寻路中国读后感

Book Review of Country Driving

Country Driving is a travel notes written by an American reporter named Peter Hessler who described the real situation in early 21st century in China. When he acquired his driving license in the summer of 2001, he started his journey through China from farm to west. Generally speaking, he drove along the Great Wall, which played an important role in ancient China, in order to witness the history. On his way, he met lots of strangers, for example, a feng shui master demonstrated his adaptability by flourishing a business card listing 27 services included marriage、funeral and so on. He seemed to be very interested in Chinese culture so he always consulted old man about the local historical sites. When heard that Chinese government officials exploited the farmers and concealed facts of tree planting in the countryside, the author was pretty upset. Reading the early fifty pages of this note, I l earn a lot.

First, from the writer’s view, I can notice the imbalance in development. Not only regional economies such as eastern city like Beijing and western city like Shanxi but also urban and rural development is uneven. Peter devoted himself to portray in a comprehensive view included culture、local people、historic sites、even the government officer. The western regions still had remained Poverty and ignorance and the local were inclined to change their life.

Therefore, lager numbers of farmers flooded into the cities. As a result, eastern cities turned into more and more prosperous whil e the western countryside was falling into decay constantly. Moreover, the imbalance between the prosperous east and the impoverished west exist currently even though the government spares no effort to support western area.

Meanwhile, the author also offered a fair description of the imbalance between the d evelopment of economy and that of thought patterns. For instance, it seemed that people was not accustomed to the increasing numbers of cars. The author repeatedly mentioned the aspect of traffic. Just like Peter said “it was a nation of new drivers, most of them negotiating new cities, and the combination was lethal.”Interestingly, I am very surprised that the FengShui masters were still popular in that era. In fact, People's minds should be adapted to the economy. From my own perspective, Fengshui, as the symbol of feudal dross, should be abandoned. Nowadays the central government has already conscious the imbalance and on these conclusions, some policy suggestions has been put forward such as the strategy of western development and Silk Road of modern times.

Secondly, I feel extremely angry when I read the content about plant trees in the YouYu County. Obviously, the incompetence of government officials is appalling. In the author's narrative，the