Eric's Beijing Diary

Visited the Stilwell museum this morning. I had asked Sanni from the youth hostel to help me find it the other day, and she mentioned that she would have the day off today, so I invited her to come with me. I didn't need a translator, because the site is all in English. But it is handy to have someone along who knows the city a bit, and can save me the trouble of figuring out all the transportation routes.

This museum is really worth seeing. But I say that because of my interest in history. If you aren't much of a history buff, perhaps you wouldn't appreciate it as much as I did. But I still think you should take a look. Most of the information at the museum appears to have been supplied by the US military. I think the main reason China allowed the US military so much latitude is because Stilwell is well known in history as a friend of China. But it's also, I think, because he couldn't stand Chiang Kai-shek, and opposed him very publicly. He wanted Chiang to fight the Japanese. Chiang, of course, wanted to spare his resources for fighting the Communists.

I hadn't realized it until we got to the museum, but there was also a display for the Flying Tigers. The Flying Tigers had their headquarters in Kunming. Not sure why they have a display here in Chongqing, but I would guess it's because Chongqing was the war time capital during the time that the Flying Tigers were fighting the Japanese in the skies over Burma.