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    National Geographic March 1994

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    228 views172 pages

    National Geographic 1994-03 185-3 Mar

    Uploaded by

    Ad Mina
    National Geographic March 1994

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Li aaci 1 a, Bil ea wil Ply) aul _ 2 F B Bae = 4 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MARCH 1994 Shanghai By William S, Ellis Photographs by Stuart Franklin Sim6n Bolivar By Bryan Hodgson Photographs by Stuart Franklin Paintings by Herbert Tauss Trinidad and Tobago By A. R. Williams Photographs by dey M. Brooks and David Alan Harvey The Wings of War By Thomas B. Alten Photographs by Ira Block High Road to Hunza By John McGarry Photographs by Jonathan Blair Cover; Commuting en mas @a FOR MEMHERSHIP INFORMATION CALL 1-400-634-4077 (TDD: 1.800.561 eyctiss make slow headway across Shanghai Photograph by Stuart Frankt Communist leaders long deni- grated China's lar; st city for the Paris 0, i. Now they invite foreign firms in hopes of making the city the financial capital of Asia. 2 South America’s 19tk-censuery revolutionary hero liberate jans fram Spain, w cating strong central ge Americans still debate his legacy Is it democracy or dictatorship 36 Oil-rich and multiethnic island Caribin art of enjoying friends and family. Carnival, the yearly extravaga: of the senses, raises that art to its highest form 66 The men of the U. 8. Eighth Air Force battled Nazi Germany from five mites up, flying daytime bombing raitts from England. Aboard B-17s they forged history—and lifelong friendships 90 Inthe mountains of northern Pakistan, Hunzakuts find more rewards than drawbacks in the highway that has opened their re isolated Shangri-la to the outside world. 114 1a rainy spring afternoum er printed on recycled-content paper Joa oininy Siri S,PUIYD ddA 5 S By WILLIAM S. ELLIS smsrasce romron Photographs by STUART FRANKLIN HEN IT JS RAINING and millions of bicyclists have pulled on slickers of yellow and blue and red, and the eity is awash in soft, wet streets are mirrors calling down shimmering images of the bordering plane color—when th Come upon it by-ship, along the fetid waters of the Huangpu Rive the shameful w colonial gunboats and foreign opium tra ‘That way, the approach is at the Bund, Shanghai's famed waterfront promenade and site of the city’s major historic buildings. Today along thet broad avenue, as throughout Shanghai and much of southeastern ‘China, you sée and feel the dizzying swirl of a totally new and extra- inary era. i has been chosen by the Chinese government to uN ps forward) the anking center not only of Asia 010 or, failing that, at least to surpass ginnt. The greater goal may be out of reach and nothing is so important here now, it arket, Suddenly the fetters of a controlled xed, setting loose the entreprencurial spirit of the ainese. At the same time, there is. new openness to life in general 'y- and many of its 13 million people seem almast giddy with the freedom speak more boldly now of love skinner seems reborn, He squat d beside him is a pa Shan} (speak of but of the whole world by the Hong Kong as a financia but the ef and hate, hope and despair. Even treet market on ny slith His hand move pulls the fish ta hen, with the deftne skin and bones. He does that, one after anoth legs are streaked with the splatte His name is Zhu Guo Hus, and hi for 30 years, mc good is going to h ) exerci is bare arms and g blood, pme: “T have been doing this now. I feel like something at part of the world.” He rises and is skinning and boning knife so that it sticks in the ground, as fine a mumblety-peg delivery as I have aver see Phe others here in China's greatest city who hay iden the Bh isscis ns, before World War Il, daily stroll past shops young Chinese prom- — Shanghalwithered af- —_ loaded with foreign enade on the Bund terthe 1949 commu- —fuxury Items, “They're (left), the waterfront hist revolution. Now opening anything you'd Where European, U.S,, there isheadytalkof see on Rodeo Drive or and Japanese colonial eclipsing Hong Kong as Fifth Avenue,” says a powers built one ofthe capital of enterprise. Westerner who works in first commercial en- On seething Nanjing the 13-million-strong claves in China, Called Road (preceding pages) _ ity. “They've got Gucci the Paris of the Orient a million pedestrians. to Pucci—you name it.” DA. cnernens spike above Shanghai's. Pudong New Area, a 200-square-mile complex of industrial parks, foreign fac- tories, and housing developments. Such market-economy zones: drive China's economic renaissance. Energized by those dynamos, the nation’s. gross national product took a great leap for- ward in early 1993 — fising by 14 percent, the fastest growth rate in the world ent ct land of the p the air with niges to considerable wealth. Yes, there ale Ferrari, no less, is selling cars. Ever yuppiness has sprouted; some a s reach heyond a washing machine or TV set to trendy desiga anwhile, the el ng loosely on their bodies, smile.and tr and and I don't know that's good or bad.” Chi Chang was sitting ‘one is making money ona beneh under a our country," he Alittle import, a export. Later I nearly 9 Chi knew the cir when it was s x dent a place, as one missionary note ull for an apology by 2s to God to Sodom and Gomorrah. ‘That wa: 30s, the Shanghai known not only as the F Orient but also Whore of the Orient. It was the city that in h Marlene Dietrich purred, “It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.” Chi professed t © only faint recall of that period, as did most of the elderly Ispoke with. It w if all memories of Shanghai be! 1949, when th munists toak power, had been declared cou volutio wry and expunged. The worst was the decade of the Cultural Revolution 1966-1976, when Red Guard zealots th rout Ch \¢ to stamp isionis Shan if, grew bleak even own a pet de “During the Cultural Revolution thi Jian Chu told n ain being kept as pet te—be na ph hardly room fi ing as much Few into 1 person couldn't cl and harsh city whe: police would kill dogs on sight But that has changed now Most are rse—the French po ing conditions in Shanghai are not good. You re where someone live now thete is bed. Still and they are once ve 38 so you must a pair of rottweilers, mal d female, The work of London n the GEOGRAPHIC in the Jat Jo “The Disease Detectives,” His mast re y was “James E re Two Worlis Collide," in our November 293 Special Edition on Water. He also covered Simon Bolivar in this issue National Ge hic, March 199. Shanghai 5 il a “in no city, West or East, have | ever a a had such an impression of dense, rank, richly clotted life,” observed a visitor to Shanghai in the 1920s. That impression applies todays og ‘Shanghai revives its international vision in a political climate that, for the m , encourages foreign int of capital and technol- Before the 1549 revolu- ‘two-thirds of China's tor- ign trade. A quarter of the 's shipping tonnnge is foreign goods—and that figure is on the rise. mMICALS: LON. Recthonics = a t=— ape: ae we ies fia eevee: iP Tage attels SHIPBUILDING OR SHIPYARD ™ CHINA a TEXTILES me . & m7 my o ND esstricr GE conparciat on inmustaiat ane GES) GOVERNMENTAL OR esTITUTIONAL AREA GB Pancon mtaprrainien vecetation 1 sunt-up anca tae ctor of the first pet shop ars. His shop and x called “These like a miniatur flea h plaque, Wang run industry. Crisply he the three clerk: rin| my i on. TE wais nd when Lasked the pricé t business smile: “Fiv rsistheas! rice, bu he head and as the bord ises a ent year. We Wenbiao and], in one of the nd the bill ied to more than half a eral luxury hotels in the city proper yught wernment-owr ix years before starting Isiness own. Such isthe fluid st while Zhou ow? Mandarin wi of th pared in an abundance of oil pressed from the rapese which Shanghai cuisine turns s most West noroughfare ard VIL. Not only he ay virtu e Opi helped build the Bund with it the Shan} ars’ worth of fabrics by the end o now and be able to test these nes ity in tempera Ww gent chemical fumes, workers tend ovens at ‘one of China's biggest manufacturers of coke, a key component of steelmaking. Whiffing a profit, aU. S. fi provides the state-run ‘company with technol- ‘ogy te produce carbon black for rubber “Nobody wants to go back to imperialist says a Shang: hai business expert, recalling how gunboat diplomacy forced China to open its markets in the 19th century. “But se do want foreign cooperation on our terms.” Volkswagen has found those terms lucrative; production at its joint-venture aut plant (left) has tripled in three years spanning the Huangpu River, one of several huge go at modernizing Shanghai's infrastructure. In spirit Pl ccseress- on buttons, rings, teacups, lamps, and watches—adom Huang Miaoxin’s 20,000- piece collectian of Marxist memorabilia, What would China's Great Heimsman, who died in 1976, make of Shanghai's head- Jong rush toward capitalism? “He too would want China to;compete with the rest af the world,” Huang declares, 16 the International Settlement. Adjacent to that was the French Conces- sion, embracing leafy streets, maisons tolérées, as the brothels were called, and a sense of Roman Catholic mission. Later, some 20,000 White Russians made their way to Shanghai (borscht is still a staple in some res~ taurants in the city), as did thousands of European Jews fleeing the Nazis. A city so