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Like China in their hands
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| VISIT: Pearline Thompson is one of the first tourists to enter post-Sars China CM2404/2 |
A 61-YEAR-OLD retired nurse, who was among the first group of European tourists to visit post-Sars China, says she was treated like “royalty”.
Pearline Thompson, of Kirkham Street, Plumstead, was part of group of eight over-50s taken on a 12-day Saga Holidays tour of China, after the World Health Organisation gave the communist country the all-clear.
Members of the group say they were treated like royalty after dining at the Great Hall of the People, on the west side of Tiananmen Square, where China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, deliberates.
Miss Thompson said: “We were the first tourists from Europe.
“We were treated like
royalty.
“A banquet at the hall was laid on for us and invitations had our names written on them.
“We were there the day before Prime Minister Tony Blair ate in the very same dining room.
“It was a real honour for all of us.”
She also stayed in the Zian hotel, in Shangrila, where she was presented with a bouquet from staff who lined up to wait for their guests to arrive.
The group also took a cruise on the River Yangtze where a brass band playing a range of music greeted them on the quayside.
Miss Thompson said: “They were so glad to see us because the lack of tourism put a big dent in their whole economy.”
11:58am Tuesday 12th August 2003
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