NATIONAL HOLIDAY TRIP
National Day is celebrated every year in China on Oct 1st. The PRC (People's Republic of China) was founded October 1, 1949. The holiday lasts for one week and it is the top travel time for everyone living in China. It is a CRAZY time and commonly referred to as "People Mountain People Sea" (Ren Shan Ren Hai 人山人海) because of the vast number of visitors to every nook and cranny in China. Huge crowds everywhere!!!
So, doing our part to add to the huge crowds of travelers, at the beginning of October we took a trip to Guizhou, a
province in the SW part of China. You
can see on the maps below where it is located in regards to Beijing. It is a beautiful area of China with
magnificent landscapes and interesting cultural diversity.
I've probably mentioned this before but there are multiple
ethnic groups that populate China…56 different minorities to be exact! The Han Chinese are the largest ethnic group
with about 91.5% of the population (1.2 billion). The other 55 minority groups account for the
remaining 112 million people. China is
the world’s most populous country, with approximately 1.35 billion people in total. Crazy huh?
Our little city of Beijing only has 21 million!
We flew
into Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou.
For the next 3 days we traveled all around the province seeing the
lifestyles of one of the largest minority groups in this area, the Miao
people. Within the Miao minority there
are several different Miao groups, distinguished by their manner of dress,
etc. For example: short-skirt-Miao,
long-skirt-Miao, red-skirt-Miao, blue-skirt-Miao, etc. We visited their villages and observed their
daily lifestyles. It was amazing to see
that they were still functioning without modern plumbing and basic electrical
necessities. The Miao people are well
known for their jewelry making talents, mostly silver. When a baby girl is born, parents start
saving money to make and collect fancy silver ornaments that she will wear for
her wedding. Here are some of my favorite
pictures of Miao people of all ages in their traditional dress—
 |
| Our welcome party playing bamboo instruments |
Traditional
Miao villages are built on the mountainside.
Corn hangs out to dry everywhere, letting the community know that the family has received a good harvest that year.
A
large number of the Miao people migrated to different parts of SE Asia
(Thailand, Laos, Vietnam & Burma) and then after the Vietnam War they
migrated to the United States. They changed
their name from Miao to Hmong and now the largest number of them in the US live
in Minnesota, California and Wisconsin. Our visit to Guizhou was wonderful! Very interesting!!
SCARED SPEECHLESS
Halloween
came and went with a few funny moments.
The best moment was when I played a joke on all my students by showing
them a video on the pretense that they were watching the segment with a
listening quiz at the end. They were
told to concentrate intently on the screen.
I told them the story that you will read before the video and embellished
it slightly. It was WAY fun! The students literally flew out of their
chairs screaming and one girl in the front row who was just getting ready to
take a drink from her thermos ended up throwing it over her head, all over the
students behind her. Here is the link….a
little late for Halloween but nonetheless funny! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ZkgUA84hA
CHINGLISH
Have
I mentioned that there was a note posted near our elevators for a month and a
half that read, “Phone is wrong.” We
laughed about it every time we passed it.
Our in-house phone system mysteriously stopped working one day and
lasted until one of the teachers in our building told the administration that
she would have to start charging them for phone calls that she couldn’t make
from the house phone unless it was fixed.
The next day it mysteriously started working again. So strange!
SPECIAL TREATMENT
We
had a unique experience in September that I forgot to report on. We were invited to a reception in the Great
Hall of the People. This great hall was
pretty GREAT! The Great Hall is located
at the western edge of Tiananmen Square, a very beautiful area in Beijing, with
lots of official government buildings and the Forbidden City. We love to ride our bikes around that area,
which is about a 30 min ride from our apt.
The Great Hall functions as the meeting place of the Chinese
parliament. It is also used as a place
to hold special events…very special events.
Like the reception that we were invited to!
The
reception was held on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the
founding of new China, the establishment of the PRC (People’s Republic of
China). Prior to this China was called
the ROC (Republic of China). This
reception was held in honor of all foreign experts (foreigners working and
living in Beijing). The official welcome
speech that we read in English while one of the highest members of the Communist
Party Mr. Liu spoke to us, basically said, “China would like to attract more
highly skilled workers from overseas and wants to learn from other nations. China’s achievements in the past 65 years are
the result of not only the hard work by the Chinese people, but also
outstanding contributions made by foreign experts.” Wow, who knew we were so important here in
China! He also mentioned that as foreign
experts we should continue to serve as goodwill ambassadors for China and help
enhance the world’s understanding and friendship toward China.
FUNNY
We
are still enjoying our time here in Beijing, even though we miss you all
terribly! Teaching the students are the
best part of the experience. They are
kind, hardworking and dedicated to life.
We learn from them and hopefully they learn from us. They crack us up a lot also. To get the class more involved in openly
discussing topics I give the presenter a soft rubber ball and they can throw it
“to” anyone in the class to get their opinion.
Once in a while they get a little nervous and end up throwing the ball
wildly, beaning someone in the face, forehead or nose. It shouldn't be funny, but it is. ;)
Still happy in Beijing....but missing family...and friends!
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