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The food counters are loaded with smoked, canned and fresh goods. Food canning is a highly developed-Chinese art; and apples, peaches, cherries and walnuts sparkle in brightly colored cans. The ducks are piled high. Chicken, smoked and pressed, sells at 70¢ for 1.1 Ibs. There are sausages, kidneys and spareribs for sale. The cookie counter bulges with goodies as does the fresh fruit display of apples, tangerines, pear apples, pineapples and oranges—all in the middle of winter.
The toy counter is the most disappointing part of the store. There are only simple plastic toys and wooden guns with bayonets for 65¢. A four-engine jetliner, which looks very much like a Pan Am 707 and has an insigne on the box similar to the Pan Am seal, costs $4.70.
Chinese priorities are clearly agriculture and consumer items; heavy industry will still be a long time in coming to the forefront. In the meantime the Chinese Communists are not equating consumer deprivation with revolution. As consumers the Chinese have eclectic tastes, especially in food and clothing, which is growing in abundance and variety, although still not in distinctive styling. As revolutionaries, the Chinese may be purists, but as consumers they enjoy variety.
The 196th Division
Riding for more than two hours and 60 miles east of Peking along the flat plain that moves in an endless wave of villages and fields, past small ponies pulling fertilizer carts, we come to Yuang village, headquarters of the 196th Division of the People's Liberation Army. Formed in 1937 from partisan contingents, the 196th fought against the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang, then in Korea against U.S. forces.
A 30-ft.-high statue of Chairman Mao dominates the entrance to the base where we are waved in by a P.L. A. traffic policeman snapping green and red flags in his hands. Near by the troops line up; they practice firing their AK-47 automatic rifles and butt each other with rubber-tipped bayonets shouting "Heighten vigilance to our motherland!"
We are greeted by the vice commander of the division, Keng Yu-chi, 42, who lectures forcefully on the work of the division among the masses and its role in productive labor.
Tough Line. We hear about the three disciplines (obey orders in all your actions; do not take a single needle or piece of thread from the masses; turn in everything captured), and the eight points for attention (speak politely; pay fairly for what you buy; return everything you borrow; pay for anything you damage; do not hit or swear at people; do not damage crops; do not take liberties with women; do not ill-treat captives). Keng makes no direct mention of the U.S. or of the social imperialists (the Russians), but his line is tough. "The danger of world war still exists, and the people should be prepared. The nature of imperialism and all its lackeys will not change." All this is washed down with tea, tangerines, apples and candy.
The tour begins. First stop is the base club, where the vice commander explains the history of the division, which has killed 38,000 men including "Japanese, Kuomintang traitors and American imperialists."