This week we went on a social study trip to Huizhou. I signed up for this trip hoping to catch sights of the country lives of Chinese people, but really was much different than expected. In the past 40 years, the city’s tourism has developed very fast and it was very fascinating to see how Huizhou people react differently to this kind of change. Huizhou does not only welcome the increase in tourism, but its economy grows along with it as well. I got to interview different types of people: a tourist company shareholder, a hotel manager, a normal high school parent, a tea farmer. I was also very glad for the chance to meet a lot of new friends from other nianji on this trip.
Besides the social study interviews, we also went river drafting, mountain climbing, and going to the hot springs. It felt nice to be able to relax and to just apply my Chinese in normal everyday conversations. We stayed on Huangshan mountain for one night. We woke up at 4:30am the next morning, hoping to catch the sunrise; unfortunately there was too much fog so we couldn’t see it clearly. It was still one of the nicest mountains I’d had a chance to visit. The humidity of the area make the fog very dense, and the mountains look as if they touch the clouds.
After we got back to Beiyu from Huizhou, I spent some time on Sunday to catch up with a Beiyu friend. She would be leaving on Monday so it was the last time we hung out together. We chatted a lot about her experience in college and how we both felt about Chinese/Asian education system and compare our ideas about American college systems. That evening, I also went out for a dinner and caught up with a Williams student who also happened to be in town.