The true essence of humankind is kindness
There are other qualities which come from
education or knowledge, but it is essential,
if one wishes to be a genuine human being and
impart satisfying meaning to one's existence,
to have a good heart.
Our English speaking Chinese guides all had big hearts. We had lots of questions and often blubbered about our need for the toilet, or WC, often interrupting a tour. Honestly, our hearts skipped a beat and I breathed a prayer of gratitude when we got off the plane in Beijing and saw a person holding a sign with Christine's name on it! It's the only way to travel in a foreign country!
Mona met us in LiJiang. She told us about her minority group, the Naxi, and their religious beliefs. Her husband acts as the leader of their village and we surmised that her family lived more comfortably than most people in her village.
Howard and this driver stayed with us for the next week. Howard learned to speak English with a British accent. He easily shared Chinese history and not always agreeing with the government practices. He believes the country is a hybrid of communist/capitalist policies. They first drove us to view one of the largest caves in the world. The addition of colored lights made it a magical sight to see.
Bamboo flute making and Cotton cloth weaving;
Rice drying and indigio cloth dyeing.
education or knowledge, but it is essential,
if one wishes to be a genuine human being and
impart satisfying meaning to one's existence,
to have a good heart.
Our English speaking Chinese guides all had big hearts. We had lots of questions and often blubbered about our need for the toilet, or WC, often interrupting a tour. Honestly, our hearts skipped a beat and I breathed a prayer of gratitude when we got off the plane in Beijing and saw a person holding a sign with Christine's name on it! It's the only way to travel in a foreign country!
Rebecca guided us to all the tourist spots around Beijing..Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Imperial City, and then the Great Wall of China. We were most curious about the 1989 student uprising that made big news in the United States. She seemed cautious about sharing any negative information about the government, but we did learn that students were protesting the corruption exposed in the government. She proudly showed us pictures of Mao Ste-Tung, the Chairman (1949-1976) Chinese people worshipped as a hero who changed the fate of their nation.
Rebecca squirmed with delight when we boarded this cable car that took us to the Great Wall. The English words say, "Michelle Obama rode this car to climb the Great Wall on March 23, 2014.
Sunny, another big-hearted young woman, met us after a bullet train ride from Beijing to Xi-An. She rattled off lots of information while we toured the city and the site of the Terra Cotta Warriors. She also seemed reluctant to reveal anything personal about her life or attitude about the government. I'd say her heart belonged to China, the Chairman, and government policies.
Mona met us in LiJiang. She told us about her minority group, the Naxi, and their religious beliefs. Her husband acts as the leader of their village and we surmised that her family lived more comfortably than most people in her village. 
Sandy shared his big heart with us relating story after story of his childhood in a poor Naxi minority village. He told us he was eight years old before he wore any kind of shoes. He walked two hours to school every day, over rocky roads, big pits and puddles of mud. When he was eight the teacher told the children that generous people were coming to tour the school and it was important to impress these people so all the children would have to wear shoes. His family had no money to buy shoes, so his mother bought a sole and sewed scraps of old trousers on the sole to make a shoe. He cried because the shoes were so uncomfortable. He finally got real shoes when he was 10 years old. When he first attended school he realized he was smaller and could not run and walk as fast as his classmates. His mother then told him that they were so poor when she was pregnant and she did not have enough nutritious food to eat so he was born tiny and small. Then she did not have enough breast milk for him so she took him to another woman in town to be nursed so he would have more to eat than thin rice soup. He realized he would never have the resources to get the best education in China, so he began to teach himself English. He read Harry Potter over and over and watched Jurassic Park movies. He put stones in his mouth in order to get the English sounds right. His father moved to Laos to work carrying huge stones, in order to earn enough money so Sandy could go to college. That hard work ruined his Dad's health and he suffers many ailments because of those years of strenuous labor. He expressed concern now that he will not find a wife because most Chinese women want to marry a man with money, or at least the potential to be successful. Sandy applied many times for various teaching positions but believes he's denied interviews because he has no connections. We encouraged him to write his stories and were not surprised when he told us he had a dream of writing a book. Karen gave him a special thank you note, some extra cash, and encouraging words to follow his dream. His genuine spirit of kindness and vulnerability inspired me, more than any of the other guides, to recognize the goodness in others, especially those much different from me.
The rain and low clouds prohibited us from riding a cable car to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, so we drove to Blue Moon Valley and watched an impressive outdoor show in the pouring rain.
We were quite impressed by the gorgeous color of the water!
We met Tenzin when the driver began the long ride to Shangri-La. He usually wore this orange jacket because he had a Tatoo on his left arm that read, "Free Tibet." He proudly wears the Buddhist prayer beads around his neck. He demonstrated how he prays and the meaning of the number of beads. We toured a lot of temples and saw the largest prayer wheel in the world. He has only one child, but is also responsible for his nephew since his brother-in-law died. He seemed embarrassed when we asked him what might happen if his sister remarried. He told us he would never ask her such an intimate question.
Johnnie, from a local Bai minority group, welcomed us to Dali and before we left this lovely city he invited us to his home for tea. He lives with his parents, which he admitted, cause conflict between he and his wife. It's typical in China for the sons to care for their aging parents. He showed us the chair where his Mom (whom he referred to as Mommee) sits every evening, staring at the land line telephone, anticipating a call from her other children. Every guide we encountered spoke tenderly about the "olders." It's impressive that they lovingly accept their responsibility to care for their parents, who often live with them. Most of these grandparents help raise the children, so the parents can work and frequently be out of town. Our guides seem quite content with the "one child" government policy because it's just too expensive to have two children, although now the government allows it.
