Have Your Dog and Eat it Too (Farewell, China)

written by Carly and Josh

Upon leaving Chengdu, we headed to Guilin and the Longsheng Rice Terraces. I will say, China has surprised me with the punctuality of their airlines. We’ve had 5 flights within China, and they were all seamless- what a relief. We were traveling during Golden Week (the Chinese National Holiday) to both of these scenic highlights of China, and we were finally in places that were as beautiful as our expectations. We had an incredible guide named Li, who was real and funny, and we really connected with him- and Luna adored him even more than we did!

The landscape of Karst Mountains surrounding Guilin looks surreal. The mountains look like big gumdrops that were just scattered everywhere, and rivers meander between them. We took a river boat ride through a 4 hour very scenic stretch and really enjoyed ourselves. Later in the day, we explored a small village and took a traditional bamboo raft ride through some rapids and got out butts soaked. We explored a little town called Yangshou and then had dinner at a restaurant where Josh almost had to get up and leave- here’s why. The menu had wasps on it. And donkey tendon. And bamboo RAT. And DOG. China certainly wins for most creative menus. When we asked our guide, Li, why there was such variety in creatures, he said that people in China got bored and wanted to try new things. I can’t imagine being that “creative”.

After our day in Guilin, we went to Longsheng and saw the terraced rice fields clinging to the mountains. It was gorgeous. The rice was at its peak, and was golden brown, so the hillsides looked as though they were glowing. We were lucky to visit when we did, because the rice was going to be harvested the next week. We had to ride up a mountain in a little van with hardly any guard rails on roads that were perilous. When we finally arrived at our destination, a parking lot that had been carved out of the mountain especially for Golden Week, we parked the car, grabbed an overnight bag and hiked 40 minutes up to a village of 500 people where we stayed for the night. This village of the minority people of China was so quaint.  These indigenous people were pushed into the hills when the Han people took over hundreds of years ago (not that unlike the story of our own Native Americans). It felt like we were walking around in a National Geographic article. Women still wore their ankle length hair piled upon their heads in elaborate updos. Donkeys brought everything up the mountain. If you couldn’t walk up the mountain yourself, there were covered chairs that two men would pick up and carry you to the village.  Water that trickled down bamboo pipes was the drinking water for the village.

On the road back to Guilin the next day, we saw cars crashed and accidents every 5 miles or so. The roads were packed because of Golden Week, where people get off of work and don’t have to pay the road tolls because it’s a national holiday. However, people in China drive like they are blindfolded and fighting a swarm of bees. In a 50 mile stretch, we saw 25 cars crashed along the road in various accidents. I’ve never seen anything like it. Josh saw an accident actually happen, where a car went off the side of the road and into a tree. We were asking the guide to stop and help the family, and he said that we couldn’t. When we asked him why, he explained that it can be dangerous for people to do good things in China because they can often get blamed when the police show up at the scene. (Makes sense, right?)  The result? People don’t help one another out of fear. In The Age of Ambition, this growing social problem was discussed, and Li confirmed the reality of this. Upon our questioning he confirmed a story about a girl who was run over by a driver and instead of getting out and helping the girl, the driver backed up and drove over her again to intentionally kill her. The driver didn’t want to get in trouble for helping her and thought it would be cheaper to pay reparations for her death than to pay for her medical bills for the rest of her life. He is serving a lifetime sentence in jail, but it’s still deeply troubling that the current social and governmental situation has created this sort of mindset.

This leads to Hong Kong. We originally planned on spending four nights in Hong Kong, but the protests convinced us that it would be far more relaxing to spend time in Sri Lanka than worry that we might get stuck in China.  It’s a shame that China is hiding behind a legal loophole to rob the people of Hong Kong of their freedom of electing their own leader (without their options first being approved by Beijing).  Looking down from our hotel at the protesters gathered around the government building, we were clearly reminded of where we were and how fortunate we are to live in a country where freedom doesn’t just exist, but is the very cornerstone of everything our country stands for…

If the actions of the Chinese people are ever as beautiful to their fellow man as some of the gorgeous scenery they have surrounding them, this will be an amazing country.  Until then, on a human level, China will always be a country of wasted potential.  We would like to think that everything has changed in China since 1989, but from all appearances based on our time here, the people of China are still living in fear of their own government.  What an awful way to live.  And what a waste of what should be one of the greatest places on earth to live.

It was amazing to see China.  It was fascinating to experience China.  It was wonderful to get to know a few people in China.  It was not hard to leave China.

Things we’re grateful for:

Clean Laundry

Clean Water

Clean Bathrooms

Helpful, Caring People (willing to act on their hearts and minds)

Freedom  (not a word that should be thrown around lightly)

with love!

Carly, Josh and Luna