internationally tainted naturally earned the distrust of the Communist Party hicrarchy when they took over in 1949, Long the lead- ing moneymaker in China, Shanghai was drained of its earnings by the central government and left, to this day, with roads, housing, and other urban essentials grossly outdated and inadequate, Yet it was in Shanghai that Chinese communism took root, The first congress of the party was held here in 1921, and one of the 12 delegates was Mao Zedong. They met in a private house built of gray brick. It isa museum now, and among the exhibits on display is a watch with a card reading, “Specially made by the capitalists in Shanghai to supervise the workers.” Outside, just a block away, is a banner strung across the street with this lection from the new openness: “Let the World and Shanghai Get To Know Each Other Better.” FRIEND FROM BEIJING accompanied me to the museum, and as we were leaving, he said, “Few people come here any more. This is dead history. If it were a brokerage house, they'd be lined up waiting to get in," In addition to the Shanghai Securities Exchange, now housed tempo- rarily in the former grand ballroom of a batel, there are brokerage houses throughout the city, and the players come and go all day, borne on the dreams of instant riches. More than a million residents of the city play the market, some on a large scale, such as Yang Huaiding, a former member of the Red Guard who did so well that he gained wide fame in Asia as “Millions Yang.” ‘Most, however, are small-stakes investors like the 37-year-old man I spoke with on the trading floor of the Shanghai Shenyin Securities Com- pany. “Altogether | bave several thousand shares in various companies,” he said, declining to give his name for fear his absence from work that day would be noted. “In the beginning I made $0,000 yuan [about $8,500), but have been losing money the past two years As often happens with stock speculation, at least one suicide has result- ed. The investor was a woman, and they speak now in Shanghai of the irony of her fate: The day after she tovk her life, her stocks gained an average of three points With Shanghai's industrial output surging more than 20 percent in the first four months of 1993, the rumble of this giant economic awakening is reaching far beyond the banks of the Huangpu. American firms such as AT&T, Du Pont, Merrill Lynch, Hilton, and Sheraton have made their way to Shanghai, joining Volkswagen, Hitachi, Pilkington Glass of England, and many others. ‘The hotbed of development lies actoss the river on the east side of the city, in the section called the Pudong New Area. In a fever of construction and altering of the landscape perhaps unequilled anywhere, more than a thousand foreign firms have located there in the past three years, bringing investments approaching five billion dollars. Twas in Pudong for the first time when a cooling rain began to fall and. wash the dust from the air. Planks lay in the mud and bamboo scaffolding stood in the shadows of other bamboo scaffolding. Heavy machinery rumbled all about, and the sparks of welders’ torches sizzled and flared. National Geographic, March 1998 bank to ma roof town. When ore, the vast finance an t has turne ‘actory to the world, it must let the world come in ¢ than a few China experts caution th on. ‘They point to the continuing Chinese rison labor in manufacturing for ex Shanghai: Where Chine DI BLA ancingtne night China's new breed of are Porsehes," declares and their paychecks business entrepre- ‘one club manager. At away, hip young, neurs—called dahu,cr one plush hate! bar Shanghainese pack “new money peaple”— (below) country-and- China's largest disco _—indulge worldly tastes. westor-theme nights. (right), where the five- unheard of among ordi- feature cowgirl wait- dollar cover charge nary Chinese. resses and an imported equals a factory work- “Three years ago you Filipino band that er's daily wage. As didn't see many private —_croons Kenny Rogers spending power grows, cars here; nowthere ballads. discreditable record on human rights. In 1992 alone, more than a thow- Yet, for a visitor to Sh 0 go—and thing ly mace acce on & morning in I ith tw ent towers and s the outlying Minhang district. We pulled up at a walled com- plex of i Xin Zhong Hua Machinery Factory. It is a knowr the space Refrigerator Fa: or the Long March R 1 Fac Indeed, 100 of them n ye with freezer enter of the com ure workers and build rocket ing 140-foot-lon used in Chinese F They also design a use in China We have contribute 1 a. TOC ir ty,” said Chen Hu 1 r the pl artled (met LT was there. “But, of course, we rely heavily on the civilian ducts. They can n 6 money Fe ch has been used in 13 succe pand suc inchings, and the people at the a Ideological about-faces share People’s Park, formerty a British race track. During colonial times Chinese were often barred from such calm and leafy retreats, Foreign tongues again echo through the Breenery as Chinese students test new lan- guage skills. “They're keen on Engtish,” groans a Western visi- tor. “I've had 50 or 60 people asking me ques- tions at once.” 20 The Peace Hotel was once called the Cathay, and it was there, in 1930, that Noel Coward wrote his best known play, Private Lives, in three or four days while bedridden with the fu. “Unfortunately we do not know what room he stayed in," Zhang Jing Yong of the hotel’s sales depart- ment told me, “All the hotel records were destroyed at the time of the revolution in 1949." The hotel is somewhat threadbare now, but the main ballroom floor, built with springs beneath it, continues to provide for truly easy dancing, and the elegant suites are to be shared with the ghosts of famed and world-wise travelers from the first half of this century. Probably nothing in the city is more redolent of the storied Shanghai of the past. HAO 2HEN FAN AND DA 21 HEN are both too young to jgive much thought to the way things were, except for the grand balls when the dancing continued until dawn. Like many in Shanghai, they have # passion for ballroom dancing. I first met the couple in People's Park in early morning, when scores of old people were out under the trees, doing tai ji gvan exercises with the slow and measured movements of a.cat stalking prey. The pair were on a wooden-floared open-air pavilion, practicing ballroom dancing. They moved around the floor in a fugue of great sweeps and dips, no less fluid than Fred and Ginger, and Shao’s head was swiveling sharply on bis neck to throw sharp profiles to me and the others watching. He held Da’s hand high, their fingertips joined like a steeple. But there was no music, no sound at all other than the gritty scraping of their feet on the wooden floor. When they stopped, I asked about that, and Shao said, “We have the music in our hearts and our minds. We can hear it.” ‘They are there most every morning, before the sun has fully risen to show pale and watery through Shanghai's perpetual smog, or just as soon as Shao can get there from his night-shift work ata factory. “The two of us. dance together in contests when we can,” Shao said. “We share a dreat of one day winning an international competition.” That would cortainly bring some glory to the old pavilion in the park. Zbu Yong Zhong, a teacher at the Shanghai Sports Institute and an instructor of ballroom dance, explained that Shanghainese who are between 30 and 40 years old do not, for the most part, know how to dance. “They spent their youth during the Cultural Revolution when dancing was banned, and they never learned how to do it,” he said. It may be that the Cultural Revolution touched on every aspect af life except eating. And now, with a sharp sense of business in full play and with private ownership permissible, restaurants vie aggressively for cus: tomers. Zhapu Road, in the shadow of the Bund, is lined with new res- ‘taurants. At night the road, like the midway at a carnival, throbs with life as throngs move slowly along the lineup, sampling the smells in joyful anticipation. Matters of food are not taken lightly here, as I observed in one restau- rant named Huali where a friend had taken me for dinner. When he placed his order, the waitress stonily rejected it-as unsuitable with a slight ‘toss of her head, like a pitcher shaking off the sign for a fastball, He chose another dish. She nodded, My own selections found approval: a fish appetizer called “ Beautiful Butterfly Greeting Guest” and adessert, “Eight Precious Rice,” wherein steamed, glutinous rice is injected with a generous measure of red bean paste and topped with eight different candied fruits. In between, the feast ranged from bean curd with preserved duck eggs to freshwater crab in wine, National Geographic, March 1904 ai with surges and so-do the taxis, Add to them s ha n Shanghai, ge GB ooftops of the Bund’s colonial era, foreground, seem to turn their backs on looming high-rise construction. Even history is for sale in Shanghai's rush to riches: Elogant landmarks such as bank buildings, villas, and ance regal hotels are on the auction block after half a century of government ownership. The bitiders? Rumors fly that foreign banks.are quietly negotiating to reoc cupy thelr old Shanghai headquarte LP a globally competitive _space program, techni- clans huddle near their handiwork at Shang- hai's Long March Rocket Factory. Short on frills but tong on reliability, these boosters have become China's work- horses