CONTENTSIntroductionExpedition to ChinaWe land in Hong Kong, next stop BeijingHong Kong, consumer paradiseThe Friendship HotelOur children get new namesPages from a stormA Colombian poet in troubleThe Decade of ChaosA filmmaker pilloriedOur first trip backLiving in China for not one but many yearsTwenty-two lessons learnedIn a house with a courtyard, friendship flourishesAnnals of changeBack ground to the reform and opening-upNeo-Confucian China and consumptionBeijing was a forest of cranesTo contradict Voltaire, everything changes in ChinaBeijing, rebuilt in ten yearsRemnants of the past and heralds of todayMy district, a neighbourhood of alleysThe commercial face of the reformsThe "floating population" and business feverThe reforms through the eyes of two Colombian diplomatsRevisiting BeijingChina past and presentInternational WatchtowerChina and the global crisisChina's position in global geopoliticsCultural traits and customsConfucianism, still current and constantBird walkersCaged crickets fightIn China, grandparents are in chargeThe China that hosts the Olympic GamesCharacteristics of the new Chinese familyMao Zedong, the poetReview and interviewsLaunch of Twice The Life In ChinaSeventeen years living in the grandeur of ChinaChina the novelEpilogue