Last Days of Old Beijing

I read the first page of Michael Meyer's book on Beijing--The Last Days of Old Beijing--and am blown away. It is a vivid description of an old lady in the building where he lives bringing him soup. It is the details, I guess, that are the things that stand out. One can see the woman, the neighborhood as a result of this description. Also one senses the authenticity of the experience being reported, as it is clear that this guy was seen as one of the Chinese he lived among and not an outsider. My book and experience fails on both points. My prose is lost in abstractions, bereft of specifics. And I was always an outsider, never mastered even the basics of the language. If I had the chance right now, I would burn the manuscript.