in space. To help pay for China’s ambitious program— including manned space flight by the year 2000—the Long March facility produces retrig- srators as well. 24 the same revolutions per minute, (It makes you wonder: If all that pedal power could he harnessed, would it be enough to light Senttle?) Such observations do not deter the 7,000 workers at the Shanghai For- ever Bicycle Company Ltd. from their annual production of 3.5 million bieyeles. “Naturally we are concerned about the traffic problems here in Shanghai,” said Cheng Hong Xin, senior engineer at the plant, "but we manufacture for the whole country ane much of the world—even the United States, where our bicycles are called Wind Catcher. In all of China, one of every six people riding a bicycle is riding a Forever Bicycle." We toured the plant, past piles of pedals and bells and gleaming han- dlebars, And then we came to Zhu Zhen Ling's station, For the past two years he has stood beside a bench foreight hours a day, five and « half days a week, reaching overhead and grabbing a hose, and then hearing the sound—that same sound, aver and over and over: Pssssitt. Zhu Zhen Ling puts the air in the bicycle tires. He fills 200 tires a day. Being a young man im his 20s, he does not expect to make this his life's work. "You ask me if [ike my work? Do I like my work?” He looked at me with disbelief. Psssssi, 1 ONE TIME, years ago, Sikhs wearing red turbans directed traffic in Shanghai, but they are gone now, as are the 100,000 or so- rickshas that once plied the streets. They were banned by the communists for being exploitative, You can still find a former ricksha puller in Shanghai, but it isn'teasy, ‘The men in Vichuan Park said that Liu Yong Shun was around and they'd find him for me. First, though, they wanted to listen to the singing of their birds. It was early morning—a good time in Shanghai—and they had brought their pet songbirds to the park and hung the cages on the branches of trees, And then they sat close and listened to them sing, When they led me to Liu, I spoke to him of rickshas, and e looked pained. “It was during the war,” be said. “I had been worlsing ina factory, but the Japanese burned it down. So I had to go to work pulling the wagon. I pulled it from early morning to dark. It hurt so much, in the shoulders and hands, and no one cared if you were living or dead, The money we made wasn't even enough to buy some rice.” ‘The pullers wore rags, working no matter what the weather was like (uncounted Shanghainese froze to death on the sidewalks in winters past), and they were often struck or kicked or abused. “But for the liberation — I'm sorry but I have e disease of the tongue and cannot speak clearly —I would be a. dead man now," Liu said. As it is, he has lived to the age of 83, having retired as an automotive mechanic. Vichuan Park sits in the heart af a crowded, busy neighborhood west of the train station, a sprawling patchwork of narrow streets and alleys, or long, where clothes put out to dry fly from bamboo poles. Sidewalk dentists put their pliers on view and declare that the office is open. Rice steamed in bamboo leaves is the big seller in the snack shops at a few cents 6 ball. Chamber pots from the night, before are at curbside, waiting for the cleaners to arrive on their rounds. It is ameighborhood where life itself is a street party ‘The new prosperity is not likely to reach with much force this deep into the city, and that could be a blessing. Such neighborhoods are the strength of Shanghai's character, and much of the urban exhilaration could well be lost, with the intrusion of apartment towers like thase rising in outlying areas: Still, housing in the central city is harshly inadequate, averaging 75 square feet per petson—that's half the size of a parking space. National Geographic, March 1004 lents live in downtown g has about and it is not easy ation has turned where Eight million of Shanghai's 13 million areas; the number has doubled since 1948. New housi limits: Shanghai proper sits mostly on m build there. And so it is to the outlying areas that att places across the river, to the suburban districts and to the farmers stoop | By government di reached ice. kers may now own their living quarters, through a savings plan and assistance from employers. In this way it is he that the 1.2 million new housing units needed in Shanghai by the year 2¢ can be obtained through purchase and not social welfare. As it is now, hous- ing for the most part is provided by the city government on a rent So, with an official policy born of this strange marriage of socialism and free enterpr y hall partly delivered itself of an enormous burden. Or so it would seem. N ALL OF CHENA there are more than 300 million urban dwellers, and or most of them housing is chesp. Among them is Shen Gui Ving, a woman who has lived in the same cramped two tooms for 42 years givin; to.and raising her five children there. She is regar important leader in her 900-household neighborhood just north Suzhou Creek, a waterway that cuts through the center of the city, and indeed she has worked for some 30 years to improve living conditions in her community. Ina way Shanghai neighborhoods are cities unto them- selves, and of this one, Shen Gui Ying would be mays ¢ China's Past and Shanghai: Wh uve Meet comfort, Ch She has won mec honors, but she is as pr person'stivingspace —_—hieater as she is of anything else. It is a rare maybenomorethan an enviable luxury. She turned « tes asked me the area of a queen- to put my finger in the water, and when I did and said it was hot, she smiled size bed. Newly arrived place where she ike so many in vWRy; migrant workers jeanly swept, six-foot-wide passage that runs from th (below) make do with §0 yards. Entrance to her qu s is through a communal kitchen and v sleeping ontheirlug- i dark, Winding staircase with a railing layered with g 8 gage; officials peg Once inside, there is ace for movement, for one room alone holds more permanent solu- bed, six chairs, some stools, two dressers TV, and clothes on tions on China's eco- hooked to the cords of window blinds. She lives there nomic reshuffling. wh ired from working, as and his wife Subsidized housing is “We have the money for something better,” Mrs. Shen sai I've now being privatized to waiting for a long time for the government to al spur new construction. @." She gave ave, from cradle to £1 sple provided for the elder food for the hungry Mi nors are adjudicated, and family dlis- putes resolved —in these close quarters many i t and their moth We walked together thro she introduced such as the two elderly wor « provided by the The one died, and now they stack apers in the extra chnir. All their needs are met e who live close by here, “What were three, bu we are r drugs oF pr “We eturn of gambling Shen declared id happiness, but ive here in harmony if we had a little mm ge the extent of the new nghai, Prostitution is cer- uly returning, with no strong crackd k marketcers who speak the Bund seemin arch of fore allowed 1 is DIFFICUL openness in Sh croaky whis ty unhindered! in whshops have been e first prival tive agency in China since 1949, But at the time al dissidents in the city are harassed 1 jailed. The press remains muzaled, and the Chinese-made film Fé z co-winner of the 1 Cannes fn- ternational Film Festival, created controver: t with homosexuality. Church ontrols remain strong. att ndance is a Officially th Shanghai i tion,” but th Cath Roma sses MUTT wely Sunday mic f the Xujiahui May ate. The liturgy has dral on a nil not in praise i. mind over body,” says antiterrorist- police spokesman Shen Zi Ping of run-ins with motorcycles (facing page) that cadets. endure as part af their grueling training regi men. The secret weapon: gigong, a 3,000-year-old marti art that stresses breathing skills, Sewing is just one skill prisoners must hone at Shanghai's Municipal Prison {above}, where garden- ing, an orchestra for the musically inclined, and “political educa- tion” also help fill long hours. been edited, but there is no mistaking the fervor of the worshipers. They are the legacy of French Jesuits who, years ago, won converts in the city more easily than did t Americ is There are now 140,000 Catholics is ngh s ir or one percent of the populatic mans \a0-Z bi chancellor of the diocese. “It is true that most are old people, but many young ones are joining the congregation each year.” Of course, during the Cultural Revolution the cathedral was closed and the Catholic Shanghai were conscripted to make umbrellas. Since the en¢ of that stern some 60 churc opened in the ‘As the c up more, so will the church,” the chancellor tie. For now, the line ‘est tween state and reli- the church walks it ike tightrope. Hea chancellor on abortion We are against ab tion, but in view of the population of China we can understand the government's polic imiting tk OPEN the stal tructurin| movement for demotricy failed in Ti NOW por re doing contract we they employ ranks of Chi adards unconsei es, Other f lean, higt ant makes optical trans ervice, It is owned jointly with Chinese interests, 1 1 high And For all its thriv alize: If your f one? Who would You could ery day n Square in 1989. And al with Chima for large U. S. jor what are rms in Shanghai, such as ig better wages. AT&T" long-distance teleph the business hus sion equipment for isin a onomy Shan; n't have a phom ined if you have ds ¢ you call? Ik shows. Tal into are: ws! They are on the ng held taboo for pubic id night, venturin, aire discussion. Of course, no one is allowed to suggest that Deng Xiaoping lea getting dotty, but they talk of in the mar China's aged and aili marriage, infidelity “The people have know what thes the primary purpose of people in the city tu That's that one million needs are,” Sai » Shanghi talk shows.” Itis estimat National Geographic, March 19 premium space amid Shan; Tccsizucine vatpmingoee, ——_vosarcavomon in infancy for babies in careersaren'thaving At Nanhui retirement a washing line at a children any more, home and hospice Shanghai hospital piainsa young banker. (below), those lucky (left). China's strict “Economically speak- enough to gain admit- birth-control laws get —ing, that’s very sound.” —_ tance enjoy the calm an unintended assist Not necessarily: Shang- of a country garden In business-obsessed hails graying popula- —_—_and occasional beach Shanghai. "Some tion alteady swamps excursions during, young people whoare an overburdened their final years. openness went this in that rt, and T was taken aback to think th rden Mi far—putting the violation on view. Wa ai was quick to exp the clot e uniforms destined for Chine rmment agencies, and, ndeed, t what I found them to be. In the d hen Shanghai was synonymous with sin, the prison held We 3,500 in h id. “Most, m. | to theft of property. Major ¢ than 10 per M said, the rising crime rate is related to the economic boom, but he foresees “We must gui in for crim d'mor 10 return to the wide-open Shanghai of the th people to good behavior,” he said Guided 01 Shanghai 2 their place and karaoke ream with ne n for miniskirts of black leath di of the C are seeking places for their chil new openness There is an obsessic £ young wor and while that may may not be chic, it is afi tural Revolution. Parents, meanwhik xpensive private scho ice in a public school ig Model Mi iwernment 1 wing number of tunate few find ap uch as Shanghai Nan ffering a quality from which to become g amba aduates have gone ¢ dors, Where Ci uture Meet 33 Past an en carefully di literary figures. Most of those who are admitted have prepared. Many have been doted on by parents and grandparents from the time of birthy he one child under China's st planning rub w For many youngsters, however, schooling ren roductive Bill ith the flash and and unhappy experiet Fewer tha: it of China's yout 1 crackle of fireworks, a figure is higher in Shanghai, but not much—actually enter high school family heralds the Chi- the dropout rate is high nese New Year in their ne in the city turn to straining forthe alleyway, Celebrators world-renowned e theaters and theaters in traditionally banish de- the cultu: mans with a bang and, n. Shanghai is home ina happy caincidence balancing and juggling of astrology, ushered in adition of filmmaking 1983 as the Year of the Rooster, ancient symbol Shanghai, and some now c that it is New York to Beijing's ¥ Acrobatic Th where mi and flights of body to in Shanghai is thrivin made for entertainment And more a thinker/radicals —are rather than Beijing, w dimensions. The long t For the first time in m her than propaganda. it —the more anghal OR ALL THAT, Shat a port city. (in drunken drifters here wete spirited dari shorthanded shanghaied"?) Much of its hi was on the Huang bythe Bund, across from th leyways and trundled ab hips, to awaken far out at sea ed on the river. It r lay moored Peace Hotel, earlyin 1949, waiting to receive all the gold in the Bank of China. Facing defeat by the communists Nationalist leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai: to flee China, and he had no d shek was about intention of behind. And so one morning mn the bank adit the preci aving the country's g padd hip, loa: for the success pa lay the port handles more than 160 mil tons : junload ings alo the rive They come fr world, the hters and other ships, ng the East China Sea for the Yangtze River, and then the Yangtze for the ninals and the tons slide down the ways. Such deadwe ip: are still built faster in Japan, but that gap is clos wg. Indeed, there h catching up. occur ring in Shanghai no ometimes it seems that the city is When that happens, it is good te put away all hat is new it some: ‘he old. One of merit and fame. ‘Crowing has already awakened a vital city long lost in faded dreams: “Shanghai wi become the leader in developing all China predicts a Shanghai customs broker with typical bravura. “Now is our tim: he old Chin the Fre nd, having th century ve acres. thu 5 SAS eee i ee Fen a Ba op os tay Ve) et ay a SIMON LS@MA/ANZA A Colombian honor guard marches in uniforms designed by Simin Bolivar, leader of South America’s 19th-century liberation from Spain. From Colombia's plazas to the plains of Venezuela to Bolivia's high FcR ee ee ee Lc OUTH AMERTC A “| MAKE BOLIVAR NAKED to protest the sainthood that has been thrust on him.” Colombian sculptor Arenas Betancourt shapes the thought with powerful hands, telling me why he has portrayed Simon Bolivar, South America’s greatest hero, as a naked man on muleback. “His odians have transferred him to museums. They are afraid to humanize him. Boli makes sense today! He points out the social problems of South Amer- ica, He understands the continent must be united. He imagines a world and makes us hope for it That is his banner, his anthem.” Thad been following Boliv: banner for months, fascinated by this young Venezuelan aristocrat who burst onto the battlefield in af colo- 1811 to lead ragged armi nists and cowboys in a 14-year revo- lution that broke Spain's colonial stranglehold on today's republics of Venezuela, Colombi ador, Peru, and Bolivia (map, page 42) I'd found his memorials everywhere, in statues and portraits dominating town squares and official walls. I'd also heard him quoted by conservatives and liberals, Marxists and Christians S GREAT LIUBEBERAT OR dictators and democrats, all claiming vindication in his name. But I was seeking the man who had written his own memorial with a caustic brilliance that put all his aficionados to shame. In a torrent of letters, declarations, and denunciations, he had described his dream of a peaceful confederation of independent Spanish American nations, Bitterly, he had watched the new republics disin- tegrate into chaos and civil war. At the end, stripped of power and honor by those he had led to victory, he described a nightmare: “There is no good faith in America, nor among the nations of America,” he wrote just before his death in 1830 “Treaties are scraps of paper; constitutions, printed matter; elec- tions, battles; freedom, anarchy; and life, a torment.” Here was the naked rider of an apocalypse that still con- vulses South America, saying what seems unsayable today. How would he describe Venezuelan rebels who swear in his name to crush an elected government, I wondered. Would he approve of Ma xist guerril- las ofthe (Continued on page 44) JAMAICA, t PUERTO RIC Born to a family of Ven- esuela's colonial elite in 1753, Bolivar had quietly joined the independen ment by age 24, later mov ing as a leader of insurgent Bel erent we dysentery > PAdcrri¢ Soe) ocEAN eet Campaignaof Bolivar X Battle “Unity, unity, unity must be our motto in all things. The blood of our citizens is varied: let it be mixed for the sake of unity.” After years of defeats Bolfvar boldly led the lib- and exile Bolivar ads eration of Venezuela, dressed an 1819 revolu- Colombia, Ecuador, tionary congress in the Poru, and Bolivia. town of Angostura. He Though an admirer of outlined his proposal for George Washington—he a-nation uniting modern carried a lock of the Pres- Venezuela, Colombia, ident’s hair (right)—Bolt- Ecuador, and Panama var favored strong central that would be the corner- rule, fearing that U. S.- stone for an alliance of style federalism would Latin American states. spread anarchy across Over the next s ixyears Latin America. “Let us hasten to break the chains of those victims who groan in the dungeons.” lagers in the Peruvian Ande nd government forces re Injured in a prison- ers’ dispute, a for torn in Bogatda's Made unmark Bolf nate cowers 1, testament fo flure of Balt. r's dream: that nto a political iberation would free Colombia i also etchec and its neighbors from social chaos, wrote in 1819, “Ameri disputing with the an any leader of U tell far livar nd remote This saint) mn life nd friend: ly thin “My every action was prompted by calculation, and more, by daring.” “Without a doubt we are Bolivarianos,” says Colombian politician Antonio Navarro Wolff, supporting an ally’s congressional bid in 1997. A former guerrilla, Navarro forsook warfare and helped write his Counitry’s conistitee- tion. A 1994 presi- dential candidate, he invokes Bolivar's cali _for Latin solidarity. 