Monday, 15 February

Eleventh day of the first lunar month

The weather was still bad, therefore I decided to travel by train. The hotel servant said that she had just graduated from High School, and would soon go to university. She was about l8 or l9 years old, with a good figure, and her work was very good. In our country, a university student was absolutely not willing to become a servant. Even people like B.O. Rosa who worked in the Government office as an employee did not receive good comments from her peers. The academic atmosphere of our country and the bad concept of class regarding young people should be thoroughly reformed. At 5.30 in the afternoon, after dinner I went to the Chinese Consulate for a rest. Consul Zhao invited me to a late-night supper. Then I went to the railway station and the Mayor of Alma-Ata and the Diplomatic Envoy came to the station to see me off. We had a wagon lit-sleeper and also a restaurant car. It was quite comfortable. We did not depart until 1.00 a.m. The Soviet Union Government sent two bodyguards to escort me.