Virtual China '98

Names of Author: Evan Otoshi (HKIS grade 7 student)

Date of Writing: April 20, 1998

Location of Writing: From Long Shan, to Sun Hing, to Da Long (China) and back

Type of Writing: Itinerary for April 20th, Crouch group

Today was a lot nicer than yesterday because yesterday it was cloudy and rainy, not to mention chilly, while today was very hot (80's) and sunny.

A.M. Schedule

-Woke up at 7:00 clock and had to be at the little restaurant by 7:30

-Breakfast: the breakfast was pretty bad because there were a lot of dishes that people didn't like, for instance the buns with some kind of meat in the center.

-Took a walk to the Gok Wan Gi Temple, which is right behind the hotel. The monastery was a really great experience, there were a lot of things to look at or try out. For example, there was a bowl and two handle bars on either side of it. What you had to do was wet your hands and start rubbing your fingers across the brass bars. If you did it correctly, the water would start coming up like a fountain, the key in doing this is by pushing down on the bars and rubbing slowly. Another thing to look at in the monastery is fire crackers, swords and action figures, (most of the boys went for the firecrackers but unfortunately you weren't allowed to get any)

-Took a short bus ride to a factory that made stainless steel pots and pans. (see picture)

-Took a bus to the Da Long village, which is 21 km south, south-west of Sun Hing and about a 33 km bike ride from our hotel in Long Shan. The good part about the village is that the people are very friendly, the bad part about the village is that there is trash everywhere. While eating lunch at the village, we saw some ducklings swimming in a sewage gutter.

-Started biking after lunch. Our butts were really sore the previous night, but they were fine today. The biking today was a killer! Everybody came back to the hotel with at least one aching body part, maybe two. While biking, we stopped at a dried fruit farm, it was very tantalizing to smell the fruits.

Evening Schedule

-Dinner: the dinner today was really good, the best meal I have had so far. There were curry noodles, beef and string beans, sweet and sour pork and many others

-Evening activities: we worked on the booklets during this time. After the booklet task was done, then we visit our friends until 10:00.

-Lights out: there isn't much that goes on during this time, just sleeping.

It was just a nice weather day. It wasn't raining, a bit hot but OK. We took the bus and went to Da Long for our box lunch. I was feeling weird. As I walked past through a small bridge I saw a woman getting a fish out of the net which she has dipped into the water in a tank in front of her, as well as little kids, who were shocked and excited by foreigners. Little young ducks were swimming along under the bridge. The shops were nice. They sold cheap food and water. What we had for lunch was a spam sandwich and a bread filled with beef. And a small orange and a honey drink. After eating we went through the crowd and I saw happy children and chickens surrounded by round fences. I found out that this place was called Da Long. It was about 34 KM from our hotel. It was about 12 noon by then. I started talking to this old man whose name was called Mr.Chang. As I drank the last bit of my water in my bottle I noticed the awful smell from the cows. Later I got used to it. I walked along the road and saw the crops. It was rice. We stayed a few more minutes and started packing. Before we left I went to see the huge pig across the road. We saw another road across. One of our group tried going up but it ended as a dead end. I noticed all the big hills and mountains. I also knew that they never care about their environment and that they didn't have a trashcan. I asked where I could find a trashcan and the answer to that was just to throw it on the floor. I didn't understand. All the roads were filled with dirty trash and all the cow's poop. The trees and the nature weren't destroyed. I saw all of my group gathering around a crowd of Chinese people. I thought that they looked harsh but later on I found out that they were real friendly.

After I talked with Mr. Chang, I was still tired so much that I couldn't lift my self up. I threw my lunch in the box, and I refilled my water bottle.

I took good pictures of the environment and the friendly Chinese people.

I bought s few snacks. I really wanted to buy the fire crackers but we weren't allowed to. I got thirsty again and started drinking. I shook hands with the people who we enjoyed being with, and talking with. I learned more Mandarin by this trip. Everyday I feel my Mandarin getting much and much better. I looked around

at the old houses. I looked inside them. They didn't have much electric. I felt a stab in my body when I saw how poor they were. I saw many old women carrying a young small child on their back. I saw the kids uniform. It wasn't any different from any uniform.

I gave the baby which was on the back of the old lady, my chocolate bar. At first he didn't take it. He probably thought it had poison in it. I kept telling him to take it. He took it and started eating the crunch bar. The lady said many " thank you" s. The baby shared with the other young children.

I asked how many people lived and were in a family, and they answered as 7~9 people. I was impressed how they could fit in that small house all together.

I shook hands with every member of the family who was there.

I hope I have another great trip tomorrow.

It was about 1 p.m. and it was a hot and humid afternoon. The village was nestled in the slope of the valley on the opposite side of the main road. Separating the village and the river from the main road was a patch of rice fields. When we went over the rough concrete bridge we came to a dirt path. We rode down the dirt path for a while before coming to another path. We saw a neat village and biked into it. When we first saw it we thought it was very small but when we entered, it was larger than other villages that we have seen. The village was quite big and much higher than the water level of the river passing near by. When we first arrived there was no one there. We explored and thought that it was disserted. There were cobwebs and spiders all over and a layer of dust throughout the few buildings we explored. We where ready to leave when we noticed a path that we hadn't seen. We went down the rocky, windy, old path and finally came across a bunch of old women probably in their 80's who would talk to us.

We got our group leader Mrs. Manville to ask the women some questions for us. We all sat on the dirty, dusty ground and took notes on what was being said. It turns out that the village has been there for close to 200 years. We learned that the family name of the village is Mok, founded by the Mok family. The village is located in an area called Fung Sung. The reason the village was built was because the Mok family had no money and had to move to higher land. At one time a total of 400-500 people lived there in this village. The village people act like they are one great big family. If the mother of some children had to go into the fields to help with the labor then a neighbor or someone would watch her kids. We had noticed a tall pole in the center of the village and asked what it was for. It turns out that the pole is used for putting giant willow trees on it which is customary for certain celebrations. We learned a lot of interesting info from the old ladies. As we kept taking notes we also kept getting bitten. There where insects, flies, and mosquitos all over the place and they where biting like crazy, we couldn't have used more bug spray than we did and that didn't even work.

As we where coming to an end of our questions we decided to start to depart. We shook hands with the old women and said thank you. We hopped onto our bikes and rode down the bumpy, dirt rode to the river that ran near by.