46 ‘man’s ears with the heady rhetoric of philosophers like Voltaire and Rousseau, who believed that monarchs had a sacred obligation to guar- aantee the citizen's right to equality before the law. When Napoleon crowned himself emperor for life in 1804-and set about modernizing, French law, the young Venezuelan was mightily impressed: “I confess ‘this made me think of my unhappy country and the glory which he would win who should liberate it.” Bolivar left few impressions of his journeys, but their impact was clear, Returning to Caracas in 1807, the 24-year-old squire joined 2 clandestine movement advocating independence from Spain, T SEEMED a quixotic dream. The Spanish colonial empire stretched from California to Tierra del Fuego, its cities rich with three centuries of culture, its mines transfusing @ remote monar- chy with a lifeblood of gold and silver and emeralds. But beneath the opulence lay mother lodes of unrest. In Spanish. America some three million American-born colonists known as Creoles chafed under political discrimination, royal taxes, and restrie~ tions on lucrative foreign trade with Europe. Beneath them toiled a yola- tile mixture of Indians, black slaves, and a palette of cthnic blends known as sambos, pardos, and mestizos, some 14 million strong, When Napoleon dethroned the Spanish king, Ferdinand VIL, he unwittingly gave the would-be revolutionaries their chance. Creoles quickly formed juntas, ostensibly loyal to the deposed king but intent on displacing the royal bureaucracy. By 1810 ardent separatists took control in many regions of South America, The Republic of Venezuela was offi- cially born on July 5, 1811, and later adopted a constitution largely based on that of the United States. Soon after, as royalist forces and loyalist Creoles organized resistance, the new republic went to war. ‘The revolution began in a blaze of ignominy. Poorly trained Venezwe- lan militiamen were defeated by a small Spanish force, Bolivar, now a militis. colonel placed in charge of the coastal town of Puerto Cabello, was forced to flee when turncoat rebels released the imprisoned royal garrison, After the Venezuelan commander, Gen, Franeisco de Miranda, surrendered, he secretly tried to leave the country. The furious Bolivar accused him of treason and allowed him to fail into the hands pf the Spanish commander. Bolfvar later received amnesty and « passport to leave Venezuela. It was the first expression of the imperious will that would soon cata- pult him to fame. Escaping to nearby Cartagena, the old coastal fortress then in rebel hands, he poured out his fury in a manifesto that excoriated the Venezuelan government's failures, ‘orgive me if 1... sketch briefly the causes that brought Venezuela destruction,” he wrote in December 1812, Among its principal f ures, the government had refused to create a professional army. By print- ing paper money to support a huge bureaucracy, it had fueled inflation, alienating the powerful Creole agriculturists. “But what weakened the Venezuelan government most was the feder- al form it adopted in keeping with the exaggerated precepts of the rights of man... . The popular elections held by the simple people of the coun- try and by the scheming inhabitants of the city added a further obsta- cle... the former are so ignorant that they cast their votes mechanically and the latter so ambitious that they convert everything into factions. As aresult . .. the government was placed in the hands of men who were immoral, or opposed to the cause of independence. . .. Our National Geographic, March 1994 would 1 je democracy, that it-might so different from that patriot Tadeusz His view was in 1811 wrote to the America is all in States, and will be ors have er f-government 2 was not alone in dis: formal title of El Li Triumph was bri " and turned ves, they t id by black sl ing Bolivar's troops anc against their Creole and now ordered the execu: and was driven from ¥ long with armam, 50 HE WAR TOOK A NEW TURN in early 1817 with the capture of the city of Angostura, on the Orinoco River, by a young mulatto rebel general named Manuel Piar. Bol{- var praised him for a “most brilliant” victory, which for the first time gave him a secure headquarters in Venezuela's heartland, reachable by seagoing vessels. But Piar had an ambition to be a liberator himself. Appealing to other pardos, he planned an insurrection in the easternmost province. Asa les: son to other would-be rivals, Bolfvar had him shot against the wall of the Angostura cathedral on October 16, 1817 “Never was there a death more useful, more politic and... more deserved,” he wrote. In Angostura fortune began to favor the revolution. Napoleon’s down- fall at the Battle of Waterloo released huge stocks of surplus armaments and unemployed soldiers, which Bolivar acquired with borrowed British funds. Meanwhile, the Ilaneros had switched sides behind one of their own, Gen, José Antonio Paez, who rallied them to the republican cause ‘Bolivar used the opportunity to further his own ambitions. In February 1819 he convened the Congress of Angostura, which would National Geographic, March 1004 proclaim the unification of the territories of present- day Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama inte‘a vast republic that became known.as Gran Colombia and make him president with dictatorial powers ‘That summer he staged a military masterpiece, Riding with his forces some 300 miles over flooded plains, he led them across the Andes into Colombia in weather so harsh that one-third of his \d most of their mules and horses died on the way. Such feats of endur- ance would earn him the honorific title “culo de hierro” from his men— meaning, roughly, “iron bottom.” ‘The 1,500 survivors were fed, clothed, and provided mounts by villagers, and fesw days later the ianerns annihilated royalist cavalry at Pantano de Vargas. On August 7, at Boyacé, the main force of Spaniards was routed in only two hours bya mixed army of South Americans and British mercenaries Bolivar was euphoric: the hymns, the acclamations, the wreaths offered and placed upon my head by the hands of lovely maid. the fiestas, the thousand demonstrations of joy are the I the that I have received," he wrote. “The greatest and dearest to my heart are the tears, mingled with the rapture of happiness, in which I have been bathed and the embraces with which the multitude have all but crushed me.” Success begat success. In June 1821 the llancros of Paez and the British legion ended the major Spanish threat in Venezuela at the Battle of Cara- bobo. That left the formidable task of dealing with Peru, heart of Spain's South American empire, where a 20,000-man royalist army waited in the Andean highlands. Leaving the new vice president of Gran Colombia, Francisco de Paula Santander, in charge, Bolivar headed south, where his troops first captured Quito, capital of modern-day Ecuador. ‘There he was conquered himself, by-a beautiful and tough-minded 24-year-old Quitefia named Manuela Sdenz, Unlike 4 multitude of pre~ jous lovers, she became his indefatigable companion, often following astride a cavalry charger in colonels regalia, fiercely hostile to his enemies, fiercely loyal to his eatsse. Continwed on page 56) he trlumphal arches, the flower: Simin Bolivar “T feel as though inflamed by a strange and sublime fire.” Blinding snow surrounds a climber on Ecuador's Chim- boraze volcano. Bolivar described the supernatural vision that seized him on the mountain. iw his poetic essay “My Delirium an the Chimboraza”— but he never reached the top. it Bitter caid and altitude sickness claimed hundreds of lives as Bolivar led his ragged troops across the Colom- bian sin 1819 to capture Bogoré from Spain. At the Andean military post af Pefias Negras, to- day's soldiers warm up t th potato soup “T have met with obstacles which only the most unflinching determination could overcome. The ruggedness of the mountains we traversed would be inconceivable to anyone wha has not traveled that route.” “I too suff ald view her as hao, but Bolivar a ; ne memory of your énchantme: de thea 584 ok from this 1e told her of the many love rote searing fever. ier ig fever, MA, PERU'S CA ully by Argentine which con- 4 north after sumes us Hoapae annred two liberators like two children.” A liberator-style celebration breaks out in Cartagena as naval afficers and beauty queens observe the city’s Independence Day. Bolfvar “was a friend of dancing, gallant, and highly addicted to ladies,” said one ally, He burned with passion far Manuela Sdenz (above), his layal Ecuadorian laver Sabers and lances clashed as the Battle of Junin erupted hand to hand on August 6, 1824. Victory gave Bolivar control over central Pocw. “The charges of our llaneros made the earth tremble,” said a survivors “Soldiers! . . . Fastened upon you, entranced, is the ore Keio al Europe—because freedom in the orld will give hope for freedom everywhere.” \¥ “The poor Indi- spon him with gratification ans are truly ves Nay his leaders i ina state of lamentable depression. I intend to help them all] 9, 1824, Gen, Ante re inflicted can,” campaigns Bolivar had writ- Trading wark for tensively on the future — pall tell you with what , Fadian women iva must provide ourselv lay stones for a road outside La Paz, Bo- livia. Th first president and country’s author of its 1826 constitution, Bolivar divine declared the equality, Bolivar had of all citizens and d Gran ( did away with laws * zing ch exploiting the coun- try’s largely Indian population r, rather, ove ion, Bolivar ha for the final battle iste all wrote, “Itis the first de ‘onfecleration died aborning pes toward omised Lan a constituti antries sh The Liberator turned epublie of Bo s, his experience, and his heart into the “Tam the vie- tim of my per- secutors, who have brought me to the grave. I for- give them.” from Americans north and south William Tudor, U. S. consul at Lima, wrote in 1826 of the “deep hypocrisy” of Bolivar, who allowed himseli to be deceived by the “crawling, despicable flattery of