Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Hello again,
This is the continuation of our epic journey in China.
The last leg of our journey before reaching Fenghuang was a one-hour bus ride. It was during this jaunt that our luck really improved. We loaded onto an already packed bus and were ready to pull out of the station when a young lady signalled that she wanted to get on. I squeezed over to make some room, smiled, and gestured for her to sit down. She got on the bus and off we went. Sitting shoulder to shoulder, she and I began to chat. It was a relief to finally speak English with someone. The gal's name was Lily and our chance encounter with her was what turned our week around. She explained that she thought I was very kind to offer her a seat and in exhange she generously offered to guide us through the town, offered us a room and an excellent fireside meal in her grandparents' house. In her opinion, Greg and I were very romantic and brave to be travelling alone in a foreign country when we don't speak the language. I suppose that's one way to put it...The kindness shown to
us by Lily and her family really typifies what is beautiful about China.
In alot of ways this country is very unforgiving but overall, the kindest and most helpful people we have met in the last three months are Chinese. Come to think of it, China is really a paradox. The terraced rice fields and rugged mountains are breathtaking, but the towns that dot the country side are cold, rundown and poor. The people are pushy and loud and spit EVERYWHERE, but the everpresent military and police maintain contstant obedience and order. Overall, it's a little unerving to travel in this country. But, we've found that by smiling alot and staying patient, we've muddled our way through. With all that in mind, staying in Fenghuang and having Lily's hospitality showed us a softer and friendlier side of China.
Fenghuang is considered a popular tourist town for the Chinese, but during our 4-day stay we saw only two other foreigners. Local people looked at us everywhere we went. Teenagers wanted to have their pictures taken with us and whenever we walked down the street people passing by would try out their English with "Hello" followed by reams of giggling
or rapid chinese yelling to their friends. The people in the town were genuinely friendly and we had a lot of fun saying "hello" back and following up with "how are you?". This got the locals pretty excited. They would often pause and then blurt out "I am fine, and you?". After this there would be more giggling or a look of embarassment and happiness. Our little conversations were a highlight of our stay.
On our first day and evening, we explored the town with Lily. The town is about 2000 years old, it is fortified with a stone wall and a river runs through the centre of the town. Old stone houses have been built on stilts and border both sides of the river. At night many of the buildings are lit up and the ambiance is enchanting. In the evening, we returned to the river and bought a cardboard boat adorned with paper flowers and candles. Following the custom, we lit the candles and released the boat into the river. It was a nice thought but you can see from the pictures that our fire got a LITTLE out of control 😊
The highlight of our
first night was visiting the Little Star English School where Lily's Auntie teaches. Greg and I were invited to talk with the kids and help them practice English. Most kids were about 6 to 8 years old. The kids were really excited. For the first 10 minutes they ran around screaming or hid behind their friends. Greg and I had a lot of fun asking them simple questions. It turns out that we were the first foreigners they had ever met! Lily's auntie wanted to thank us and so she took us out for a big BBQ! It was delicious and the ambiance couldn't be beat! We sat in a tent made of plastic tarps and huddled around a small plastic table and sat on tiny plastic chairs. (The Chinese seem to have a habit of sitting on chairs that would fit a 3 year old.) Beneath the table was a little coal fire pit and the table cloth was actually a quilt that is long enough to fit your legs under. The whole experience was really cozy and fun. Greg and I drank Chinese beer (each beer bottle is about 1 L) and ate until we were stuffed!
There's no escaping it, Fenghuang was cold! The night we spent in Lily's grandparents house was like camping in April. Their house is many generations old. It's layed out with an open courtyard in the middle bordered by a series of rooms. None of the rooms are heated or insulated. The only source of heat is a small coal fire in the middle courtyard. The custom in China is to work when you have to and then spend the rest of your time huddled around the tiny fire. Temperatures were only about -6, but because we weren't acclimated to the winter weather yet and only had tropical weather clothes, we felt really cold. After a cold day and a cold night, our goal for day two in Fenghuang was to warm up! We spent the next day searching for coats, gloves and toques! Once we had taken care of those bare necessities we thanked Lily and her grandparents for their hospitality and booked ourselves into a hotel with a heated room! The rest of day two was spent taking refuge in our room and enjoying the warmth.
On day three, it was back to the school. This time we
actually taught the class. We sang songs like "Row Row Row Your Boat", played London Bridges Falling Down and used flash cards to ask the kids questions like "what is this animal?". The kids performed plays for us like "Jack and the Beanstock". It was really fun. The only weird part was that the local TV news station had a guy filming us. The teacher also asked us to give interviews for the local news. Greg and I obliged and just made sure that we didn't say anything that could land us in jail!
Well that about sums up the trip to Fenghuang. We're in Beijing now and will send you more news about the last few days really soon.
Love to everyone,
Shannon and Greg.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0567s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Barb Blokzyl
non-member comment
Fun!
I agree with Lily, you are brave and romantic......but that's how you end up with fantastic experiences like this.......go Team Miller!