Our three day tour locations are supposed to be representative of "how great life is in China" and "a chance for us to see all the good things happening." Which, is understandable. The people of China are very proud, and our tours are designed to show us all they have to be proud of.
An early morning visit to Beijing's wastewater treatment plant gave us an up-close look at how wastewater is turned into reclaimed water used for basically everything but drinking. And while blogger isn't allowing us to upload videos right now, be sure you ask me about my sewage tour video montage when I get home. Seriously. I've never taken a tour of any sewage plant (others said this might have been a popular 4th or 5th grade field trip), so to take one in Beijing... well, I never in my wildest thought that would happen.
I'm the type of person who reads non-fiction... so to me, a water treatment plant is pretty cool. Especially if you are being led around by Henry the tour guide. (I kid you not, this picture is in no way posed or planned
After the tour, it was back on the bus (we bonded not only with the bus... but with each other) for a two hour drive to the "countryside." By that, we mean we sat in traffic for two hours to get to the far northern reaches of Beijing city limits. We drove through crazy fields of all kinds of strange and awesome trees, corn fields (!), and through what they consider "rural" areas. We kids from Purdue had a more advanced view of what we thought rural China might be... but then again, 8 flashy, fancy brand new tour buses can't cruise just anywhere.
I saw so many great photos being driven past... I just wanted to hop out of the bus and get back to nature. But sadly, we bypassed the agriculture and went to the village of Xiang Tang. We saw a beautiful temple, a retirement home where people showed us traditional ways of painting and Tai Chi, and then it was back on the bus.
I think we were all expecting something different, but this countryside tour was really, again, a way for us to purposefully see certain things that the People of China want us to see. I was intrigued by everything still. I found myself keeping very quiet and to myself, mostly so I could take it all it. It really hit me that I'm in China... seeing things so different than America... seeing things that I only dreamed about in my Asian-obsessed youth. It seemed foolish to complain about the heat (especially when our buses were blasting the a/c)... or to get frustrated with other group members... I was all about taking everything I wanted to take from the day. I was aching for some time to really reflect.
That being said, I'm so thankful that I value and respect different cultures. It's so important to me to show the kind of respect that just seems necessary when visiting other places... to really listen to the people who are trying to tell you about what they are proud of. I don't know, call me lame, but I get so into it and I just have to tune out all the people who are less than enthusiastic about connecting with the experience. Maybe I haven't traveled enough, so I still get a little culture-awe-struck. But if that's the case, I don't want it to change. No place can ever be compared to any other place... no experience matches another... I can't just cruise around without feeling like I am experiencing something so special. I could meditate to how remarkable this place is.
And once I finished meditating, I'd go eat the traditional dish of Peking Duck for dinner... because it might have been one of the best meals of my life. The second of two amazing meals for the day, the Peking Duck was awesome. The stories of how they get the duck from ducking to table are a little rough, so I won't share, but basically they have a very special way of cutting an preparing it in front of you. You then take the duck meat and skin, place it in a sort of wonton wrapper with some sauce, oniony-things and celery-y-things, and eat it... um, I can't even describe how good this was. Everything that was served was amazing (and believe me, I got my chopsticks on everything... no matter what it was)... but the duck was just delicious. The meal is a very traditionally and special occasion... a little less special when there are about 400 students there, but we had a great time and I can't say enough about how great the food was.
Peking Duck is a long way from Chicken Fish Soup.
1 comment:
No worries, the more you travel the more you continue to be culture-awe-struck, so keep seeing the world Lowell (and keep venturing off the beaten path, that is when you see the good stuff).
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