Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Rural China: A Travel Series #08
From: earlj@mdcbbs.com
Date: 9 Apr 92 13:23:32 GMT
Organization: M&E (Division of EDS), Cypress CA
Nntp-Posting-User: ivler



             <<< NOTES::NOTES$DISK:[NOTES$LIBRARY]SOAPBOX.NOTE;1 >>>
                            -< Soapbox Conference >-
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Note 22.60                     For Travel Only...                      60 of 370
BBS::EARLJ "Earl Yin Jew MDC M&E-SWEng"              41 lines  17-AUG-1989 09:57
                          -< Flashes of Rural China >-
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    The train from Kowloon to Guangzhou was a quick leap backwards through
    two generations.  Safely nestled in a vintage 1940s passenger car, I
    sensed a time warp through stars and aeons nearby. When the crowded
    busy streets between the towering concrete apartments of Hong Kong's
    freedom suddenly vanished at the People's Republic of China's (PRC)
    border, I knew I fell through into the space-time of my grandfather.

    From this frontier border to Guangdong province's capital city of
    Guangzhou, I glimpsed the rural life of China.  Miles of fertile
    collective and family farms filled my view to the horizon.  Nothing was
    wasted; everything was utilized, particularly the land.  They labored
    to feed themselves in many clever ways.  Only centuries of toil could
    have evolved such ingenuity.  Literally every square foot served to
    feed, to shelter, or to provide passage.

    Caught in wonder, my mind registered random impressions like a slide
    show: a ragged populace gazing as we speed by, their life's will sapped
    by the heat and humidity...  thunderheads threatening an already
    flooded terrain...  rich red alluvial soil supporting well-attended
    vegetables as nearby ponds raised ducks, turtles, catfish, and
    snails...  emaciated chickens dashing amuck as a funky chinese built
    tractor crept along a muddy road...  concrete poles jutting from
    verdant rice paddies holding up power and telephone lines...  hovels of
    block and plaster, aged and crumbling, housing hoards of sweating
    peasants...  wild birds, stray dogs, and herds of domestic animals
    being totally non-existent...  muddy irrigation water slowly sluicing
    along earth-bound troughs with siphon hoses feeding groves or filling
    paddies...  retaining walls of quarried sandstone and a railway system
    both engineered by foreigners before World War II...  glancing into
    village homes and rarely finding children...  a huge black water
    buffalo lurking half submerged in an empty paddy...  creeping squash
    vines sporting large results on bare hillocks beside the tracks... 
    raindrops sending concentric ripples across a placid green pond...

    These visions will always be with me; they are the passive pleasant
    memories (yin).  In the city of Guangzhou though, my memories are
    considerably different.  I struggle to keep images of what happened
    from being erased, and try to understand myself in another time and
    place.

    earlj