf International (2014), Walked 518 miles from London to Derry raising over 50,000 for Save the Children (2013), Walked 2916 miles from Olympia to London to raise awareness for the 2012 Olympic truce (2012).
Editor Lady Xuelin Li Bates, Chairman of Walk for Peace Foundation, UK; Honorary President of the Confederation of Chinese Association UK; President of Zhejiang UK Association; Vice President of Zhejiang Overseas Exchange Association.
This is the 2nd book of the Transcultural experiences with 'three eyes' book series, joint edited by Lixing Chen, Professor of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University, and former President of Japan-China Sociological Society (JCSS), Japan; Xiangqun Chang, Director of Global China Institute and Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL), UK.
