Chinese visitors fascinated with Spur Cross, Buffalo Chip
By Curtis Riggs | October 8, 2008
CAVE CREEK – A unique group of visitors fell in love with Spur Cross Ranch, the Buffalo Chip and the rest of the community last week.
Six attorneys from the People’s Republic of China and two interpreters stopped by to take in the Spur Cross vistas and sample the Buffalo Chip’s barbecue on their trip to Cave Creek. They were in the country to participate in the U.S. State Department’s International Leadership Program. They came to Cave Creek to explore the structure and processes of the legal system in an American small town. The trip was part of their Law and the Public Interest project, which took them to Washington, D.C., Arizona and five other states.
Liu Xinghong, a Beijing attorney who specializes in corporate law who has also taken on several public-interest cases, enjoyed the landscape and desert plants she saw around Cave Creek.
“In China the desert is very flat,” she said, adding she liked the mountains being close to the community. “It’s been the most interesting place on the trip.”
The Chinese showed how much they enjoyed Cave Creek’s laidback Western lifestyle by taking off their suits and ties as soon as they got to town. While at the Buffalo Chip, they liked to toast with each other and their new Cave Creek friends saying “Cambay” with each toast.
“I love this place,” said one of the visiting attorneys who left town wearing a cowboy hat. “I don’t like tall skyscrapers. They make me nervous.”
While the attorneys seemed to have gotten the same impressions of Cave Creek and the United States there was some disagreement about the best places to visit in their homeland.
“Beijing is not a fun place,” said one of the attorneys who hailed from Manchuria. “The most fun is in the northern cities.”
“The Russians helped us at one time in our history, but now we feel closer to our American brothers,” he said, when asked about China’s relationship with their closest neighbor, Russia.
They pointed out the National People’s Congress elects lawyers to office in China.
“We hope to have a more democratic government,” one of the attorneys said, quickly adding that if more democracy takes hold in China it will be up to the ruling government.
Cave Creek Town Councilman Dick Esser said the visiting attorneys were friendlier than he expected them to be. “They liked the friendliness of Cave Creek as opposed to other areas they visited. They got to take their suits off when they got to Cave Creek.”
Photo by Curtis Riggs