I had the good fortune this summer to be awarded a Wilson Language Grant to travel in China. The experience was incredible, filled with new Chinese and American friends, interesting food, opportunities to practice Chinese, and the chance to see a beautiful new country. Allow me to take you through my journey.
June 28th - July 8th: The Beginning
Our first day in China. Visiting the Olympic Park.
We arrived in Beijing on June 28th after two days of traveling. I met the rest of my group in LAX. We were 12 Americans ready to explore China together. The action began immediately, as we drove directly from the airport to the Olympic Park in Beijing. Over the next several days, we saw several major sites in Beijing, from Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City to the Bell and Drum Towers that were once used to tell time in the city. It was in Beijing where I first began practicing my Chinese, whether in a scavenger hunt in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City or a corner store to buy snacks. One day we went to the Hutong District, a neighborhood of centuries old houses, narrow streets, and good bargains. I bought my first souvenir here, a map of 1930's Beijing. Another night we went to the oldest roast duck restaurant in the city. I was hesitant to try duck, but decided that I better get used to new food. Duck tastes basically like chicken. Our last day in Beijing was spent traveling to the Great Wall. It's the steepest thing I have ever climbed. In some places, the stairs approach a 90 degree angle from the ground. As great as this was, we couldn't stay in Beijing forever. Beijing was only our orientation for the rest of the journey.
Top: Hayden blending into the patriotism in a shopping district near our hotel in Beijing. Bottom: Myself with a guard outside the Forbidden City.
We traveled from Beijing to Luoyang by train. The small town of several million offered American outlets to shop at. The Nike stores in China are exactly like those in the states, with better prices. While staying in the city, we saw man-made grottoes filled with Buddha statues, practiced the art of paper cutting, walked through the old district of town, and had the best sweet and sour chicken of our journey. On our second day, we traveled to the Shaolin Temple. Incense and monks were everywhere, just as you would expect.
Top: The wall surrounding the old district in Luoyang. Bottom: Me with the Terracotta Army Warriors.
After Luoyang, we took another long train ride to Xian, a city of eight million. We saw the Terracotta Army Warriors on our first day. There were archers, infantry, cavalry, chariots, and even generals sculpted. We also stopped by a Chinese school to practice our language skills later in the day. The next day, we went to a museum in Xian before stopping by the Muslim Quarter of the city, where the markets wind through narrow, shaded streets. I bought my first fake rolex here with my Chinese bargaining skills. We left Xian the next day by plane to Guiyang, excited to meet our Chinese students.
July 9th - 15th: Urban Homestay
My family during the urban homestay.
I met my host sibling in a ceremony at an English school in Guiyang. I had expected a host brother, but since some students were taking exams, my host had had to drop out. I received a twelve-year-old host sister whose English name was Amanda. She was the only child of my new Chinese family. We spent our first afternoon together shopping for raw meat at a market to cook for dinner. Once at their small apartment, I watched Amanda go on her QQ account - the Chinese equivalent to Facebook - and let her show me her favorite American music - Michael Jackson and the Backstreet Boys.
Top: Downtown Guiyang, the site of my urban homestay. Bottom: Me at a rice paddy near Guiyang.
I spent the next several days traveling by day with the group and our host siblings, and returning to my family at night. One morning before we met the group, my family took me to play badminton, a Chinese favorite. Our group went to a popular park in the city, and walked around while monkeys grabbed water bottles from our hands. The next day, the group traveled to the town where Mao had taken control of the PLA. We spent the day hanging out in the city and seeing the small preserved building where China's history had been so greatly shaped. After dinner, I became violently ill. I was unable to hold down food, and spent the next day sleeping. My host family took care of me like I was their real son, and I was lucky to have people who were clearly concerned and wanted to help. When I finally rejoined the group, we went from Guiyang to a small village to see rural China. Rice patties extend forever. Our final day of the urban homestay was spent walking around Guiyang. We went to Walmart, a park, a swimming pool, and a local Chinese pizza shop for dinner. The next day, July 15th, we departed, along with our host siblings, who would come with us, for the rural homestay. We spent the night in a hotel in the town of Kaili, and intended to head out in the morning for a small village to live for the next five days.
July 16th - 20th: Rural Homestay
The view from the chief's house in the rural homestay.
We spent the morning driving to our village. We had to hike 30 minutes to our houses on top of a mountain. The village was incredible, nestled in mountains terraced by rice patties. The village was a Miao village, inhabited by the Miao minority group. It spanned the side of a mountain with shops towards the bottom, by a river, and houses towards the top. I met my host mother in the afternoon. She was a grandmother, and the grandson was a two year old who wandered around our house. We had our first dinner in the village as a group in the chief's house, and then returned to our own houses to sleep with the insects that are attracted to the light bulb in our room.
