SECTION ONE
Our Endeavours Were Treasured with Enriched Experiences
My Choice of the Title
China, or Fulfillment of Desire
\I\
Growing up through Vivid Images
The Pearl: My Path, My Tao, an Allegiance to the Pearl
The Pearl Road
Invoking My Memories
Hailing the Far East
Changing Itineraries
The Encounter
Pearl, the Queen of Gems
The Wind of Change Was Coming from China
A Big Responsibility for a Lucrative Marketing
Efficiency and Performance
Good Intentions Badly Interpreted
Some Polemics about the Pearl
Foreseeing the Future
Big Demands Enhanced to the Cultivation of Big Pearls
The History of Fancy (Baroque) Long and Big Pearls
Potential Buyers
The Symbol of a Queen
Freshwater Pearls Are Also Queens
The Birth of a Queen
Depletion of Thousand Oysters to Price One Pearl
The Natural Pearl (Perles Fines)
The Cultured Pearls
The Freshwater Cultured Pearls
The Akoya Cultured Pearls
History of Pearls
Hailing China
Affirming Its Rank Siding the Big Nations
Harnessing Nature to Recall
Ancient Ruins, Modern Cities: China in the 1970s
SECTION TWO
The Entrance Door Was Hong Kong
Omnipotent
\What Goes Around Comes Around\
A Rich Man in Hong Kong
On Our Way to Guangzhou
My Husband
Back to the Train
\What Goes Around Comes Around\
The Reminiscence of My Chinese Old Friend
Guangzhou
My Predilection on Women Issue
There Was a Snake on My Table
\Le roi est mort, vive le roi neuf\(The King Passed Away, Long Live the New King)
Nanjing, Jiangsu
Back to Nanjing
Eminent Capital
The Yangtze and Its Counterparts and Parallels
My Birthday Cake Was Made of Trees and Wood
Our Chinese Guardian
Buddhist Temple
Buddhism and Its Role in China Temple without Spirit or the Ageless Spirit
Song of Poet Li Po 1O6
The Shortest Way to the Crescent Is a Straight Line IO My Acquaintances with Jade
Jades Are Green and Multicolour and Unbounded Like Nature
My Second Baptism
My Second Initiation
Shanghai
\Xintiandi\
Historic Shanghai
Pearl Forum
At the Golden Beach
Beijing, the Elegant Strait-laced Capital
Looking Ahead by Looking Back
The Hutongs
Coming to Meet Authentic Natives ofHutong
Forbidden City
Dowager Summer Palace
The Great Wall
Epilogue