Saturday, 8 March

Fine

In the morning, I went out to withdraw cash from the bank. Then I went to the Chinese Embassy.

At half past eleven I went to the British Embassy to collect the visas, but the procedure was not completed until twelve. Nevertheless, the various travel agencies were off in the afternoon, therefore I had no choice and had to go to Northern Station directly to buy tickets. But after buying the tickets the department store selling night gowns had closed. It was not until half past one that I returned to the Chinese Embassy for lunch. After lunch, I talked with Mr. Jimmy Wei with regard to the situation in Taipei. According to him, the Reconstruction Committee is not as powerful as Shen Changhuan had claimed. He also said that Chiang was as impetuous as before and he always lost his temper easily. Chiang also behaved like this before the American representatives. As for veterans, they had no access to politics, and also they were quite old and weak now. We talked about Jiang Jingguo. He also advocated that Jiang should pay a visit to Europe.

At three I went to the Northern Station to buy tickets again. Then I returned to hotel to take a rest.  At seven we went to the Shanglong restaurant. We met Chen Heng there. He insisted on paying for us. Then we went to a coffee shop to listen to a music performance together. We left at half past ten to walk back to the hotel, and reached the hotel at half past eleven.

I informed Zhongxiong by phone. Mrs.Tan said that he had gone to the countryside and would be back in two or three days.