those about him.” hn Quiney Adams w define Bolivar's military c potic and sanguinary" and state baldly that “he cannot disguise his hankering after a crown.” In Bogota the U.S, min- ister and future president, Gen. William Henty He 4 Bolivar of plan- ing to turn Gra mbin into @ monar- chy: “Under the mask of patriotism-and attachment to liberty, he has really been ng the means of investing himself with arbitrary power.” Later, Bolfvar was intent on demonstrating just what enlightened despotism meant. Traveling the Bolivian highlands, he decreed new schools and highways, ordered judicial reforms, and relieved villagers of centuries-old taxes Meanwhile, the revolutio began to collapse at home, Venezuelan , rejecting the authority in Bogota, was threaten ing to secede from Gran Colombia. Bolivar appeased Paez and in 1827 returned to Bogota to resume contral But Santander had governed wisely in Bolivar’s absence, building a strong base of supporters who bexan to attack the Liberator's increasingly imperial ways In early 1828 a convention was held at Ocafia, Colombia, to resolve differences between the factions and decide on a constitution, Brusquely Bolivar told representatives that they shou swollen cade of laws” that paralyzed government an ¢ centralized rule When his delegates saw his proposed constitution threatened, they paralyzed the convention by withdrawing. In what amounted to a coup on June 13, 1828, he was proclaimed dictator by a partisan council meet ing in Bogotd. antander's supporters plotted revenge. On Septem entered the Palacio de San Carlos, where Bolivar was spending the night with Manuela Séenz. Hearing a commotion, she commanded him to swallow his pride and escape through a window, then contemptnously stared down the wauld-be assassins when th Fourteen conspirators were executed. Without any evidence of his involvement, Santander himself was sentenced te death, Bolivar granted clemency on the « » that Santander go into exile. But the collapse of Bolivar's empire became inevitable. He raced south to halt Peru’s threats to recapture Bolivia and Guayaquil. In his absence Venezuela seceded. Returning te Bogota, Bolivar called a new congress to reorganize the republic 25, 1828, they burst into the graphic, March 1004 ry 1830, ane wasted by illness and adver Pale, exhaust ned his o funeral bell r lence is the sole benefit we has ntral valle nsibl he probably had hopes that dy. Bitter There is no pl Unable to control provincial forces tearing apart the liberated continent, a fra r spent his last days in this house (below) outside Sante Marta, Colombia. “My name now belongs to history, it will do me justice,” he wrote, hefare tuberculosis him in 1830, The Wild Mix of sare a'seriou val is the biggest all, tt backgrounds ant, e, and dedicated 190 seizing the day. PHOTOGRAPHS BY DUDLEY M. BROOKS AND DAVID ALAN HARVEY FAMILY TIES ising a son can be f LIQUID ASSETS, CASH CROPS | itch oozes from the province," hotes petro- cacao, however, that ground ta forma — leumenginger Vincent first made Trinidad and greatdarklakein Pereira, Sweet crude and Tobago rich, Developed southwest Trinidad, associated natural gas as separate plantation Discovered by Sir Walter fuel one ofthe Caribbe- societies by various colo- Raleigh in 1595, it an’s strangest econo- nial powers until Britain hinted of underground — mies. Even residents ot united them in 1889, the treasure. tough neighborhoods, —_istands retain distinct “Reservoirs show the such as Laventille identities—Trinidad run- same trends.as Venezu- (right), crowding above ning at city pace, Tobage ela, atremendous oil —the capital, live better rural and relaxed. than many in the region. It was sugar and a i Tebage Pyneeth Seraph <= ae ca t TOBAGO 2 canted Bonne IB Oirefinery IML Petrochemical plant Pest srshoal TI Swamp . » we etme a ie a Atlantre a Ocean i A a eae “ama: 1,981 sq mi (Tobago L17 sq mi). roreLartor: 1.5 million (Tohaxe 50,000), CAPETAL: Port of Spain, pop, 51,000. ETHNIC NAKEUR: Est Indian 40%, African 405%, mixed 18%, white 0.6%, Chinese 0.4%, other 1% Laxcuace: English. iNDEPENDENCK: 1962 ron $3,240, 1xronr: Petroleum, petrochem- jeals, steel, sugar, cacao, manufactured. goods, processed foods, lowers. oan > 4 ime’ —a-casual gathering of f bar in Pa and Tobag hanging mah langui: he PLAY HARD, WORK HARD for.a score at Mata. cas Bay (bi Jt for VTrinidad’s Hotel though, and see more business travelers tha tourists. Oil mon ing with the sher in th: and early "BOs Trinida: Tobag height of the boom, oil brought in rent of export revenues. But falling prices have diversity Barrow, ag gricusltun beside old s! INDIAN RITES OF PASSAGE yaniand Daokie marks final tug readies Veera Ramsumait the end of mourning for for her wedding mother by having his n Charlieville. In shaved. The cool gar plantations after the Hind tradition the ater of the Ca the emancipation of n slaves in 1834 groom was not allowed rivers in tn gh many pursue his bride until late in the ceremony, cy changed today, descendants ot hose immigrants still m villag plains Ravi-l over the ofthe island, whe cane ripples acros ing acres, life move the rhythms of the March 1994 PALETTE OF PEOPLES when their ancestors nese. and Syrian immigrants 9, SOUP with many ingredient ribe people African Thougt ul from one another, they d interac hich ethnic COLLIDING CURRENTS erfect crescent beaches beneath villages uch as Charlotte ville (belo! northeastern Tabago, as far from Trinidad in spirit as you can get. Streets here carry e pedestrians t ars, Fishing nets dry ps the treadle ng machine 1 Mostly of African descent, resi sup: nt their part-tin mment jobs with plem and backyard Ifyou don't here, it’s because tury,” says Every’ gives FOREIGN LORE, LOCAL COLOR STRUTTING THEIR STUFF dn't be Trinidac EASING INTO THE NIGHT Be as een ee oe ern) extraordinary effort to crip- Pores meets snr Rue ne Force planes, coe) ee ee Peer Ding strikes. bieea Cet ae Peet eens Dr aaa How the Yanks of the Eighth Air Force helped i A KP aA i = } By THOMAS B. ALLEN Photographs by IRA BLOCK turn the tide in World War I "‘OVEMBER A BAT is afire, nearly five miles above the earth, The flight engine Staff S; a Reed, a sit yin his flying a portable ox ttle, leaves his post atthe top turret, and lurches aft along the catwalk above the bomb bay. He deactivates the bombs. Then he gropes for a handle to 21-year erank open the bay—the electric motor is out—and ses three mewhere over the farther w fut « hole ad sees carved by the gunfire an fighters. He returnsto his post, jus ind the cockpit, “How time?" uch: asks the pilot, Lt. John Steven ‘Johnny there’s no time,” Reed replies, “No time left Everything's on fire.” Get out!” the 21- ear-old pilot shouts Because the intercom can men will bail out without hearing an order. He and the tor leap through the hatch. As Reed falls, he sees Seattle Sleeper explode Johnny dicin't make it, he thinks nearly 4,000 combat aircraft that flew for the U.S. Army's Eighth Air Force when it ruled the skies over Europe during World War El ofthe s bor w fre which jut- ted toward the ( On this green fig pages 96: For a thousand days,” a local man remember: the sky was never still.” In his village of Bassing- bourn, near Cam- bridge, was the base was home to the Bombardment 7s, includ. ing Sh Bassingbourn, e the war f Royal Air Force had tile ba sidewalks, even brick houses. U.S. ed it the the Eighth, Nearly. all the air in bases vanished Christopher Columbus thumbs his: the war. But E crew in the flaming nase atder Fahrer ix the logo ofthe bourn became a Brit- wreckage. Reed hooks ea ish Army base, on his parachute and soned on the Jucketofasurriving some relics of remem: heads for the forward | ae eumamabets The ple few by one bered valor remain pe hatch ee pee eS 7 aim four huge hangars, a Usually a crew of ten = ee control tower, rem: mans B-17 Fly nants of ru Fortress. But the war Year after ye has claimed so many U. S. airmen that many crews are down to nine: pilot, copilot, naviga tor, bombard gineer, radioman, a re two had and a ball-turret gunner curled transparent ball ha: The plane quivers, hatch, sees the bu dled tail ses break away. We've lost Hank, he thi imagining the gunner trapped in the plummet ing tail. Reed, the copi bombardier, tail gunner, one waist gunner wh " een duty and peril. Half a century after the first Yanks arrived, 1 jo ied to them talk them and lis pout the days when theu- sands of young men fell from the sky Reed, back at Bassingbourn far the: since the morning ed the story of Se te eeper told me that Quilla and sh Qu n of his war, B was nearby rarely bourn and tethal on Nov The wild blue yontier above Germany turned cold, gra mber 2, 1944. As another Flying Fortress drops {ts bombs on Merscburg, the Blue Streak explodes when hit by the B-17s" nen esis—flak, exploding shells fired from antiaircraft guns. The Eighth Air Force's mission waa a high- stakes crapshoat: Precision bombing from high altitudes in daylight was-a first in aerial warfare. Britain’s Royal Air Foree bombers complemented the new strategy with nighttime barrages. The Alli struck at railways, aircraft plants, ball-bearing factories, oil depots, and power stations as they tri to-beat the German military into submission. The cast in American airmen’s lives was about 20,000, was drawing the story from his long-locked memory. First, what happened to Johnny Ste- vens, the pilot whe named his plane for his