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I first heard of President Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address when I was still a high school student in China.
It was in May 1989. Thousands of Chinese students occupied Tiananmen Square, the heart of Beijing and the most politically sensitive spot in Communist China that ordinary Chinese people could access. The student protestors demanded the ruling Communist Party give the nation democracy and freedom. They expressed their ideal government by reading a Chinese translation of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and letting the CCP know that we, the Chinese people, also desire "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Surprisingly, the government-run Central Television station broadcast the Chinese students’ reading of Lincoln’s address in its entirety, so many Chinese people who couldn’t make it to Tiananmen Square, including myself, could hear it for the first time. I’m confident I wasn’t the only one who felt those powerful words touch my soul. It was then that I decided that someday I would visit Gettysburg.
That day finally came this year. While on the east coast to attend a niece’s graduation, we made a day trip to Gettysburg. At the visitor center, we picked up a map for a self-driving tour and also downloaded an app that would provide us with information such as what troops were fighting here and the essential strategic thinking on both sides. There are 16 stops on this self-driving tour, and each has ample parking spaces so visitors can walk around to check out the landscape and various monuments.
Precisely 160 years ago, the bloodiest battle in U.S. history began in Gettysburg, PA, on July 1, 1863. It was often said that the Gettysburg battle occurred accidentally because it was a small town with only 2,400 residents and no significant military value. The only thing that made Gettysburg stand out was that it was like the center of a wheel, with many roads leading to it.
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