Green Acres is the place to be...

The trip to the countryside today was eye opening.  Since I arrived in Beijing I have seen the airport and then a 45 minute cab ride took me into the jungle of a city that is Beijing.  At times it feels like a concrete and steel Amazon from which there is no escape.  My first escape from the city was last week to the Great Wall, but that still had a tourist feel.  This time I truly left civilization and any traces of Western culture and entered the country side.

After arriving to the outskirts of Beijing, about two hours northwest of the city, I was invited into the house of a host family.  The neighborhood in which they lived contained some new brick structures, but most of the one story houses had that traditional Chinese roofing reminiscent of the pre-Mao era and dating back to the last Chinese dynasty of the 20^th Century.  The houses were all modest and the one I was in was no exception.  I entered through a door which was a blanket hung in a doorway and the kitchen was the first room in the house.  Through another blanket doorway was their family/bed room.  Only the husband and wife lived there now so there was one bed propped against the wall and me and my two classmates sat on stools around a small table.

The wife bought out snacks of sunflower seeds and small tangerines.  The husband and I began talking and he was quite interesting.  He was 71 years old and in very good health.  He has worked on his farm his entire life and sustained his family by selling his produce to markets.  Because he lived in the countryside he was exempt from the one child policy and had three children, all of which moved to Beijing to find work.  We discussed the generational gap in the countryside.  As he mentioned before, many older children move to the city for work instead of staying in the countryside, and because of this there is a generation missing from the countryside.  One will only see older couples and maybe some younger children.  There are few between the ages of 18 and 40 living in the countryside anymore, and because of this there are not any schools for children above the age of 10.  He said the reason more older children are leaving was due to the ease of getting to the city now and the desire for work other than farming.  He said there are very few families living in the country side with children and if they are they are extremely poor.  The majority of people I saw were older than 50 by my guess, but it did not strike me until he mentioned it.

The conversation went on for a bit and then the mother called me into the kitchen to help her make some dishes (as you can see in one of the pictures).  Every dish was prepared the same way.  They had a giant wok over the stove and they would pour a little oil into the wok and threw whatever vegetables in and fried them up.  I helped make the egg and tomato dish (in the picture of all the dishes it is the top left on the table).  It was basically just chopped tomatoes, salt, and egg fried together…simple yet delicious.  The best part about watching the meal being made was how they would literally go outside grab the freshest vegetables they could find, chop them up, and throw them in the wok.  It is winter time here, so not many vegetables were pulled from their stockpile, but the bought vegetables were still delicious.  The mother would go outside and grab dried chili peppers from the windowsill and just throw them in the wok.  These peppers were quite possibly the tastiest and hottest peppers I ever had.

After we finished cooking the meal we all sat around the table as the mother served us.  As you can see from the picture the dinner started off with at least seven different dishes, but as each one was finished by the five of us the plate was replaced with another dish.  It seemed like a never ending meal and it was!  They most important point here is that they do not eat like this all the time and they very rarely have excess.  A Chinese custom for having guests is to provide much more food than can be consumed to show your prosperity and it also symbolizes being a good host.  On e downside to the delicious food was there was very little meat in each dish and most of them were all vegetables.  Although there was not a lot of meat the dishes were still out of this world, these were the freshest and tastiest veggies you could imagine.  All of them were served sizzling and hot, right from the wok.  Every bite I took of the mushroom and green peppers in brown mushroom gravy I kept thinking, “My God, this would be fantastic over a thick cut of veal,” or the crushed chili pepper and potato dish that would have been a great compliment next to a medium rare t-bone.  I guess that is just my American way of thinking….more meat!  But the dishes were great nonetheless and we had fun talking and eating family style.

The dinner ended with these delicious corn bread rolls that were so warm and tasty, but like every dish I had they could have used just a little extra touch(honey & butter).  These corn bread rolls were so hot and moist I really wish I had some butter and honey to go along with them, but in the countryside the butter is not coming from anywhere unless you are using your goat to make it and the honey is not happening unless you have a hive in your backyard.

After dinner we talked for another hour or so and I asked the older man about his health.  He said he exercises every day, does not eat too much, eats only vegetables, and works in his garden.  I commented on how straight and white his teeth were and he laughed and said thank you as he put his hand to his mouth he used his tongue and clacked out a top and bottom set of dentures!  He held his teeth in his hand and let out a big deep laugh through his gums.  That was definitely the most surprising part of the day and I wish I would have videotaped it.

After a few hours of eating, talking, and drinking rice wine our teacher came to gather us and return back to campus.  I have not talked about Miss Li yet, but let me tell you that she is probably one of the most oblivious people on the planet (and I mean that in a nice way, she just has no concept of what is taboo to talk about)…either that or she just likes causing trouble.  Often times she asks me if I believe China and America will be at war in the future and asks me really touchy questions about Chinese policy and President Obama.   My friend in class is also Japanese, and if you know about Chinese-Japanese relations the Chinese do not look too fondly on the Japanese for many reasons, namely and most recently the Sino-Japanese War.  This will come into play later…back to the story…Miss Li comes into the house and strikes up another touchy topic conversation with the old man and asks the old man if I told him I was in the navy.  Being the traditional fellow he was I knew he did not look too kindly on foreign military personnel in his house.  He looked at me and said, “The American navy?” and I responded in jest, “No, the PLA navy” (PLA = People’s Liberation Army = China’s military) there was a moment of awkward silence and then everyone laughed.  We talked a bit more about the military…good thing my military vocabulary is as extensive as my normal vocabulary or else I would have been lost.  He asked me questions about jets and missiles and I was able to answer to the best of my ability, but the reason he was so interested was because his father was in the Chinese army.  The conversation turned out to be harmless, until that is, Miss Li asked if my buddy told the old man he was from Japan.  Keep in mind my friend is only half Japanese and his father is Mexican.  He is the product of a Hispanic Marine stationed in Japan and a local Okinawa woman.  He looks more Pilipino than Japanese.  Anyway, when Miss Li asked the question my friend and I looked at each other and had the expression, “Zhen da ma?” (Are you serious!?).  This was when the conversation turned sour and there were nothing but awkward silences and a much colder good bye than expected.  Who would have known an older Chinese man whose father was in the army would dislike a Japanese person…go figure!?  I mean I am not even Chinese and I knew not to say that…way to go Miss Li, chalk up another oblivious point to the scoreboard (I am kidding, she is great, she just does not know when to NOT say things). 

I returned home from the trip finally feeling my Chinese has improved and I have actually seen the real China.  In the next few months I plan to participate on more trips like this where I get out of the city and interact with Chinese people who are much less Westernized.  Overall, the trip was a great experience and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

PS

Thank you to those who comment on the stories, I would comment back but Google does not allow me to do so.  I apologize if it looks like I am ignoring the comments, because I am not.  I appreciate them a great deal.