Move over Marco Polo, this blogging monk beat you to it

A small group of excited foreigners are itching to start their adventures but first have to overcome the Middle Kingdom's age-old visa hurdle.

Chinese authorities make the visitors wait before issuing the proper paper work, and finally, after a frustrating thumb twiddling wait, their visas are issued.

Ah yes, the need for an expat to have the all-important paperwork hasn't changed in China much in 1,200 years.

Considering the Chinese invented paper, I suppose it's understandable they make a big deal about it.

The AD 838 traveling party was a Japanese ambassadorial mission and a member of the group, a Buddhist monk by the name of Ennin, wrote a detailed dairy of his nine-year sojourn.

It was the first foreigner's travel blog of China and its people and was written about 400 years before Marco Polo set his eyes on Kublai Khan's princely pleasure dome.

The group landed during the glory days of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), which is considered the peak of Chinese civilization.

The economy, politics, culture and military strength had reached dizzying levels and China was the most powerful and prosperous country in the world.

Good old Confucius said to understand history was to divine the future and if the grand master was around today, he could see similarities between the Tang Dynasty and People's Republic of China.

During the Tang times there were large numbers of foreigners flowing through the land, buying and selling and exchanging ideas just as there are today. And there were a lot more bloggers like Ennin.

The Tang Dynasty's capital was Chang An, or today's Xi'an, and at the time, it was the world's biggest city teeming with more than 1 million people. About 12 percent - that's 120,000 people - were expats.

Ennin was in the thick of it and his four-scroll diary, The Record of a Pilgrimage to Tang China in Search of the Law, documents his sojourn. It goes into all the daily details, especially all the paperwork.

Back in those times, Ennin said monks even needed the proper paper work to carry a simple shaving blade. This regulation sounds absurd today, but during the Tang Dynasty, monks did not have to pay taxes, so the authorities didn't want every Tong, Ding and HeRi shaving their heads and claiming exemption.

History has taught me the taxman always wins.

Ennin's diary has become the fascination of American Virginia Stibbs Anami, who pieced together the monk's path over the past 25 years. She has written a very interesting picture book about her experience, Following in the Footsteps of Monk Ennin.

Virginia has an interesting history herself having been born an American in 1944 but becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1970. She has lived in Beijing three times with her diplomat husband, Ambassador Koreshige Anami and was able to pursue this terrific project.

She visited every sacred site mentioned in the monk's diary, photographing the same scenes Ennin probably had seen and talked to local people about this mysterious monk.

Today's China is enjoying another peak in its long history and the coolest thing about this recent rise for expats like you and me, is we are here to watch it unfold.

I love history because I like people. We are such horrible and wonderful creatures and our nature hasn't changed much over the millennia.

Endless battles between love and hate, constant struggles between right and wrong and war is always rumbling in the distance. Always.

At the same time, there is always a cool human endeavor shining its light among the chaos.

I'm naturally attracted to these flickering flames of hope as I wander down the alleyways of human experience.

That's why I live in China because there are so many alleys, roads, valleys, mountains and wide lands to explore.

As Virginia has shown us expats, there are also so many stimulating projects to start.

(China Daily 05/11/2009 page9)