herself in a smart suit for the occasion, and I left my office on what has now come to be known as a Nixon-hunt! Only we took no guns: only ourselves and cameras. What is extraordinary is that when other Important Foreign Personages (or Devils as we call them) come to the Celestial City to kow-tow before the Dragon Throne, several hundred thousand of our citizens are ordered into the streets and particularly into the great square in front of the residence of our Emperor to welcome them. On this occasion no such thing happened. All we saw was a long line of black cars, made by Number 1 Shanghai Motor Steam Car Factory of glorious memory, which passed by the glories of our city at great speed; one had flying from it two very small flags – that of our country and another with stars and stripes, very vulgar. We must presume that this [car] contained this man. To register this extraordinarily insignificant event in the life of our country many strange foreign newspapermen came and set up strange devices all over the city. And when the cars had passed they threw up their hands and said ‘They’re not going to believe this back home!’ and laughed, though at what I cannot say.
That, so far, is the Nixon visit: you will have seen much more of it at home than we do here. The Chinese have taken elaborate pains to make no display at all – he has come as a private citizen [this was because there were at this time no diplomatic relations between the US and China – the US still recognized the government of Taiwan as the lawful government of China]. We rely for scanty reports on what is happening on a few friendly journalists, who have much more access than we!
All this must seem rather rarified when you are on very restricted electricity and suffering innumerable hardships. We on the other hand have overpoweringly centrally-heated flats and endless good things to eat and drink. It is hard to imagine the problems caused by a major power strike but they must be very great.
I must finish this to catch the bag which leaves tomorrow and send you all our love. The winter shows signs of ending; it is no longer so bitterly cold. More thrilling instalments soon.
OFFICE OF THE BRITISH CHARGÉ D’AFFAIRES PEKING
5 MARCH 1972 CR
Such is the time lag between all our letters that I have lost track and cannot remember when I last wrote but it seems an age. Daddy’s of the 19th posted direct reached us on the morning of the 28th and Mummy’s of the 16th via the Bag reached us on the 28th too along with all our others for that fortnight. There is a certain excitement in having post only once every two weeks – it’s just like Christmas when it comes! Some parcels arrived a few days before that too with a hand knitted jersey for J from Sybil and two more Beatrix Potter for him from Jonny and a book from his godmother Sue, so his birthday excitements seem to have been lasting for weeks.
J is asleep, M is busy clearing up the debris from last night’s festivities at the Office, a gambling evening for 150 people with the theme Guys and Dolls for which we had to wear suitable costumes. We managed to make a lot of money to help towards the new Club which we are all building and decorating with our own hands and it was quite entertaining watching half Peking’s diplomatic community huddled over roulette tables. They all enjoyed it enormously and one can’t help feeling a certain pride as the British are the only Mission who ever organize anything at all and it requires quite a lot of hard work and imagination to get the thing going. But not a single other Embassy ever do anything and it becomes rather wearying when they all depend on us to provide social distractions here without contributing anything in return. Anyway I am still cross-eyed from handing out chips all night and my lips smarting from their first covering of scarlet lipstick for many years. It is the second time we’ve been required to wear fancy dress since we arrived and I already feel my very tiny supply of artistic imagination in that direction has been thoroughly used up!
It is a gorgeous day with the sun pouring into our flat and the outside growing less cold. Buds on the trees which any moment now will burst into leaf. The trees here are one of Peking’s loveliest aspects. The roads are all lined with them and the parks and zoos very heavily planted too. I know too little about botany to know what they all are but of course the willow is everywhere and the crooked fir you see in all the pictures and a type of silver birch and poplars along the roadside.
Last weekend we drove up to the Great Wall. It took about two hours through quite beautiful country framed all the time by the Western Hills which are still out of bounds. Glorious muted colours of brown fields, bare trees, small villages, hundreds of donkeys and oxen pulling carts, and eventually the cragged mountains up which we climbed until we hit the wall. No wonder it is a Wonder of the World – built in the 5th century BC it straggles across over 2,000 miles of mountain ranges and is wide enough for carts to be driven along the top. The communists have restored a small section of it for tourists but standing on one of the look-out posts you can see it stretching away in both directions as far as the eye can see. It really is magnificent and I suppose J is the youngest English child to have seen it which is something of a record!
On the domestic front we are hardly any further on than we were when I last wrote. The painters left yesterday and we are mighty glad to see them go. Our pictures are hung but no curtains and piles of possessions still lie about the flat. J’s room is complete, hung with Jonny’s Christmas Beatrix Potter pictures and he seems much happier as a result. He has a tank of goldfish too to keep him company. I have established that the French school here will take him as soon as he is potty-trained which I am afraid looks a long way off still. But it is a comfort to think there is a chance to mix with children of his own age when the time comes. He really has undergone quite a transformation in the last week, and I hardly dare mention it in case it is a temporary phase! He is consistently merry and gay! Lots of laughter and lots of chat goes on all day which is such a relief! I think that the fact that he can talk more-or-less properly now has removed some of the frustrations but most of all I think he feels secure and settled for the first time for many months. I wish you could all see something of him now because he really does seem to have a sweet and loving personality and I think these two years are when small boys are at their best. He grows more and more like Benjy to look at every day and of course talks about you all endlessly, sitting for hours poring over photos taken on our leave. Another great advance is that he loves books and we have half an hour reading time before bed each night and he spends a lot of each day looking at them too. So things are looking up and I feel a million times better as a result. Michael is going off to Tientsin on Wednesday to visit some of his flock and he continues to be very busy. He has been in on The Negotiations [to establish full diplomatic relations] since he arrived and has enjoyed meeting all the high ups in the Chinese Foreign Office and they in turn are very impressed by his youth and command of the language! We have lunched once with the Chargé [John Addis] and dined for the first time with him last night. He is rather austere. He has taken us round all the Commission Shops [where a limited selection of antiques are on sale] but there is nothing there to buy anymore and as he possesses the best collection of Chinese porcelain in the world he is very fussy. The absence of a wife and family make him rather insensitive to all our problems here and as the Head of Chancery is a bachelor too we are left very much without guidance or help.
Since writing the above all has been settled and by the time you read this you’ll know that we exchange ambassadors on Monday. It’s exciting for M to feel he is really making history and he and Richard Samuel [Head of Chancery] are spending all week with their two Chinese counterparts finalising the agreement. An impasse of over twenty years has been resolved and although as a cynic I do not see what difference it is going to make to anyone I suppose it’s a step in the right direction. Mr Addis anyway is pleased – he retires in two years and it has been his life’s ambition to be the first ambassador to Peking.
The ambassador to Ulan Bator has been here for a few days with his wife and children and we entertained them to tea yesterday – J in his element with a two and three year old to play with and we received the news [about the agreement] round the tea table when M dashed in to collect some champagne – probably the only celebration we shall have! My life continues to be full of toil as I am ayee-less and find the cleaning, washing and ironing in this dust ridden city a full-time task. I have had to give up my Chinese lessons and everything else but I hope it won’t last for long. Added to this is the fact that once again I am having trouble with my insides and I simply couldn’t believe it was possible that within four weeks of being in China I was being upturned on a