1989 quake jolted sense of what makes US tick

My first stop to the United States was San Francisco. It was Oct 17, 1986, exactly three years before the Loma Prieta earthquake.

"The nation of the beautiful", as America is spelled out in Chinese, did not jibe with my expectations. I imagined flying to a canyon of concrete and steel with one high-rise after another. But instead of a landscape of Manhattans, I was greeted with a rolling vista of low-rises or wilderness.

It was a big letdown. "This is not the America I saw on TV! This is just like the countryside!" I thought to myself. Years later, I found many of my countrymen shared my first impression. We just did not vocalize it for fear of appearing boorish.