China 1984 - Introduction

While attending a computer class in Boston at the Digital Corporation Training Facility in 1982,
Bell Atlantic employee Curtis Anderson noticed a group of foreign students in class and during lab.
Curtis introduced himself to learn they were all from mainland communist China.  Only two spoke
English while the others were engineers.  They indicated they were struggling in class because
the two  interpreters were not engineers and the engineers did not know English.  The interpreters
would take notes during class and in the evening translate to the engineers.  The engineers would
ask the interrupters questions but they only has notes taken and was of little help to the engineers.
Curtis asked, "why would China send six students to the USA"?
 "Why not get one teacher to travel to China?", he suggested.  "No one wanted to come" they replayed.
Curtis offered to come to their hotel after class in the evenings to offer his help.  It was then
Curtis offered to travel to China and teach the classes himself.  Two years later, the journey was made.

Interesting to note that the two years of planning between Bell Atlantic
employee Curtis Anderson and the Chinese government, Curtis boarded
a plane for China around the same time President Reagan was making
his historic trip.

Curtis booked a flight from Richmond, Virginia to LaGuardia Airport.  Once there he took a cab to Kennedy International Airport,
Curtis spend the night in the airport for a morning flight out that was scheduled to take twenty four hours ending in Beijing, China.
The plane was operated by the Chinese government, with a connect flight in San Francisco and short ground layover in
Shanghai before ending in Beijing, China.  His final destination near Chengdu, in the providence of Sichuan at a training facility.

Landing in Beijing, I was told that the President Reagan and USA officials where staying at the Beijing Hotel, and my lodging arrangements
had to be changed.  My entire trip had to be altered to work around the President's visit.  In the end, it worked out best for me, but at the
start of the trip, it only offered stress and uncertainty at a time I could had used a little reassurance.

None of my Chinese friends I got to know in Boston was available to meet me at the airport, only a driver that spoke no English and
an interpreter who would meet me in the morning where I was staying.

My adjusted lodging facility was a gated military facility that seemed a little uncomfortable to me at the time.

When the interrupter asked for my passport and return plane ticket for security reasons, suspicions went to the roof.

It took me the rest of the three week trip to ease my mind and understand what actually happened, and yes, I connected up with
my Boston friends in Chengdu and completed my training classes.

China 1984 Link Page

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