This article examines evidence from two of the three major cities in western China: Chongqing, since March 1997 a national-level municipality with the largest area and population in China, and Chengdu, the historic capital of Sichuan province and close neighbor to the west of Chongqing. Within the western region these two cities rank first and second (respectively) in GDP in 1999, or 8^th and 12^th for urban areas within China. Government policies formulated to favor the West in the modern period impacted Chongqing when that city became the capital of the Nationalist Chinese government, by virtue of its mountain fastness, following the Japanese invasion. The cities of Xi’an, Chengdu, and its suburb “Technology City” Mianyang remain the most advanced research bases in west China for products with high technology inputs.

With a population of 31 million (4.8 million in the urban core) and a declared political area of 82,000sq. km. in 2003, Chongqing remains primarily a manufacturing town. Building on its base as a “Third Front” military-industrial site from 1966-75, Chongqing’s industries now produce “dual use” (military/domestic) products such as motor vehicles, electronics, and a pharmaceutical chemical industry. The national government signaled a major policy change in the city’s profile in 1997 when it raised Chongqing to the level of a national municipality. Chongqing’s status elevation coincided with its role of absorbing an estimated 85% of the 1.2-2 million rural population displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Ambitious urban development projects within Chongqing’s Economic Urban Region include the Economic Technology Development Zone on the southern edge of the city, the High and New Technology Development Zone to the west, and a massive high technology corridor to the north

With a core city population of 3.4 million (metropolitan population 10 million) in 2003, Chengdu continues to be the historic, cultural, and economic capital of Sichuan province. Its location complements the Yangtze Basin-oriented role of Chongqing by looking toward other regions in southwestern China. As the urban hub of a province with 43 universities and 1.2 million scientists and engineers, and the home of Sichuan University with 60,000 students, Chengdu attracts transnational corporations specializing in high technology projects. Chengdu ranks the third place in China’s technology-related sales revenue from its park. Plans for both nearby cities include greatly improving transportation links between them so that they can complement each other as tent poles raising the level of western development by linking to air, water, and surface transportation routes. Internally each city is designated for upgrades in their logistics infrastructure, public services, and roads. Development challenges continue to be particularly persistent in areas most important for nurturing a technology base: low educational attainment, poor institutional reform, restrictive old thought patterns, insufficient internal and linkage infrastructure, an economic base strongly reliant on state owned enterprises, and insufficient attention to designing policy mindful of local and regional differences.

Overall, at this initial first five-year stage of West China development policy, Chengdu’s historical development edge marks it for continued success as the innovation leader. Chongqing falls behind in a variety of important markers. The number of college students (especially research graduates) and affiliated academicians is proportionately much higher in Chengdu. Sichuan University is heavily involved in both innovative business incubators in the area and companies utilizing high technology for domestic and foreign markets. Chengdu remains the more outward-oriented intellectual and foreign investment capital, outranking Chongqing by having more than double the amount of foreign direct investment from 1999-2001. Chongqing is favorably tied to its geographical edge as a river shipping port linked now to the east through the tamed Yangtze and as a military-industrial base with transferable technology, similar to Xi’an. This unique link may end up defining Chongqing’s position, while Chengdu’s entrepreneurial intellectual edge fits it for a new economic base.

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Among Kaufman’s entourage at Harbin’s Huang Shan Cemetery were over one hundred returning residents, their children, grandchildren, and scholars of Chinese and Jewish history from China, Israel, Australia, England, and America. Some of these people, such as former Israel Railways General Manager Freddy Heyman, had not visited the graves of their parents or other kinfolk since they left for Israel over fifty years ago. Still others, such as Beijing-based journalist Israel Epstein, never left China. Epstein returned to the scene of his boyhood in an official limousine, provided to him in his capacity as a member of China’s National People’s Political Consultative Congress. Chinese policemen snapped to a smart salute when Epstein’s red-flagged vehicle and police escort sped by.

The truly remarkable aspect about the returnees’ visit, which coincided with a four-day historicalseminar on the history of the Harbin Jews, was the ideological breadth of the participants. They ranged from Epstein and the Communist Party and People’s Government chiefs of Harbin to Yana [Yaakov] Liberman, once chief of staff of Menachem Begin’s right-wing Herut party. Liberman’s much-photographed handshake with Epstein aboard a Sungari River sightseeing boat was as ironic as Richard Nixon’s February 1972 handshake with Mao Zedong. Speaking on behalf of all the returnees, Liberman said that two words summarized everyone’s sentiments towards China: “thank you,” to the Chinese people for giving European Jews hope and haven during a century of pogroms and Stalinism, Hitler and Holocaust.

At the concurrent historical seminar held in downtown Harbin’s Shangrila Hotel, participant after participant told horrific tales of their family’s lives outside this city of refuge. Most of the returnees’ ancestors fled Russia after the horrendous massacres of Jews that began in 1881, following the assassination of Czar Alexander II. In 1898 the Chinese Eastern Railway began to function in Harbin, creating a frontier boom town and bustling river port. Hardship was, however, never far away from the refugees. Lily Klebanoff described her uncle’s return to Leningrad in 1936 to study music. He was promptly arrested and shot by the NKVD on the trumped-up charge of heading a Harbin-based spy ring. Many of Mara Moustafine’s returning relatives suffered a similar fate at the hands of the NKVD, on the grounds that they were Japanese agents. Frankfurt-born Zeev Rubinson and his family fled the horrors of Hitler’s Germany only to wind up in limbo in Japanese-controlled Dairen. Teddy Kaufmann’s father, then Director of the Harbin Jewish hospital, intervened and found sanctuary for the Rubinsons in Harbin

