Before we go to adopt, I like to research the provinces we are going to. I like to look at the history and look for places to visit. I also like to see what cuisine is their specialty. Chengdu specializes in Sichuan cuisine. Believe me, if you are not used to spicy, be warned. They put Sichuan oil on everything.
In Jiangxi, I learned about the Nanchang Massacre during World War II. I did not learn about it in school. They have also done a couple of movies based on it. Flowers of War is a movie that has Christian Bale as a man stuck in the middle of the massacre. It is directed by Yimou Zhang. I found it to be a good movie. When it came to the Oscars, they said it was a Chinese propaganda film. I did not see it that way. What about US war movies? Aren't they US propaganda films? Some of them even won Oscars. Another great movie is John Rabe. It centers around John Rabe's attempt to save people from atrocities of war.
When researching Harbin, I discovered that the Japanese had their own death camps. The book Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in WWII by Peter Williams and David Wallace gives details about what happened. I found it shocking that after all that happened, the US granted immunity to the people involved. We didn't learn that in school. I did find out that they do have a museum in Harbin that you can visit.
I think it is important to learn the history of the areas we are visiting. Not only does it provide places to visit, it give me information I can pass on to my daughters so they may do their own research. That is my hope. They may not care to do so.
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