hometown, Unseen by Quilla, Johnny leaped out seconds before the explosion. Whenthe tail broke off, Hank the tail gunner had been left dangling from his seat belt. He crawled into what was left of the plane and found the wounded waist gunner lying ina puddle of icy blood. Hank gave the waist gunner a shot of morphine and told him, “Now, when you get far ¢nough out, you just pull the rip cord.” Hank rolled him out the hole in the fuselage and followed, along with the radioman Every chute opened. Every man survived Youngsters in the Dutch underground found and hid Quilla, Stevens, the bombardier, the tail gunner, and the wounded waist gunner. German patrols tracked dow’ the other crew- men and took them prisoner. Quilla became what was officially called an évadee. One long night he and:another air- man lay in the loft of a Dutch farmhouse; with them was 20-year-old Kobus Woering and his sister's husband. Below, German soldiers, searching for the airmen, beat up and carried. off Kobus's mother, his sister and her baby; they took away his father to kill him. Later in the night Kobusslipped downstairs, overpow- ered a Nazi sympathizer left to guard the house, and led the airmen to their next refuge (On the run for more than a month, they then hid far'91 days in a shed (“No bath, no soap, no change of clothes"). Moved to another refuge, they hid for several weeks more before seeking out Canadian troops, who were lib erating the area in April 1945. Someone in the Duteh underground, writing of Quilla’s exploits, called him boyish, and he still has that quality. Speaking softly, in an Alabama drawl, he somehow manages to make heroism sound ordinary. Another 91st veteran, Chasten Bowen, also hadanevadee'sstory totell. Chat bailed outof Take It Easy'on July 8, 1944, Members of the French underground found him, puta beret on , and eventually slipped him into. house THOMAS B. Aten, who often covers military sub- jects, wrote "Pearl Harbor" for the December 1991 GeogRAPHIC. He is writing a book with Norman Polmar about the planted 1945 invasion of Japan, Codename Downfall, to be published in 1995. Pho- tographer Tza BLOcK’s most recent assignment for the magazine was “Pueblo; Search for the Ancient Ones," in October 1991 96 tive sought to destroy 0 ‘military muscle and demoralize the civilian popu lation before Allied forces attempted to invade Europe. Tr'support, aircraft manufacturers scram ‘bled to produce both bombers and long-range escort fighters to penetrate deep inti the Continent. ube: Ibe boat installation ‘Shipbuilding War indistey Aleraft factory -SELECTEDEIGHTH AIR FORCE TARGETS A Gireficery ones sires Fighter tld Aeiairersft ‘battery cancenteation » Prisionero war camp Ultimate gratitude shows on Quilla Reed's face ax hugs Henrik Woering at Reed's home in Alabama. years ago, when Hendrik was a member of the Dutch undergroimd, 21-year-old Reed (rigght) parachuted into the Netherlands after his B-17 was shot down. F helped the Yank hisle from German soldiers, At theit reunion (below) Hendrile listened to his brother Kobus retell the stary for Reed’s son David, second from left, and other famity members. In the Woering farmhouse Reed and Kobus hed tain hidden while German soldiers crashed open the door, The soldiers stabbed bayonets through a false ceiling, missing Kobus by inches. Kobus later passed Reed along to others in the und und, where he spent "91 days ini the same clothes withouta bath, Pai @ aurvt and see my wife and new san. vor. Lwas going to do anything to get horn waist gunner could freez Pilots who had Jearnec B-17s in clea al Air Force rove t ed oxy ens, Capt. Michael 8, Ri Fort.” A Roman Catholic for the #1 blessings priestand a chapla stood Beside the eax it taxied for ta ed a returned, he offered hat chocolate and solace. He enlivened a Sunday Mass by as he removed of "Take it all off? hi ion Army attire. ne ended by revealing his regula: man-pray, and land it in Ls of the that pep man guns could. “Eve ud fire up a sh lap,” ome erewman t diy black confetti of fla ortress—srodning with —hadd limited ag » Little more than hope for the whert particular ’ ‘The 91st entered combat with four squad- rons, each usually flying nine B-175. Six months later, more than a third of the original planes and crews were missing. “When I got ‘there, Evers says, “a squadron was expected to put up six planes, if six could be found.” At first, an airman who completed 25 com- bat missions would go home on leave and then ‘geta ground assignment or become an instruc- tor. In 144 the mission ante was raised to 30, and later to 35. “We were expecting we'd do our 25th and be home by Christmas,” Quilla Reed remembers, “and then they made it 30, and we cried like babies.” He went down on his 26th mission, In July 1943 the Eighth launched some 330 B-17s in a highly publicized Blitz Weck. By theend ofthat week only about 200 planes sur- vived. The rest had gone down or were too damaged to fly again, About 900men from the total blitz force had been killed, wounded, or made prisoners of war. ‘Three months later, 60 bombers —including one from the 91st—were lost in a single day ‘The next day Gerald E. McDowell, a tail gun- ner, arrived in England. “As we were getting out of the plane,” he remembers, “this young fellow comes over rubbing his hands, looks at the planes, and says, ‘Boy are we glad to see these!’ " McDowell was immediately ordered to Bassingbourn as a replacement. His Hell's Beile crash-landed in Germany on his eighth mission, on December 1, 1943. McDowell's mother received a telegram that began: THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRES ‘ME TO EXPRESS HIS DEEP REGRET. . . . It said her only child was missing in action, the dreaded words that weeks or months later could be followed by “killed in action.” She learned that her son was a prigoner. Some- times, though, the next of kim got not a tele- gram but a letter from a comrade who thought he had seen.a man go down. The wife of Maj. Paul Brown, after getting three letters of con- dolence from 91st fliers, cabled him at Bas- singhourn: HEARD REPORTS OF YOUR DEATH PLEASE CABLE, The next day he replied: Liv- InGFor you. And hedid. He survived the war and stayed in what became the U. S. Air Force. Many men kept mission logs, faded and water-stuined now, the stuff of attics and for- gotten bureau drawers. One typically starts off full of impersonal wards—“bomb load, primary target, formation.” Then, suddenly, scrawled sideways on a page: “Kelly almost 102 got it here,” here being Berlin, The logs begin at Mission No. 1 and continue, mission by mis- sion (with No. 13 called No. 12B) until No. 25 of No. 30.or No. 35, the ticket home: ‘From the fog of Lt. Robert G. Abb, bom- bardier on Stormy Weather, March 4, 1943: “radio man shot in leg. ..plane on fire... copilot had right side of face shot off - » -Mavigator hit in head,” Seventy-one B-17s had aimed for Hamm, railroad gateway'to the industrial Ruhr Valley. Bad weather diverted all but the 16 planes of the 91st. They bombed Hammunder fierce attack from flak and fight- ers. As the planes turned for Bassingbourn, an explosion shot slivers of glass into the face of Stormy Weather’s pilot, Capt. George P. Bird- song, Jr. Shells knocked out the electrical sys- tem and two engines. Blind in one eye and losing altitude, Birdsong skimmed the waves, Abb's log tells how Birdsong brought them home: “no hydraulic system, no flaps, no brakes... hit runway about 135 miles per hour. . . ground looped into pile of manure.” From the log of Staff Set. Earl G. William- son, Jr., April 13, 1944; “Llooked out... and we saw one, two, three, four, five, Forts go down... .." The target was the ball-bearing plant at Schweinfurt, which the Eighth repeatedly bombed in a vain attempt to wipe outa key arms industry. Still, their relentless bombing hurt production by forcing the Ger- mans to disperse factories as a defense. Williamson's B-17, Hi Ho Silver, dropped ibs and turned for home, and he looked Fort on fire and spinning. I saw five chutes come out,... It was a square three miles of burning hell." Williamson flew his 30th mission on May 20, 1944, amazed that he still lived. “At times it seems as if the Lord just reached out and pushed us on.” SOFLE WHO LIVED around Bassing- bourn warmly welcomed the young men who descended on this quiet Jand. Farmers took the Vanks in for meals, and the Yanks gave ice cream, candy, and bananas to kids whe seldom saw such treats. Jim Buchan, who lives down the road from the base, calls up a boyhood memory: “Have a stick of gum, chum.” Jim cherishes anautograph book signed by dozens of Yanks, Yanks and RAF airmen sipped beer at the Angel, a pub in nearby Royston presided over by Doris Foster. The pub is gone, but the men ‘of the 91 st-still seek out Doris, Imet the belleof National Geographic, March 1994 to bem tcc 140 missions without an aborted flight or losing 21 engines replaced and sustaining some 600 hits from enemy fire, sfie was retired. An identical plane, built in. 1945 and given the same name, now files for enthusiasts, complete with a swastika for each downing of a German fighter by the original’s gunners. The chin turret wax added on later B-178, after enemy fighters had success with head-on strikes, The bombardier, sta~ tioned behind the plastic nose, took ol of the lead plane. as it neared the target. Upon hearing “Bombs away!” the pilot headed for home In the cockpit, tail