The Face of China

The Face of China – Brett – June 17th, 2010

Today we met Salva. Salva has something to tell you. Salva says, “Please switch off the TV and switch on your eyes and your heart. This world is not a dangerous one, full of terrorists, thieves and bad people. It is a wonderful place, filled with good people who want to live in peace, learn about differences and help each other.” Salva is Spanish, half Don Quixote and half Little Prince, and he's been traveling the world via bicycle for the past four years.

These are the types of people who have been inspiring us every day. It is amazing, but each day we seem to meet someone who makes us want to learn more. Who makes us want to dive deeper and deeper into this world. Who makes us believe in the power of the human spirit and mankind's ability to create a world made of love and based on peace.

And all of this exists within the grime and the poverty of a city like Beijing. All of this exists in the face of the forced labor used to build the thousands of kilometers of the Great Wall. It survived through the excruciating foot binding forced on 2 billion Chinese women over a thousand years. And it will endure through the censorship and human rights violations of the Communist party.

But it shines through.

It comes in a tiny courtyard in a back alley “hutong” where Chenuiy teaches us the several thousand year old secrets of Chinese cooking. It's face is the face of Lucy who patiently corrects our four tonal variations of the word “ma” as she gives us a free Mandarin lesson on the fifth floor of a random apartment building with piles of debris strewn through the hallways. We see it in the old men who gather each day to swim across Lake Hou Hai and then hone their chess skills by the water for the 60th year in a row. It reaches across cultural boundaries when the man writing calligraphy on the sidewalk with a broad water brush hands Jenny the fount and she creates the unmistakable sign of peace – a smiley face. The grin on the old man's face says it all.

These are the reasons we travel. We are learning so much about how this culture thinks and how its world view is developing in the face of incredible growth both economically and in terms of world influence. We are seeing the world through a different set of eyes.

Now if only we could learn all this from the comfort of our own house – with air conditioning, a Whole Foods around the corner, and our own bathroom! We miss you all and we miss Boulder and the comforts of home. But as each day passes and our eyes are opened further we realize that this is a journey that we must pursue.

Thanks for joining us as we wander.