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2000s: An American boy and a Chinese boy meet and train with Beijing’s Junior National Tennis Team.
Beautiful Country
What you need to know before your trail
A coming-of-age story set in modern day China centering on the friendship between an American and a Chinese boy who meet while training with Beijing’s Junior National Tennis Team.
Chase joins the practices of the Beijing National Junior Tennis Team and is immersed in the brutal, cut-throat world of Chinese sport. It is a world in which gifted children are selected at the ages of six or seven for specialized sport schools where they devote their entire youth to the pursuit of athletic excellence and are paid as professionals by the state
Travel Guide
Bejing
An American boy coming to play tennis in Bejing comes in for a lot of surprises. He discovers a country in transition; where Communist Era state control and an emerging entrepreneurial culture exist in paradox.
Tennis is very different here – it is a brutal, cut-throat world. Gifted children are selected at the ages of six or seven for specialized sport schools where they devote their entire youth to being the best they can and they are expected to excel. By their parents, and especially the state since the government pay for them to train and live.The only way to succeed is to fit to the death to be the best you can be and if your best is not good enough, then sometimes you have to do whatever it takes – right or wrong. This is a harsh world and for a foreigner used to playing tennis elsewhere, it’s a completely new and alien way of doing things.
This is quite the culture shock and a contrast in the world of sport to which Chase is used to.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Beautiful Country
Author/Guide: J R Thornton Destination: Beijing Departure Time: 2000s
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