Although many of the 13,000-plus Jews who made it to Harbin were poor, they recalled a vibrant cultural life. Ex-Harbin violinist Peter Berton delivered a paper on “Contributions of Jews to the Musical and Cultural Life in Harbin in the 1930s and early 1940s,” describing a tour his ensemble made of the entire region, including Korea and Japan. Epstein remembered a 1936 concert by the Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin, whose portrait hangs on the wall of the city’s recently refurbished Hotel Moderne. Epstein’s businessman/journalist father wrote for the city’s Yiddish newspaper, DER VAYTER MIZREKH [“The Far East”]. There were also Russian-language Jewish periodicals and a Hebrew-language publishing house. Even Harbin’s two major Jewish sports organizations reflected the intellectual diversity of the community: Kaufman’s Maccabi for the General Zionists and Liberman’s Betar for the Zionist-Revisionists.

The entrepreneurial leadership of post-Mao China has formally embraced this energetic constituency of ex-Harbiners. Qu Wei, president of the provincial Academy of Social Sciences, promised “a world class research center on the lives of the Harbin Jews” and an exhibition which “we will send to Israel, Australia, U.S.A., England and Germany.” Pan Chun Liang, the provincial Vice Minister of Public Relations, praised the “history of cooperation between Chinese and Jews in Harbin.” He cited the province’s efforts to maintain Harbin’s Jewish cemetery, with over 600 graves, as “the biggest and best protected” in East Asia. The provincial Vice Governor announced that Harbin’s monumental synagogue is undergoing major restoration and that “we have great potential for developing tourist resources.” Israeli Ambassador to China Yehodaya Haim responded that “Harbin is a city we love and admire because of their attitude toward us Jews.”

As the ex-Harbiners filed out of the Jewish cemetery, many were preparing for their imminent El Al flight back to Tel Aviv. Israel Epstein, who just celebrated his eighty-ninth birthday, observed that “in the one country in which there was no persecution of Jews, there is a new birth of friendship, which corresponds with the lives of many of the people here today.” He predicted that this friendship “will have a fine future.”

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The program will begin with an educational tour of Beijing. On-site lectures and tours of famous cultural and historical sites will be given. While in Zhengzhou, three out-of-town short field trips to Luoyang, Kaifeng, and Dengfeng, and one weekend excursion to Xi’an ,will be offered. Students will be able to explore some of the fantastic Chinese historical and cultural sites. Course-specific local field trips will also be arranged while in Zhenghzou. Short non-credit courses may be offered based on student’s interests.

The package cost is $2,890 for the four-week program. The cost includes the following items: round trip airfare from Atlanta to China, local transportation for all group activities, accommodations in the host cities, most meals on campus and during group tours, visa processing fees, group excursions, and admission costs to museums and attractions. The package cost does not include tuition, textbooks, passport and related expenses, spending money, ground transportation to or from the U.S. Airport through which flights will be scheduled, or other costs beyond those listed above. To download application forms and program brochure, please visit the program’s web site at:http://www/daltonstate.edu/china, or contact the program’s director Dr. Baogang Guo via email:bguo@em.daltonstate.edu.

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The program begins with a long weekend in Beijing touring many historical sites in and around the capital including the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Tian’anmen Square. From Beijing, students travel via overnight train with soft sleepers south to our beautiful host city of Yangzhou on the Yangzi River in Jiangsu Province. Students live and attend classes at the Overseas Students Residence on campus. The residence includes a cafeteria, classrooms, laundry facilities, and a small kitchen. The double rooms are comfortable and equipped with air-conditioning, beds with sheets and blankets, desks, ample closet space, and an attached bath (toilet, sink, and shower) with Western fixtures. The rooms are pre-wired and internet-ready.

Over the past eight years, the program had almost 100 participants from eleven state and private universities and colleges in Georgia and Alabama, and about one fourth of the participants returned to China to either teach English or do business. This program is open to all university students in Georgia. We hope to see students from more universities in the coming year. For further information, please contact Dr. Dan Paracka at dpracka@kennesaw.edu or the program director Dr. Yan Gao atygao@cau.edu.

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The following 9 courses will be offered: CHIN 1001 Elementary Chinese I, CHIN 1002 Elementary Chinese II, CHIN 4813 Special Topic: Sino-U.S. Interactions Verbal & Non-Verbal, HTS 2061 Traditional Asia, ECON 2106 Principles of Microeconomics, ISYE 3770 Statistics & Applications, ECE 2040 Circuit Analysis, ME 3322 Thermodynamic, and CEE 2020 Statics & Dynamics, Except for CHIN 1001 / 1002, all courses will be taught in English by Georgia Tech faculty.

The program’s application deadline is February 1, 2005. Space is limited. For more information, please visit http://china.ece.gatech.edu/shanghai/ or contact the program co-directors: Prof. Haizheng Li (Economics, haizheng.li@econ.gatech.edu) Prof. G. Tong Zhou (Electrical & Computer Engineering, gz8@prism.gatech.edu)

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This course focuses on proficiency in Chinese in the kind of practical situations one encounters when communicating with Chinese in China. Integrating audio/video, texts, worksheets and the computerized drill/conversation materials, this course will encompass a total of four semesters’ learning. It is designed as an equivalent to classes at the university level. For more information, please contact the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Tech, 404 894 7327; or email Dr. Xiaoliang Li at:xiaoliang.li@modlangs.gatech.edu; or visit: www.usg.edu/oie/initiatives/chin/

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