The Other Face of China

This past week, I (Amy) traveled to a county in the southwest part of our province to visit a student's hometown. This is a part of China that will never be seen by Olympic tourists, as the "villages" near Beijing and other big cities have been tweaked to make them more "accessible" for tourists.

To give you some background about the rurality of where I went: we took a 5 1/2 hour train from Hangzhou to Lishui; then we took an additional 2 buses for 2 hours to get to the villages. The county is called Jingning and is an area populated largely by the She minority group. There are numerous villages throughout the mountains.

I was looking forward to the natural beauty and mountainous scenery, and I was not disappointed at all. The landscape is similar to the Smokies, with the addition of bamboo trees. The best part was that this was more untouched and less touristy. It was amazingly refreshing.

I was also looking forward to seeing the "real China." Many of the people in China do not live in cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Hangzhou, but rather live in small towns and villages. I wanted to see this side of life. I loved the people in the villages; it's a world where everyone knows everyone, people chat with neighbors outside after supper, kids play in the street in the middle of the village, and life is actually lived instead of rushing from place to place. However, to say the least, being there threw me into a bit of culture shock. Having lived in Hangzhou, one of the wealthiest cities in China, I was not prepared for the poverty and backwardness that is still the norm in the country. The house where I stayed was much poorer than I had anticipated, with concrete floors and walls, no running water, a communal outhouse, giant spiders and other critters. Being there, I finally understood the high stress the my students often talk about, feeling a huge responsibility to get good jobs so they can provide a better life for their families back home.