← Previous – CH12E – Next → Chapter 12ESearch for the Missing Peking Man. . . . . Gunny sat up front with Joe. Once we passed through the city wall gate and the last guards, both U.S. Marines and Nationalist soldiers, Gunny opened
Read More

← Previous – CH12D – Next → Chapter 12DThe Missing Peking Man. . . . . One Saturday morning I went to George Company to check in, and the duty clerk informed me that I had made corporal. That called for a celebration, but
Read More

← Previous – CH12C – Next → Chapter 12CWhite Russian Refugees I enjoyed listening to the many stories Katarina had to tell. She told how her mother, three aunts, and grandparents escaped from Russia and fled to Manchuria in 1915. They had a small
Read More

← Previous – CH12B – Next → Chapter 12BFace-to-Face with a Dowager Eunuch There was a bit of the daredevil in Katarina which I liked. I remember one time I was at Forbidden City with Su Fung and we saw a few old men
Read More

← Previous – CH12A – Next → Chapter 12AKat-tar-rina, The Russian Girl The moment I stepped out of the Jeep at Badaling and saw the Great Wall of China looming up before me, I thought about my father and my Uncle George. For two
Read More

← Previous – CH11C – Next → Chapter 11cMamma Georgia Mamma Georgia’s place stood out from all the other buildings on the street. It was the only wooden structure, and badly in need of repair. It appeared never to have been painted. Melanowski began
Read More

← Previous – CH11B – Next → Chapter 11bTHAT WHITE RUSSIAN WOMAN At school the next day I passed word around that the Marines from George Company were having a picnic Sunday at the Great Wall, and anyone who wanted to go was invited.
Read More

← Previous – CH11A – Next → Chapter 11aIntellectual Competition Life in Peking wasn’t all studies. I did much wandering around town on my own. Anyone who liked walls would have loved Peking. We lived behind walls. There was the massive, 12-meter thick outer
Read More

← Previous – CH10C – Next → Chapter 10cForeign Classmates, Russian Girl Often times such simple questions provoked deep thought. When I returned to my room and was alone I pondered over them. I began feeling empty inside. Were they, perhaps, not right? Why
Read More

← Previous – CH10B – Next → Chapter 10bWE DO EVERYTHING BACKWARDS This was an early version of Shangri-La. I went to the library and checked out James Hilton’s Lost Horizon and spent the whole night in my room, under a cover, reading it.
Read More