gunner Dick Murphy, at left, reminisced with pilot John Pullen, ball-tierret gunner Sam Cipolla, and Bob Mefford, who served ‘as bombardier and navigator. Mefford feels “blessed” to have survived 25 missions, 20 of them aboard the Nine-Q-Nine. L neers and mechanics who labored in England's chill predawn, readying the plane for takeoff. “Our ground crew chief wus very good,” says Mefford, g the Forts, the Nine-O-Nine compiled an ax purarn. After hen -s depended on the engi Hi Ripper, whose crew was the bia. loaded a ph: ked out. In the predawn dark, armore with several thousand rounds munition and two or three ons af be ped in more asoline. All the B-17 T18 m office barracks reakfast heday's crews awakening At 0S00 they iron stru Re H, Friedm his first mission, ave. He has one egg for breakfast explain: doesn He picks up a flying suit. He comes buck and he asks himself, ‘Why did He thinks, ‘I didn't shave. I ha I wore this flying suit." Now on every mission he won’tshaye, he will have one egg, and he will alwe same sult until itean stand up Ona nt of the hut, a curtain hide ared cor hed to the w hrough a counterweight hind the curtain ing pears must r the weight, the more red ¢ ed across to trace a course d, the more of Germany that m sg. , 1943, the x high, Then the curtain oper the lang red cord, Torlay 378 will make what Eighth Air Force strategists cal ort. Mostof the bomber Polish other B-175, including the 91st's, ona feint toward Berlin, then turn north d to bomb an aire lant in Anklam, a n northeast Germany. The 91st's Ger in force “Tt was a suicidal mission,” says Bud who piloted one of the 11 planes tha n. “We were sending fighters. Ikwas tome, the greatest air battle of the war. Forthe i I German fighter-pilot faces. on this: Saturday mornin The ache of men without women inspired a dreamegirl mural in the mess-hall kitchen at Shipdham airfield near Thetford, England. Over Germany, thoughts turned to getting back 1 Doris Foster (below), who hefriended airmen at the Angel pub in Royston. “If we get hit and the navigation equipment goes haywire,“ they would joke, “we'll just home inon Doris’s hitt”—which she still wears. Pride and ale mixed freely at the Eagle pub in Cambridge (right). After a pint or two, ‘Yark crewmen climbed on each other's shoul- ders.and, with candles and Zippo lighters, burned inthe names of planes andl units, est night.” In four minutes the B-17s wbout 300 thousand-pound bow 0 hune peru incendiarie The wiped out the center of Anklam open th Fighter att sunner. Mor After the bombir Hotdogging in celebration, pilot John C. Bishop tuszes the control tower at Basstngbourn after bombing a constriction project in occupied France in January 1944 on his 25th mission, When Claude Putnam completed his tour four months later, the observance was a dunking in the canvuts-lined bed of atruck. “T fought like hell,” one crewman recatis of his awn immersion. “It was no fan if oct dichn't put up a fight.” For much of the war in Europe, 25 missions for the Eighth Air Force was considered the minimum tour of duty, though some volunteered to keep fly- ing instead of returning home. As the conflict wore on, a shortage of crew- men and the buildup for the Pacific affensive brought more demands, ‘bumping the minimum: to 30 missions and eventually to 33. as s except the ball-turret gun| alarm. As the incendiary bomb: flame, an hell hi ct he ball turret, which tothe exit position. The gunner, popping uy the flaming fuse alone and bourn. Hy dash an escape hat ut roup that pre- moments before the plane hits th Othe hutes open as fighters sho down 18 planes, including five from the William W. Turcotte, a nav who ped in the North Se: his 14th men wound had been hit, along with the market re L Ture And the diversion had worked: Most German fighters sweoped down on the bombers of Anklam, and few fighters attacked the other bombers. Their mission, whose targets includ- ed alargeraireraft plant, was hailed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Lt, Gen, Ira C. Eaker, commander of the Eighth, who said the raids proved that “pinpoint bombing" had “altered the course of the war.” ‘The European war went on for 19 more months. The 91st would fly 340 group mis sions, producing one of the longest continuous combat records ofany U.S, airunit in Europe In 1944 more and more long-range U. S. fight ers arrived to fly escort—Little Friends, the bomber crews called them—and ultimately the Eighth and the Royal Air Force won the battle for the sky I saw the cost of that battle on a morning in Cambridge when we all went to the American Cemetery, on the outskirts of town. Thirty nine pairsof small American and British flags scattered amid the 3,811 graves, fluttered in a cold, rainy wind. The flags marked the of men from the ist, Elsewhere, in military cemeteries or hometown graveyards, lie the bodies of the 862 other men who died while members of the 9ist during World War Id Of those who survived being shot down, 55 evaded capture and 97 became prisoners. Another 114 lived through a ditching or a crash, And 233 men are still listed as missing They have no graves. The rain flowed down the Joi Wall of ihe ammbridge asa 91st ball-turret gunner cel brating another day of life. He would stop by the Eagle pub, where U, 5, and Brit ith Zip vicemen would stand on tablesand lighters and burnt cork write smoky names on the ceiling. Sad Sack and other names of planes and men can still be read there. “You'd see a face at the Eagle one nigh Sam told me, “and then on the next night you were there, you might see the same face, and you would look at each other and give each other a little nod. It was a way of saying you h were still alive. And if you never saw a ain, well, you never knew what pened. We didn’t know names. Just faces. eon the wall wi names of the miss: ing, and T wondered how many belonged to faces that Sam had seen in the Eagle o ‘The end for Wee Willie, one of the last bomb- ‘ers lost by the 91st, came on April 8, 1945, when flak made a direct hit on a furel tank. ‘Though the copitotand eight other crewmen: were killed, the pilat managed ta bail out and survive. Some of those who gave their lives were laid to rest in a cemetery outside Cambridge. At the grave of Joe Urich, the Union Jack stunds beside an American flag holding @ wreath placed by Sam Cipatta, who snaps.a alute. “Joe was my best friend,” he says of Tait as wate Soom the man who welcomed kim at the barracks when he was a greenhorn, urging him to take On Urich’s second-to-last required mix- ion, his B-17 was struck by flak.as Cipolla, watched from the ball turret of the Nine-O- ‘Nine, flying alongside. Cipolla figures that during his tour about 600 airmen of the 91st lost their lines. Every Christmas Eve, the anniversary of his own last mission, Cipolla: raises a glass to toust Urich and the rest of the men he calts “the six hundred.” High Road to By JOHN McCARRY T PISSAN, @ ly ment 6,230 feet koram Range of northern Pakistan, a landslide st my jeep. This ancient rented vehicle is being driven by aman named Javed, whom [ hired in Gilgit te me up into Hunza. He looks.at the rocks and koram High- Sunnsep's warmitis toteches shepberdess Hamid egras at ber camp ite pasture rising to 10,500 feet —as high as grazing Tan at neariy Ultar Glacier, whose meltwater terns rocky grosend greeen with promise (rigitt). Storied for valor and diance, Huncakits ghs philosophically. The narrow road, known as the Kai or KKH, is already littered with stones. ice at Javed and detect impatience in his eyes. “Chalo, sin Urdu. “Let's go," Chalo? I repeat unsurely, but he i lv Stepping on the gas, his eyes fixed I p of the mountain, Ri ‘to the backseat, +t from th and a rock he 1 watching that’s half the size 0 my knee ntainside onte ening b od, thump clear stretch of ro revatch a modest living Look down ¢ churning frum plots traditionally waters of the Hun: ame color as passed from one.aenes the road, which is t ountain- tion te the mext: 1 wire mu the same direction: towiurd Hun About b achuse with & long been one mote regions of the subcontinent a realm jagged with glariers and 20,000-foot h peaks, ed to le world only by footpaths and a few barely serviceable ks. But in persuadi KKH throug! nit akistani government to route h central Hunza. Tt toc thin 9 decade to. finish and cost 476 works lives and uncalculated millions of dollars. In 1974 the mir stepped down, and Hunza came kistan; in 1978 he direct control of Ps hway a5 completed. The combination f events transformed Hunza We rounded another bend, water spraying rom our treadiess tires, and sucdenly the looming mountains opened and I glimpsed irrigated plots of corn. This lush oasis of green was so startling amid the lunar lundscape that Leaught my breath. Javed gunned the engine, ped toward Karimabad, the former al (map, page 120) Several days later 1 walk farmer named Dee t Ids of t The Hunzakuts remain su stenc re than a millennium, Every famil and we with a young through the of Baltit ast the food they grow on theit painfully cultivat eatyr here been a sell Deedar Aly is a member of the Buroong clan of the Burt dominant ethnic p of Hunza. Four Burusho cla: in Baitit: the Diramiting (Continue om page 122) 11 opitic, March Winter winds blasted gaping estock across the Hunsa Ri to Hussnined pe Valley. AFGHANTSTAN Ly i “a ea Ry G Mingat® Reaibar PAKISTAN

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