Getting to know JiaXian

Our second day at Jiaxian was the visit to the communities. JiaXian was mountainous, and the weather in the villages is cold.   

In the early morning and on our way to the communities, we dropped by a Daoist temple.  It was a nice one on top of a hill.  We brought some dried dates, one of the main products of Jiaxian.

The Daoist temple from afar...

We visited communities, talked to our partners, teachers, parents and the children. The people in the community were in awe when they saw Shanta, our colleague from Nepal because of her Nepali costume, and South Asian feature.  I, on the other hand, was again mistaken to be Chinese (but of course :-) ).

There is one reality in China , which I did not see in other countries I have visited.  In this part of the world, there is a  huge number of "left-behind" children.  These are children who had to stay school dormitories because their parents work in another place and there is nobody home to take care of them.  The school teachers or caretakers become their second parent.  And I believe, our organization's programs there is a good response to this situation.  We train the caretakers  and children about proper child care, nutrition, hygiene and about children's rights. This will enable the caretakers to take good care of the children, and knowing their rights, the children would also be able to take care of themselves.  And I commend our China colleagues for coming up with these programs- and also the school authorities and teachers for taking on the additional responsibility of being the caretakers of these children.

Children live and are cared for in these school dormitory

After the visit, we did a short debriefing about our findings together with our field office colleagues and our partners.  In the late afternoon, we traveled back to Yulin where we spent the night before we fly back to Xian. 

 

The Mother River of China and YuLin County.

Though both belong to the province of Shaanxi, we had to take a plane ride from Xian to YuLin. That is how vast China is.  

The driver of our JiaXian office was waiting for us at the airport when we arrived. He's a nice and funny guy who claims to be a fan of Manny Pacquiao (well -known boxer from the Philippines), who knew Pacquiao's rags-to-riches story.  Before we started our 2 hour travel to JiaXian, he took us to a noodle restaurant in YuLin, which he said is very popular. Each customer only pays around 1 dollar and can eat as many bowls of noodles as he/she can. There were many small bowls of herbs and condiments on each table, to mix and match.  It looked like a good business concept, judging from the many customers coming into the restaurant. 

My colleague , waiting to get started

Mix 'em and match 'em

The noodles was really good but easily filled me up. Our driver was able to finish around 8 bowls  of noodles (and these are not small bowls!) and he can finish more.The owner of the restaurant looked unhappy that I finished only 1 bowl and kept asking me (in Chinese) why I finished that little and if I did not like the taste.  Yang Min , our manager, and the driver, had to explain on my behalf.

After lunch, we started for Jiaxian.   Driving around YuLin, it was easy to notice that several new buildings were sprouting all over the city.  Yang Min shared that it was not like this before they discovered that their soil is rich in coal. Coal mining made many ordinary people instant millionaires. We used to have an office in YuLin but because the city became very progressive, we decided we were not needed there anymore and we closed

YuLin

On our way to Jiaxian, we passed by the Yellow River, one of the longest rivers in China at more than 5,000 kilometers long. Considered as the "Mother River of China"   and the "cradle of Chinese civilization", it was the center of Chinese culture for some 2,000 years in the past.  Confucious, the ancient Chinese philosopher, was born in one of the villages by the Yellow River.  The yellow color came from the lose sediments it carries.  It looked dark yellow, bordering on brown. 

By the bridge

the Yellow River

Bridge over the mother river

My self and my friend Yang Min

We then embarked on the 2 hour drive to JiaXian. The road was really wide and well paved and it was a very smooth travel.   I wish we also have these roads in the Philippine provinces.

On the way to Jiaxian

We finally reached JiaXian, and after a few introductions, we proceeded with our meetings and interview.  In the late afternoon, we met with the representative of the government from the Women's Group , which is our partner in the area.  The head of the Women's Group welcomed us over (big) dinner.  

And, it was time to call it a day.  

Xi'an

There are news again of Chinese vessels intruding the Philippine territory.  As if their taking over of one of the islands in the Spratly's is not enough. These news scares me.  So when I was told that I was to do a review of our office in China, I was scared. I wanted to see China, but not at that time when our dispute over the islands was on all time high. 

I was anxious all throughout my flight to Xi'an.  I have heard about the propaganda the Chinese government has spread against the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries whose islands, they have interest on.  I was prepared to be harassed at the immigration, and be treated badly as what some Filipinos have experienced in Beijing.

To my surprise, I did not experience any of that in Xi'an.  I guess they are far from Beijing so they are not that aware of the issues between our countries.  The immigration officer looked so young, and he was very nice and even welcomed me to China.

And I was doubly surprised that many people thought I was Chinese! (How come?). And I did experience a lot of kindness. The people in our office (both in Xian and Jiaxian) were very nice (and many looked fashionable :). They were very open in sharing their processes and procedures, important information I needed to be able to do my review and be able to provide with feedback later.  

Also, our partners from the government , were very cooperative during the interview.  Not to mention that they prepared delicious Chinese dishes for me.  

I totally did not expect it- those were pleasant surprises.  

But  there was one unpleasant surprise: when I tried to open Facebook, I was not able to. And I just found that their government has banned Facebook in China.  Same thing as Google and YouTube.  What??

View of the mall from my room in Xian...

The fancy hotel next door....