Today,
we went to Pengzhou, a small rural area outside of Chengdu that was devastated
by an earthquake in 2008. Despite the ecological upset, the drive was
beautiful, and I was really surprised at how much the land looks like rural
Nicaragua.
We had lunch at a small restaurant, and after lunch, the entire staff came out of the kitchen and into our room to take photos with us. It really sank in that many of the locals of Pengzhou never see foreigners, since tourism in the area, which consisted mainly of domestic tourists, even before 2008, has greatly suffered since the earthquake.
After lunch, we visited a small, family run farm. Though the facilities were rudimentary, the flowers they produced were absolutely beautiful. At the end of our visit, we were all very humbled when the farmers gave us each a flower and did not accept payment.
Following the farm, we went to a primary school, where we interacted with a small group of children. We decided to give our fresh flowers to the students, and everyone in our group took turns handing the children a flower. I wonder what those kids were thinking as we handed them flowers and took pictures of them in the middle of a school day—even I thought it was kind of weird. Among the children we saw, the sex ratio mirrored China’s overall sex ratio of 117:100 (m:f). Though I know the sex ratio is unbalanced, it is harder to detect when you are constantly interacting with locals in a big city.
As a bonus, the long bus rides with the SWUFE students were great. I learned a lot about Chinese society and average Chinese teenagers. Vanessa also showed me how Chinese speakers send text messages!
Also, this is really embarrassing, but today we totally thought we had a fan club following us from the restaurant, to the farm, to the school, to Bailu… but it ended up being our guide.
- Andrea
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