Quest of a simple woman from the countryside

"Now I am seeing the world I could only see on TV in the past."

Those are the words of my wife's mother. It's tourist season - and my wife's parents are currently visiting Beijing. They are from a small village in Inner Mongolia, and this is the first time her mother has ever traveled out of the autonomous region.

Coming to Beijing is, for her, like traveling from one world to another. For one thing, it's the first time she ever traveled by train or entered a building more than seven stories high. It's a great adventure in which many things seen only on TV have now come vividly alive.