"Two Innocents in China": Conclusion

Overall, "Two Innocents" proved to be a brilliant read. It was a tender, non-partisan view of a people rooted in tradition dealing with an entirely new regime, and the uncertain future that they faced. There was no capitalist rah-rah cheerleading, nor any of the fawning apology sometimes afforded to Mao and his ilk by certain left-wing biographers.

From a travel point of view, "Two Innocents" provides tremendous incentive to visit China, and destroys the myth that it's a dangerous, angry place where you can be arrested for sneezing too loudly. It's almost impetus enough to visit Peking (now Beijing) just to see how much it's changed since Trudeau and Hebert first set foot there. There's such an intimate connection present in this true story of discovery that any reader visiting China for the first time will probably feel as if he's revisiting a country he's travelled before, a very long time ago.