We finally got to visit non-urban China.

The section of the Great Wall on which we camped looked down onto terraced corn fields and trees. We followed the footpaths down to a small collection of homesteads nestled into the hills, and then further down into a small town. It was our first time to visit some rural homes in China.

One family invited us in and let us take photos. They grew and sold food, had small backyard granaries, goats, and an underground cellar in the backyard. They also had a functioning satellite dish, propped up on and held down with some loose bricks. The TV was in the same room as their kàng (炕), a large, hard, traditional Chinese bed that can fit the whole family and is heated from underneath with coals. The next morning we saw the wife along the Great Wall, ready to sell dried fruit from their gardens to tourists.

We were quite the sight to see in the town. Woman, children and a few men came out to see the crowd of white folks and their Chinese teachers wandering around. At one point we stood on a bridge… maybe 20 of us. This ancient peasant man in a blue Mao suit came walking up. I wonder what he was thinking, knowing he had to walk right through all those foreigners. It was nice because our group could make conversation with him. He instantly became the most famous peasant in all of China, as a dozen or so cameras whipped out (foreigners and their city-girl Mandarin teachers) and he got the red carpet treatment.

It all made me wonder about how the Western perceptions of China (here and in the West) must be so skewed. The part of China most Westerners – including us – live in and interact with, learn from in school, do business with, or host in our universities, is only a small sliver of China if you consider how most of the population lives. There are many Chinas. Most Chinese people aren’t urban middle class consumers, though we wouldn’t necessarily know that from our daily activities.

Anyway, photos from the village and town are here!

We’ve now officially arrived in China; we’ve done the Great Wall. The school took a busload of students and teachers to a totally empty section of the Great Wall called [CENSORED - you think we want this overrun with tourists??]. It’s been mostly “restored,” but it’s also pretty much deserted and still looks cool (for what that’s worth). The towers also have big hairy bats. The people in our group were the only people there. We quickly conquered the three nearest towers and pitched our tents. Jessica and I opted for the roof. It was misty, so the dragon-like, Wall-lined mountain ridges progressively faded in the distance, but it was dry enough and cool.

The first day we hiked out the gate by our towers down through the terraced farmers’ fields below, through a village to a small town (click for photos). The next morning we hiked about two hours along the wall, parts of which were left semi- or unrestored to you could see how it was built originally. Different parts of the Wall were built with different materials and methods over the centuries. This section was stone. The oldest sections are/were packed earth. Great Wall photos are here!

[There'll be a new post every day for a little bit until we're caught up. So there'll be lots to read and see the next little while!]

This is easily the current front-runner for the Best Slogan of the Year award; big points for deliberately being funny. I first found it following a lead from Tim, and scored a difficult-to-take shot from a local KFC men’s washroom (you can’t just whip out a camera in a busy fast-food washroom and start taking pictures). I’ve now seen three different washrooms in totally different areas, all with close to the same moon-landing-inspired slogan:

靠近一小步，文明一大步
kào jìn yī xiǎo bù
wénmíng yī dà bù

Literally:

“Approach/near, one small step; civilization, one great step.”

Means:

“One small step toward the urinal for a man; one giant leap for civilization.”

Also means:

“C’mon! Make an effort to be more careful and aim better; it’s embarrassing and the Olympics are coming!”

For the record, I can testify regarding plenty of washrooms in North America that are in desperate need of similar propaganda – starting with a few at our old university.

ps – weekly slogans are now monthly slogans.

Pronounced: lín yí ān
Means: Jessica’s Chinese name

In this gallery you’ll see some old churches, the Italian Concession Area, the ‘marriage market,’ Eric Liddell’s house, and other stuff.

You can read about this little excursion here:

• Marriage market, Eric Liddell, weekend slogan

Scroll down to read or write comments!

In this gallery there’re shots of some village homes, some really old peasants wearing blue Mao suits, some one-child policy billboards, and other stuff. Note the satellite dish.

You can read about this afternoon here:

• Finally, somewhere non-city

Scroll down to read or write comments!