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Beijing Transformed
Click image to enlarge
© Ron Geatz/The Nature Conservancy
Mei Zhang
© Ron Geatz/The Nature Conservancy
Forbidden City
© Ron Geatz/The Nature Conservancy
Great Wall of China

DAY 11
Fly back to Kunming and connect to flight for Beijing. I've been to Beijing each of the past three years, and the rate of change is astounding. Vintage hutongs (historic neighborhoods) are giving way to massive shopping centers and office complexes. Already Olympic fever is rampant, and the local media are proudly trumpeting China's entry into the World Trade Organization. We look up an old friend who was associated with the Yunnan Great Rivers Project from the beginning. Three years ago, Yunnan native Mei Zhang was capitalizing on her Harvard MBA by working for McKinsey & Company in Hong Kong. She was assigned to their pro bono account doing economic feasibility studies for the Yunnan Great Rivers project. Reconnecting with her home province prompted her to take a leave of absence and trek throughout Yunnan and Tibet. She now owns her own adventure travel company in Beijing, WildChina.com. Through the project, not only was she inspired to change careers, she also met her husband, an American reporter in China. Mei treats us to a feast of Shanghai cuisine at her favorite restaurant.

DAY 12
For our last day—a sunny autumn Sunday—I revisit the Forbidden City with a friend I made on my first China trip, an English teacher at a Beijing high school. Noelle takes a tour to see the Great Wall. My mixed feelings about the rapid changes transforming this city are probably best summed up by the fact that there is now a Starbucks in Beijing's ancient Forbidden City.

DAY 13
Fly home. We still can't quite process how it's possible to arrive in Chicago before we left Beijing. Arriving back in post-September 11-Washington, DC takes some getting used to—as does waking up in the middle of the night and thinking it's noon. China seems a world away. Yet the people we met, the warm welcome we received and the enthusiasm with which they have embraced conservation brings us closer than we ever imagined possible.



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