Anhui, Day 19

           After a heartfelt, “my home is your home, my family is your family” departure from my Chinese host family the previous night, the encouragement of having blended cultures and overcome a language barrier to create a lasting bond half the world away from home was immediately subsequently tempered by the harsh reality of our Chinese language midterm. We persevered through writing, listening, and reading that which -- to some of us -- seemed like nothing more than strange crossing lines not much more than a year ago. By the time we woke the next day, we were three centuries away, reluctantly greeting the day among paper-thin walls, ancient mossy cobblestone floors, and countless traditional Chinese river-silt bricks in the comfort of the Zhong Xian Di estate in a historic rural area of Anhui, all still barely held up by massive wooden pillars.
            
            Emerging from our Chinese fortress after finally waking to the distant sound of incessant bells and distinct whispers from throughout the mansion, we went into the Anhui farmer town to explore. Finally, we came upon a taste of real, rural China: rice paddies and tea plantations covering the mountainsides, wrinkled but resilient farmers in woven hats carrying crippling amounts of produce, and oxen freely roaming the knee-deep ponds. Our travels brought us to the local tea production facility, famous in the region for its rather powerful tea, as we experienced personally. Exploring the village opened us up to some truly interesting locals, among them a master bamboo weaver with 60 years of experience, and a victim of China’s agricultural reeducation who found himself stranded upon getting into the countryside. The insight into the varieties of cultures and lifestyles of China from our journey into this bug-infested region has been unparalleled, but our travels through China have yet to take us to China’s booming business central, Shanghai. As the house creaks and insect repellant burns on, the part of me that’s thankful for what I learned here so far is in direct disagreement with the arachnophobia, city-loving half. By tomorrow night, we’ll be back on a 4-hour bus ride back to “civilization,” but I think, for all its discomforts, Anhui will still be another place in China we can call home.