For two western women arriving from California via Hong Kong in 1984, China was a sea of BLUE Mao suits. Would you risk your life in an unknown 'communist' territory with only a dictionary, map, and a flimsy guidebook? In 1972 President Nixon reopened diplomatic relations for Americans with Mainland China, but not until 1982 were any visitors allowed to enter on their own.

These travelers were an odd couple, a 24-year-old university graduate and the mother of her friend. Ride along the trains, buses, and rickety planes with these adventurous women.

Discover the Chinese people when life was simple, and before China was on the precipice of becoming a superpower. This story began 40 years ago in Hong Kong when I was 24 and innocently careless, with a blank diary tucked away in my backpack along with my new Canon camera.

Sifting through the stream of babble from those pages of my diary (that comes with excitement on the road) along with photos, I pieced together my hilarious journey in China in the ominous year of 1984. Mind you, I had been vaguely acquainted with G.

Orwell's 'Big Brother' in his novel called 1984, but China had its own peculiar perspective on society post Mao. .