China Study Tour
2001 Tour
by Michael Gee
On 26 June, a group of Deakin Law students departed Melbourne, for the city of Beijing, to undertake the annual two week intensive study program in co-operation with the China University of Political Science and Law.
Beijing in June is: humid, polluted, chaotic, disorganised, frenetic, discordant and unpredictable. It is also exhilarating, novel and endlessly fascinating. The city seems to be one big construction site. Heaven knows what it will be like between now and 2008.
For many of our group it was the first contact with a culture and life that is the diametric opposite of our own. Everybody shopped, partied, ate and gawked till they dropped. Oh, and we also attended lectures and a field visit or two.
I found the classes and visits to be most illuminating. Particularly in providing a local perspective on the Law, and the political and social environment in which it operates within China. Then comparing that with the perception of the country, and its system, provided to us by the Western media.
There are some who claim that, just as the 20 th Century was America’s century, the 21 st will be China’s. For the study tour participants, even though our visit was brief, and our observations limited, this prediction will have considerable resonance. China has a long way to go, but the determination of its leadership, and the energy of its people, will ensure that this prediction will be realised.
2001 Group photo, courtesy R Morgan
Fooling around outside the Australian Embassy, courtesy J Partridge
At the Temple of Heaven, courtesy L Pike
