One walks in a heavy mist where land and sky appear visible only for a short time makes the living space haunted.The haze is almost hazardous at dark yet one makes it back in a cab at 1:30am.from the train station.And, this is winter in Nanchong, Sichuan PRCFrom early November to late January is winter with temperature ranges from 45F degrees to 55F. The fog settles in for the night early as the sun goes down around 6pm. In the morning, the day is gray and opaque.It is like living in a cloud not on a cloud.Late in the afternoon, one begins to see land and sky and too buildings, cars and people. Suddenly, the sky darkens and the moisture rolls back in for another 20 hours or so. Actually, the winter on the lunar calendar is from October to December.The Chinese use the lunar calendar.Once in a great while, the sky colors itself auburn.There was a sandstorm in the atmosphere one day leaving us coughing where some people were smart enough to wear a face- mask. Peace Corps did put something like that in my medical kit. Dah! 

All Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) meet in January for In-service Training (IST) at Sichuan University in the city of Chengdu where China PCV headquarters is located.We arrived by train from the place where we were doing our volunteer service.Trains take a long time. It took 5 hours to go 199km or about 123 miles. Now, I understand the second track was completed so it will now take about 3 hours to do the same trip. Goood!

IST is anxious and fun.We have our language proficiency interview (LPI) and then do a lot of fun stuff.Get the idea that PC has a few acronyms and mo’.There are 3 days of workshops on reading and writing Chinese characters, its literature, mythologies, philosophies, and stories.Volunteers acted sketches, performed dances, sang and played music and performed traditional Chinese tai chi, poetry and calligraphy art.I learned I ranked intermediate on my LPI.Many volunteers rank at an advance level after 2 years. It is an oral test to speak fluently ½ hour.It is emersion. Of course, PC has its meetings informing volunteers of the rules, policies and reports we must follow and do.We are made accountable and responsible for the things we do.It is time to return to site. I read my ticket that the train leaves for Nanchong at 21:17.(Hundred hours are used afternoon.)Was I happy to meet Huang, Xiaoxi in Nanchong at 1:30am! He is my tutor and guide in China. He is a student at North Sichuan Medical College.A taxi was difficult to get at night to West China Normal University especially in the middle of the night with the dense fog didn’t help.We did it for 30 RMB which is usually a 10 RMB ride..It was The Chinese New Year and the cost of taxi service goes up and the taxi drivers had no reason to go to the universities because students had left for home. With the fog and no students on campus with businesses closed, it was like a ghostly presence on campus.Hey! Xiaoxi, we are out of here. In a couple of days, we flew from Nanchong to Guangzhou, Gongdong Province to visit with Xiaoxi’s Mother.

Xiaoxi’s Mom is one of the tens of thousands of Chinese migrant workers who leave the undeveloped countryside of western China and their family ties to work in a factory in one of the eastern cities of China to earn money to put their children through college. ‘Made in China’ one may see in the states.The workers live in dorms similar to college students.These are the people who make the textiles, clothes and toys we see in the west.Xiaoxi’s Mom helps to manufacture sport shoes. She was one who didn’t lose her job from the recent economic recession.

Bus and train travel in western China can be compared to the 1940s/1950s bus and train travel in the USA.One finally gets there.It takes time. And the bus may break down or take the dirt road.However, air flight is like it is in the west today.We don’t lose our baggage here so it may be better. The flights are on time.We had a smooth and great ride to Guangzhou.People in the west, (USA) may know this area of nearly 27 million people by the name of Canton.Many Chinese Americans ancestors came from this area of China. The eastern cities in China are much like the cities in America.They are developed and modern.We left about 3pm or 1500 from Nanchong and arrived about 5:15pm or 17:15. We picked up our luggage and we went to the information booth as we must take a shuttle bus to Houjie about an hour away. And want to learn the time of departure and guest what?Xiaoxi didn’t know the language and I didn’t know the language.Here people speak Cantonese.Putonghua is the official language of China.Most people in China speak their area dialect and also Putonghua. All Chinese can read traditional or simplified Chinese.Someone at the information booth was able to speak English.Xiaoxi speaks his dialect Sichuanhua, too, Putonghua and English and of course reads Chinese. Most people under 30 can do this.When we get to Houjie, we get a hotel-hostel.It took us about 2 hours before we got settled and called his Mom who we will meet us in the morning. 

