By Raymond Wilkinson

SHANGHAI, China(UPI)
- Mr. Yang is a wizened old
man who has played snooker
in Shanghai's venerable old
French Club for 57 years. “I
began here as a boy of 16,”
he told a visitor, expertly
sinking the black across the
immaculate green baize. “I
\ stayed with the French men
who built the club. I played
with a few Japanese officers
when they occupied
Shanghai. Now I'm playing
with Japanese again - this
time tourists.”

Yang is part of China’s
attempt to resurrect part of
its hated colonial past to
finance future moder-
nizations.

Late last year the Chinese
reopened the old French
“Cercle Sportif,” a luxurious
club of manicured gardens,
marbled halls and elegant
dining and gaming rooms to
attract tourist dollars, marks
and yen.

Plaster is peeling in some
of the elegant two-storey
high rooms (even the toilets
have carved wooden doors),
but increasing numbers of
tourists are paying a two
yuan($1.30) entrance fee to
enjoy a whiff of the past and
a little of the electronic
present.

“The drunk and those with
mental disorders are not
admitted,” says a jarring
notice to visitors as they step
into the chandeliered foyer
dominated by a Persian tile
mosiac and marble staircase.

But otherwise a staff of
135, including Yang and a
head chef who previously:
served on a French liner,
preside with quiet dignity
through the deeply carpeted
hallways.

As in the bad old days
when foreigners” ran
Shanghai, Chinese are
admitted only by invitation.
Those who do enter are high
officials or members of a
work unit. touring the
facilities.

The only modern touch in
the club — where the chalk
in the billiard room is pre-
1949 - are newly installed
electronic space games.

The electronic games exist
alongside one of the plushest
bowling alleys in the world
— a six-lane, wood-paneled
arena where the pins are
reset by one’s personal pin-
setter.

The club's reading rooms
offer issues of Time ‘und
Newsweek several months
old.The gardens include a
marble pavilion

A massive Olymptc-size
50-meter indoor swimming
pool is carefully tiled and
siflingly hot in muggy
Shanghai

The pool ts tue used but
tourists can sit above the
water at a small bar in
wicker chairs to sip) Irish
coffee and muse about the
opulence of yesteryear

A final concession to the
founst is that they can pay
foritall by credit card

Pitch-in

On January 1st, 1981,
British Columbia
will introduce the
most comprehensive
public dental care
program in Canada.
Designed to bring
basic dental services
to those who need it
most, and can afford
it least, the plan will
provide coverage for
over 900,000 British
Columbians. It'll cost $85
million the first vear, but

that’s a practical investment

in dental health care for the
people of this province, particu-
larly for the more than 400,000
children who will be covered.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

a Dependent children 14 vears of:

age and under
B® All old-age pensioners.

@® Those whose Medical Serices

Plan premaumys are pend bv the

Ministry of Human Resources,
and their dependents
@® Those who receive premiaun
assistance from the Medical
Services Plan, and their
dependents
There are no premiums to
pay. You are automatically
covered if you are in one of the
above groups and are presently

registered under the Medical
Services Plan. If you're not
registered, you should write to
Dental Care Plan of B.C., P.O.
Box 1500, Victoria, B.C.

VBW 3G86.

BENEFITS

Our new Dental Care Plan will
pay up to $700 a year per person
for basic dental services available
from general practice dentists,
and for dentures. These services
include check-ups, X-rays,
cleaning, fluoride treatment tor
children, fillings, extractions, root
canals, gum and bone treatment,
and denture repairs. Full
dentures provided by a dentist or
licenced conta mechanic will be
covered, as well as partial
dentures provided by a dentist.
The plan will also pay 100% of a
once yearly preventive care
package for children 14 years of
age and under.

OUT-OF-
PROVINCE
COVERAGE
If you are covered
by the Plan, you
will be entitled to
dental benefits in
an emergency
anywhere outside
British Columbia.
You will be reimbursed for
the amount the Plan would
have paid if the treatment had
been given in British Columbia.
More detailed information on
the Dental Care Plan will be
published prior to the intro-
duction in January, 1981.
British Cohumbia’s health care
system is among the finest in the
world... the addition of this
unique dental insurance plan
represents a major step in im-
proving that system even further.

THE DENTAL
CARE PLAN OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Province of Ministry of
WK British Columbia Health

wt Hon K. Rafe Mair, Minister.