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Show n rps o II U' $ I JJ by Lloyd Shearer n PEKING PLACE TO BE Peking has become the "in" capital of the world this year. Spotted in the People's Republic of China a few weeks ago were Mr. and Mrs. Bill Paley he's head of the Columbia Broadcasting System; Mr. and Mrs. Marquis Childs he's the syndicated columnist for United Feature; Dr. and Mrs. Benjamin Spock he's the famous political pediatrician; Shirley MacLaine she's the Hollywood screen star who was touring with 11 Women-Libber- s, two of whom came down with pneumonia. Also in Peking were Mrs. Juan Peron, who had come to arrange an appointment for her husband with Mao Le Due Tho, the North Vietnamese chief peace negotiator, and, of course, Mr. and Mrs. David Bruce he the distinguished veteran diplomat in charge of the U.S. liaison mission. If Americans plan to visit the Peoples Republic of China these days, they usually have to be a member of some American cultural, scientific, sports, or trade group. The Chinese are incomparably polite and hospitable, but they are not equipped to handle the thousands of tourists who are clamoring for visas. They have neither enough hotels nor interpreters and are simply not yet prepared for the tourist onslaught. Not in Peking anyway where the number of diplomats in one year has leaped from 100 to 12 times that amount. rj H The chairman of CBS is among many notables visiting China. 4 En-la- i. tN X V V i V r V V. Tse-tun- g; Chou t. -- u bk enjoy what they never had before security from cradle to grave, but security with dignity. They are friendly, healthy, industrious, and motivated by the widely fostered principle, "Serve the People," which they constantly put into execution. Mao seems to have bred selfishness and competitiveness out of them. Nowhere is that more evident than in the nursery schools where it is obvious to any visitor that the Chinese children are more cooperative than competitive, more altruistic than selfish. They share the same toys, are taught to love and help each other, and, of course, veng who has become erate Mao the living of the People's Republic. The Chinese candidly admit, "We are not a superpower as is the United States of America. We are merely, as Premier Chou says, 'a developing nation But we have come a long way since the liberation (1949) and with hard work we will progress further. Our standard of living is not the highest in the world in material things, but no one goes hungry or without adequate health care here." Tse-tun- god-figu- The teachings of Mao have inculcated Chinese children with a spirit of cooperation rather than competitiveness. re En-l- ai STANDARD OF LIVING The most important practical achievement of Communist China has been the feeding, clothing, and housing of some 800 million people. At a cost of personal freedom, a right they never knew in any previous regime, they now FAIR PRICES The Chinese unit of money is the yuan. Two yuan comprise one U.S. dol lar. in Canton, Mr. Kuo 29, a brilliant, university-educate- d guide, explained that he earns 60 yuan per month, pays 3 yuan for rent and utilities, 15 yuan for food, sends 10 yuan per month to his mother in Shanghai. His wife earns 50 yuan per month working in a pharmaceutical plant. They pay no income tax. "We have a good life," he remarked interpreter My Chien-hu- a, "At least from our point of view, which is not materialistic. There are some products which are relatively expensive. Bicycles cost 152 yuan. Sewing machines cost 131 yuan. But a pound of steak sells for 75 cents American, fish 42 cents a pound, shrimp 75 cents a pound. My shirt cost 8 yuan, my shoes 3 yuan, my trousers 7 yuan. My wife and I get along nicely. But we are more interested in others than in ourselves." g Mao is convinced that human nature is essentially good, and the Chinese people are determined to prove that he is right. To them it is just a question of education. Tse-tun- UP There was a time when foreign buyers would take the train from Hong Kong to Canton, and there, twice a year at the Fall and Spring Fairs, buy up at bargain prices, a variety of Chinese products. No more. Last month at the Canton Trade Fair, prices for Chinese antiques and artifacts of all sorts zoomed a staggering 1100 percent. A buyer who had attended previous fairs, said the Chinese, mindful of having sold too low in the past especially their Ch ing, Sung, and Ming antiquities, were testing the market to see what the traffic would bear. While U.S., Canadian, German, and Australian buyers were amazed at some of the prices the Chinese were asking for handicrafts, the Japanese scarcely batted an eyelash. They bought, bought, bought everything from jade to ivory to rugs. Wherever they go these days, the iSL xF yt m yy 1 i French women trying on traditional coolie hats at Canton Trade Fair. Prices at Chinese fairs have soared as buyers from all over the world vie for their products. Japanese are more than welcome when such large quantities that the Chinese it comes to spending. On the global were sure they had underpriced their front they have replaced Uncle Sam as jade and porcelains and especially their "Mr. Moneybags." antiques, of which they really have little Heinz Becker, a German from Macao left to sell. They are saving all the good who has attended the last 28 Chinese stuff for themselves, realizing that they fairs, says, "I have never seen will never again produce such exquisite anything like this past one. The Chinese just kept masterpieces as they turned out cenadding zeros to their price tags. The turies ago. The New China has no time Japanese were buying everything in for such painstaking worksmanship." PARADE JUNE 17, 1 |