Visit to Nanchuan

For the Moon Festival, I went to Nanchuan, a city that is about an hour outside of Chongqing, to visit my host family. We had a great week! Nanchuan is a small town and is beautiful, surrounded by mountains. We explored the city and even went out into an eco-reserve one day. There we hiked along the river you see above. It borders Chongqing and Guizhou (another province). It was gorgeous. We had LOTS of food and family dinners! We seemed to always be eating, something that reminds me of Jewish holidays :)

But what was really amazing and touching, was their generosity. I have only been studying Chinese for three months, so you can imagine my Chinese is not great, yet they invited me to stay with them for almost a week, invited me into their home, would not let me pay for any tickets there or back to Wanzhou, fed me every day and treated me like a true member of their family. All this with very very little communication ability. And when I say very little - I mean it!! I have studied hard for three months, but my ability to speak Chinese is still limited and there are many miscommunications and language barriers, yet I felt included and loved the whole time.

I am continuously amazed by the love and care I have experienced from the Chinese.

My host family here in Wanzhou every weekend invites me to dinner or an outing. And this last weekend they told me that they think of me as their second daughter and a part of their family - if I ever need anything to just call. And they are not just saying that. I know they mean it. And whats amazing to me is that I can communicate with them even less than my family in Chengdu. My host family here in Wanzhou doesn't speak a bit of English and also speak Chongqing hua - a different dialect from Putanghua - the main dialect (Mandarin) that I have learned. Yet, they welcome me into their home, this strange, foreign girl, feed me and take me out to explore and teach me about Wanzhou.

I have to say, I had heard that the Chinese were very friendly and hospitable before coming. But, I could have never imagined the extent of that until experiencing it myself.

It is humbling and inspiring.