Johnnie led us to the only Catholic Church we ever saw in China. He told us we'd have to tour it on our own because he was forbidden to enter the Church. His mother told him the priests lured potential converts to the church years ago by feeding them lunch. The church has about 800 members now.
We spent all afternoon touring the Three Pagodas. Most temples were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but the pagodas survived because they were not places of worship, just places to "walk around."
Jack met us after we flew to Kunming, the capital city of the Yunnan province. Jack told lots of stories and expressed positive comments about the USA, particularly how our country helps other countries and poor people. He told us about the big push for development since we noticed the construction of buildings, roads, and bridges everywhere we traveled. I found myself being quite critical of their construction and building practices, but he said, "there are lots of ways to develop a country, the USA has their way and we have our way and they are not at all the same." We learned later that the government owns all the land, the banks, the tourist attractions. So, there must be no permit system or environmental impact studies! Tears came to our eyes when he talked about sleeping with his paternal grandmother as a child, then continued to share a room with her as a teenager. We watched his eyes fill with tears when he told us his grandmother died while he was in college and his father never told him until he came home for vacation.
We spent an incredible day at the Stone Forest, a famous World Heritage Site. We were quite tickled when a group of Muslim tourists insisted on having their pictures taken with us!
We felt like we were invading a private, personal space when we entered Sani, a village of Xi people. Firecrackers and music blared as we tried to get out of the way of a funeral procession.
Next we drove to Luoxiagon Valley to veiw the sunset in the Dongchuan Redlands. We were grateful for the evening sun because the Redlands were immersed in fog the next morning when we'd planned to view a stunning sunrise.
We walked around Kunming's Green Lake Park in the morning and watched several groups of people dancing and/or doing Tai Chi. In the evening Karen and I walked back over there and found a Starbucks and we had a ham and "plastic cheese" Croissant for dinner. Gosh, it tasted mighty good.
Howard and this driver took us to several minority villages in the Ghizhou province. We met Dong and Miao people, tasted their home made wine, and observed many primitive practices.
Bamboo flute making and Cotton cloth weaving;Rice drying and indigio cloth dyeing.
Coffin Building
Rice thrashing
Corn Shucking
Dong women dancing and offering wine
Howard told Karen there were no cakes in China every time she reminded him that it was my birthday. We believed him because we'd not had one pastry treat for three weeks! But then he surprised us with this amazing creation and we had a lovely birthday celebration with wine and candles! Howard often showed us big-hearted kindness, but this event took the cake so to speak.
Amy guided us for the four days we were in the Danian Village. She left her small child with her mother while she worked as a tour guide. We learned that her heart hurt because of poor environmental practices. She cried telling us about the government ruining the forests causing subsequent erosion of hundreds of hillsides. She said, "the village leaders allow these practices without any sense of protection for the land." We spent a lot of time outdoors during our stay in Danian - trekking through the rice fields and hiking from village to village and eating lunches prepared by the Miao village women.
These women sang songs of welcome and offered us their homemade wine to drink - an amazing gesture from strangers we just met!
This precious cook made crepes for us everyday and fresh tomato and cucumber salads!
Emily and this driver spent the last four days in Guangxi with us! She spent hours on the phone confirming our airline reservations back home. And we were grateful for her kindness because one flight left two hours earlier than we'd planned. Emily told us a lot about her family, a child and mechanical engineer husband who works in a big city. She said, "oh, it's better that we only see each other twice a month because our limited time together is always happy." She lives in a condo in Guilin City with her mother who provides all the child care and cooking. Emily also revealed that she (and most Chinese people) do not care for sugar, sweets, or chocolate. "Sometimes I eat rice porridge and rice bread for breakfast, because I want plain food and no taste." She also told us that when they bought their condo, they financed only the outside walls. They had to save extra money in order to "decorate" it with plumbing, wiring, walls, fixtures, and paint. She seemed proud that they could do the design and hire their own workers to finish the inside.
Li River scenery
It was quite fun to have a bike ride on a nice road with no traffic along the Yulong River
Overnight stay in Yangshuo and the gorgeous sunset!
I need to make my final comments about these genuine, big-hearted, kind people. Kelly, the travel agent for Yuunan Adventure Travel and Christine, the trip designer. Christine worked in San Francisco, after immigrating to the US in the 1960's, with several Chinese co-workers doing medical research. That experience sparked her desire to travel to China, visit minority villages, and learn about Chinese history and current culture. She borrowed ideas from her brother who travelled to China in the spring of 2015. Christine spent hundreds of hours searching, planning, E-Mailing and communicating with Kelly. Plans changed because of an earthquake near Chengdu and some flights were cancelled or changed. All their hard work enabled me to have an incredible cultural experience that expanded my understanding of another culture. My heart expanded to recognize the goodness in minority people and their primitive ways of living. I am forever grateful to Christine and Kelly!
These colors remind me of the variety of experience, the depth of the culture, and the joy pouring into my heart! Thank you to my genuine human being travel partners for expanding my heart!
No comments:
Post a Comment