Virtual China '98

Author: David Lane, Alfred Keum, and Jason E. Payne.

Date: Tuesday, 4-28-98

Location: Taishan

Type of Writing: Itinerary AM

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7:45-8:45 The whole group had breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

8:45-9:15 After breakfast, the smaller groups had a little meeting in Mrs. Thomas, our group leader's room.

9:15-11:00 We all rode a bus down southwest of Taishan to a reservoir. The group leaders took pictures of the groups and took pictures of the scenery and bought baskets nearby.

11:00-12:00 Stopped by a village called Sok Kai Li. We took pictures of the villagers and Dorian interviewed one of the women in the village. David, Alfred and Jason played some soccer with the smaller boys in the village. Mr. Markin came by a little later and played some ball and taught them what a high-five was. Dorian, Mrs. Thomas and Abby went into the village store and took a look around.

12:00-1:00 We biked to an abandoned brick factory at around 12:25 but left because everyone was at lunch. We soon came up to another brick factory and interviewed a few of the employees there. The employees, who came from Sichuan province, said we could take a little tour of the kiln. Believe it or not, but it takes them about 10 days to make 1000 bricks.

Author: David Lane, Alfred Keum, Jason E. Payne.

Date: Tuesday, 4-28-98

Location: Taishan

Type of Writing: Itinerary PM

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1:15-2:00 We stopped at a school and ate lunch. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and boiled egg for lunch.

2:00-2:15 The entire group took a walk through a construction site carrying our bikes because of all the mud and stuff in the road which made it difficult to ride across.

2:30-3:15 Our group, accompanied by a few other groups, took a dive into the rice paddies and helped some people weed the rice paddies. A lot of the people thought it was fun.

3:20 We took a picture of Jason cleaning a water buffalo and gave the animal's owner, an old man, some candy.

3:30-5:30 We rode on a road and saw a water buffalo bathing in a canal. Then we continued to ride down the road into a village. We stopped and took pictures in a drum factory, then it started to rain pretty hard.

5:30 Went into a police station and played Ping-Pong with them, then we waited for the bus to come to take us home.

5:30-6:30 Bus back to hotel.

6:40-7:30 Showered and went down to eat dinner.

7:30-8:30 Ate dinner.

8:40 Had our group meeting.

Date: April 28^th, 1998

Location: A reservoir south west of Tai Shan.

Type of writing: interview

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We interviewed a village woman; first we had to ask permission, for it would've been rude of us to just begin asking questions right away. We introduced ourselves through Dorian, our translator. The people spoke significant Cantonese and were understood by our translator easily. The name of the village is unknown, because our knowledge expands only to the characters presented on the entrance of the village. And we can not paraphrase the characters as English literature. The name of the woman is Wang Suet Ping; she was cooperative and very friendly. Suet Ping excepted our request of asking innocent questions.

Dorian and Abby: Have you lived here all your life? (We did not ask her for her age for it would have been unkind and very rude to do so)

Suet Ping: Yes, I was born and raised here with my family.

Dorian and Abby: Is there a local school here where the kids attend to school?

Suet Ping: Yes, it's behind the house.

Dorian and Abby: Did you attend it?

Suet Ping: Yes.

Dorian and Abby: What type of work do you do now?

Suet Ping: I'm a farmer like most of the other village people.

Dorian and Abby: What type of work do you do in your spare time?

Suet Ping: I like to eat, talk to friends and go to other places to earn money.

Dorian and Abby: Do your parents or other relatives live here?

Suet Ping: My dad and mom are dead, and I have two children that live here with me in this village.

Dorian and Abby: What do other people do here?

Suet Ping: Some farm, some go elsewhere to earn their living, and some, that are not able to work, stay home relaxing or babysitting for other people's children.

Dorian and Abby: What do the villagers believe in (worship)?

Suet Ping: Well, no one here is Christian nor do we believe in Jesus. We worship the Chinese Buddhism Gods.

Then we just had a friendly chat with her. It felt like there was nothing in between us, no big gap of religious beliefs or culture and race difference. It felt like we were friends having a simple conversation. We were really contented and fortunate to come so close to someone we met in a matter of minutes. From the look on their faces, we could tell that they were as joyful as we were. All in all, we had loads of fun, and were thrilled to be able to exchange our differences with the villagers. Our group chattered with the villagers, remaining in the village and luxuriating in the presence of the friendly mood all around us.

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Jim Zahn