Moving counter clockwise: Sunset from the chief's house. A view from a rice patty. Our departure feast. A view of our village from another mountain peak. My host mother and her grandchild. Me harvesting crops for my host family.
We spent the next few days climbing rice patties. Once, we had to navigate up a peak to plow a plot of land with a cow. That same day, we went basket-fishing, throwing open-ended baskets over fish in a pond and then capturing them with our hands. I caught two, and my host mother cooked them for us for lunch half an hour later. One day in the village we practiced lusheng pipes, local wooden instruments that make a shrill sound when novices blow into them. Another day we went out of the village to an embroidery museum to see how the Miao people make their extravagant clothes that they wear on special occasions. That night, back at the village, we walked up to the edge of a rice patty overlooking a huge valley to watch the sunset, and ended up staying for hours talking, watching the Milky Way move across the sky, looking for shooting stars, and observing the moon rise. The next day we left the village to see another town where lusheng pipes are made. We also went hiking in a valley filled with huge waterfalls. We returned to the village to a huge feast at the chief's house. It was our departure feast. The five days had gone quickly. We had three long tables of food and two buckets of rice. It was more food than I had ever seen at any one meal in my life. The next day, we left the village early in the morning. We visited a paper making shop in another Miao town and had lunch after we had attempted to strain sheets of paper from pulp. Afterwards, we saw a performance by the Miao people at a third village. We returned to Kaili to spend the night at the same hotel we had stayed in before our rural homestay.
A video of myself catching a carp while basket-fishing.
July 21st - 28th: The End
The turquoise waters in the Guizhou Province.
We spent the next two days traveling. The 21st was spent traveling five hours by bus to a small town with one hotel. 30 minutes from the town was a river that ran turquoise, and a waterfall that we stood near to be cooled by the mist. We returned to the hotel at night to have a farewell dinner, for our host siblings, who had accompanied us to the rural village, were returning home to Guiyang the next morning. After the dinner, we went karaoke-ing, a popular pastime in China. The next day was spent in a bus for eight hours without air conditioning. This was almost as bad for me as being sick in Guiyang had been. Outside, it was over 100 degrees. The views of towering peaks around the highway almost made up for the ride, though. We finally made it to Yangshuo, a tourist town on the Li River, a river that has carved thousands of peaks into the landscape of the region. We spent the evening shopping in town and eating at KFC.
Top: The Li River from a bridge in Yangshuo. Bottom: The Li River from our boat tour.
The next two days were spent in Yangshuo. We floated down the Li River on a big boat with panoramic windows to see the view. We biked to mud caves, caves that had mud pits inside that we could sit in to float and relax. The caves also had hot springs to wash off in. We also biked to a spot on the river where we could float on bamboo rafts. We ate Chinese and American food, because the town was a backpacker town with food from all over. We bargained in the streets. Our last night was spent watching a light show on the river that uses 12 lit-up mountain peaks as the background for the show. After the show, we packed for Shanghai.
Shanghai at day and at night. Taken from the Bund, a district across the river from downtown Shanghai.
We left the next morning, flying from an airport near Yangshuo to to the Shanghai airport. We spent our first night in Shanghai, July 25th, resting and exploring the area around our hotel. The next morning we woke up early to see Shanghai's skyline from the Bund, an historic district across the river from modern Shanghai. We also went to a district to shop, where I bought silk, tea, and even real pearls as gifts for home. The next day was our last full day in China. We went on the subway around Shanghai to go shopping, see the city, and practice Chinese. We had our last authentic Chinese dinner, a meal with lots of sweet and sour chicken (a group favorite), rice, beef, green beans, Chinese popped corn, fish, and anything else we wanted. We then went to see Shanghai at night from the Bund, and then returned to the hotel to stay up all night so that we could sleep on the plane and fight jet lag.
Leaving Hong Kong. Goodbye China.
At five in the morning, after staying up all night, we left for the Shanghai airport. Shanghai to Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Denver to Nashville. We watched the sun set over the Pacific in the plane, and arrived back in Nashville after two days of traveling. Our journey had ended quickly. I felt more homesick for China than I had for America while overseas. I have come back with a better understanding of the country. China is a land of contrast to me. We saw highrises everywhere, rising above the small shops and towns and poverty of old China. I got sick for two days from bad dumplings, but good sweet and sour chicken got me through my trip. The language still confuses me, yet I found it invaluable traveling through the country. But no matter what I was doing in China, I loved all of it. I would like to thank Mr. Gioia, Mr. Gaither and Dr. Gaffney for encouraging students to take the plunge into a foreign culture, and Dr. Li for guiding me through the language for two years. And thank you to the Wilson family for the language grant. You made this trip possible for me. This trip was the farthest I had ever gone from home. It was actually the only time I had ever left the country. It was the first time I had been able to practice Chinese in real life. Honestly, this trip was the best experience of my life. Thank you all for making it possible.
The sun sets on clouds over the Pacific and on our journey in China.
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