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Befriending China tells the story of China's current effort to "open up" to a flood of visitors, as part of a campaign of "People-To-People Peacemaking." The story is partially based on three visits to China from late 2023 through late 2024. It describes the impressive achievements China has made in infrastructure, education, health care, and poverty alleviation. It includes an in-depth eye-witness account of visiting Xinjiang, debunking official rumors in the US of abuse of the Uyghur population there. It also highlights exciting tourism opportunities, with closeup looks at the mountainous Guizhou and Shanxi provinces, and the amazing "megacities" of Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Suzhou. It includes a preface by Carlos Martinez, editor of the Friends of Socialist China website. It also examines China's democratic system, and its successful foreign policy based on common prosperity and a shared future. Finally, it details ongoing US efforts to slander China and prepare for war against it, arguing that China is not our enemy. -
OVERLAND BEFORE THE HIPPIE TRAIL - A 2024 GOLD BOOK AWARD WINNER OF INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS OF NEW ENGLAND (IPNE)
The year was 1965 when Patricia and her new husband set off to Europe on their honeymoon. Little did she know that this trip would stretch into a two-year journey that would take them around the world on a bare-bones budget.
While living rarely more than an arm’s distance apart in their VW van, they make their way from Europe and West Asia to South Asia, then continue across East Asia by train, bus, and hitchhiking.
In those days with no mobile phones, no Internet, and few guidebooks, they were out of contact with family for months at a time while dodging a cholera epidemic in Iraq, staying in a palace in Pakistan, meeting a maharaja in India, and floating down the Mekong River in Laos.
The journey had become a way of life, one in which they found a world that was not only large and varied, but filled with people who were curious, welcoming, and generous.
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Searching For Monkumar: A Mystical Tale About Finding Freedom, Friendship, And Spirituality
