Anhui, Day 20

Tommy holding "Little Mingyang" 小明阳

今天我们 9 点吃早饭。吃完之后我们有空所以我们跟孩子一起玩儿，送给他们很多的礼物。安徽的农村非常漂亮！
Today was a nice and relaxing day, which I feel like we all needed. The village kids really appreciated all of the gifts we gave them, and they were a lot of fun to be around. They all seem really happy and joyful all the time. It is great to be able to go around the village and see all the people and the farms, it is much nicer than I pictured. It’s a poor area, but I think most of us were expecting it to be a little worse than it is. Some of the houses are actually pretty nice, and that is because of the migrant workers. In Beijing we saw the situation the migrant workers lived in and how rough their lives are. Now in Anhui we have been able to see how these migrant workers use the money they earn and bring back to their home village. This really shows us the motivation for people who live in rural areas to go to work in the bigger cities.

The farms around here are really nice, and the scenery is incredible. The nice weather makes everything look even better as well. All of the villagers are very warm and welcoming to us foreigners, as most Chinese are. They always appreciate the fact that we are learning their language and try our best to speak it with them. I feel like people in other countries do not feel the same way.

I really appreciate the opportunity for us to be able to see some of the more rural parts of China like Anhui. When going to huge cities like Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai it is easy to forget that most of China is not just huge apartment buildings, malls, and skyscrapers. There is a lot more to this country than we all know, and seeing it with our own eyes is the best way to experience it.

In the early afternoon we all spent a little time rolling our own dumplings and got to eat them as well for our last meal in the village. After that we said our goodbyes to the villagers and all the children and got on a bus to a new hotel that is in a small city closer to Huangshan, where we will be hiking tomorrow. We made it to Laojie street, which is the market street in this city and bought some souvenirs. It’s always fun to bargain with the people to try and get the lowest possible price! At the very least we get to practice speaking Chinese. After that it was a relaxing night without much going on. We all need to get our rest for the big hike tomorrow!

The picture in this entry is Tommy with the little chick he purchased yesterday for 3 yuan. He had a hard time saying goodbye earlier today, but we made sure the little girls he gave it to will take great care of it!
 -Mike M.