Pop, pop, pop- boom!!! It has been firecrackers and fireworks all night long.The trees and posts are decorated in brilliant orange and red lanterns.It is Chinese New year. (Chunjie).Houjie Square has been filled with people for hours into the morning celebrating ji chou. ??. It is the year of the ox.The festival will be celebrated for the next 15 days and people begin celebrating several days a head of the actual day.People gather with their families.People eat Chinese dumplings, a cured hot sausage, fish head and organ meats.I have tried. The dumplings and sausage are great. Too, people give each other a red envelope with pocket money. It is usually a multiple of 8 meaning good luck for the year. Today, we are to go to see Xiaoxi’s Mom. We ate breakfast but breakfast in China isn’t cold cereal, eggs, ham and coffee with OJ. It is cooked vegetables, rice porridge, hard cooked egg and green tea.We then catch a bus. We meet Xiaoxi’s Mom. We spend the day with her and her friends.We visit a park where I dress as a Ming Dynasty Emperor. Later, we eat rice noodles and drink more green tea.It was a good time. Xiaoxi hadn’t seen his Mom in two years.His father is a peasant farmer with his brother at home.We will return to see Xiaoxi’s Mom in a few days.We are off to Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau.

The one-time fishing village of Shenzhen was singled out by the late Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping to be the first of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in China. It was formally established in 1979 due to its proximity to Hong Kong.The SEZ was created to be an experimental ground for the practice of a market economy within a community guided by the ideals of "socialism with Chinese characteristics". -wikipedia

Since Deng Xiaoping’s hometown, Guan’an is about a 40 minute drive from Nanchong, I wanted to see the village that has become a city that was opened to the west thirty years ago. Many of the students who attend Xihua, China West Normal here come from Guan’an.The students want you to learn about their history. Everyone in this area knows the importance of Deng Xiaoping.

Xiaoxi and I arrived by bus to take a subway to Windows of the World theme park.One could eat off the floor of the subway.It was new and state of the art transportation.The map on the subway one could read clearly and a red light on the map indicated where you were at all times and it wasn’t possible for one to get hurt boarding the train. I compared it to the subways in New York City and Philadelphia in which I took many times.Our subways are old and our cities too are old. Shenzhen was built in the last 25 years. All the skyscrapers are modern structures.The subway is similar to the Metro in Washington DC. The train travels quietly.Briefly, Windows of the World is a tour of the many famous architectural buildings of Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe.

There was the Eiffel tower we went up about 2/3 the size of the one in Paris. We saw the coliseum of Rome, and saw the pyramids in Egypt and a picture of me on a camel.See Face book.We saw the HagiaSophiamosque in Turkey, the Opera Theater in Sidney Australia and the windmills of Holland.We saw miniatures of St Marks Square in Venice and ancient Taoist Temples of China... There wear miniatures of the buildings of New York and our Capitol, The White House, Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.One can tour the world in about 3 hours.

The next day we are on a bus to Hong Kong.People must go through customs, baggage check and passport check.Chinese Nationalists must acquire a permit to tour off the mainland such as, Taiwan, HK and Macau.It is a group permit people acquire.I went through customs ok but Xiaoxi was held up. He applied for his permit early in December in his hometown of Ziyang. He applied for a group permit. We were not going with a group.After an hour or more waiting we paid 300 RMB additionally and he was allowed to go into HK and Macau.On the bus we were, he was excited.About 1500 hours we arrive at Disney Hong Kong.He really enjoyed Space Mountain and Disney on Parade, the fireworks and so much more. The next day, we took a tram up to Victoria Peak and saw all of Hong Kong.The next day we toured Ocean Park another theme park. We saw pandas, rode cable cars, went on a tour of the Pearl River Delta.

A week into our tour, we took a ferry across to Macau.Hong Kong was British and Macau was Portuguese. The old buildings were Romanesque. The Portuguese built Portugal. Today is it is a hot site for international gambling. Its casinos rival Las Vegas with exception to Monte Carlo. I did not spend a cent on a gaming table. A city of a half million in which its sidewalks were paved in mosaic tiles snake around hilly inclines. We saw the many Jesuit sites in which Matteo Ricci Jesuit Priest coined the western term Confucius from Kongzi. .This is my Chinese given name. We saw the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral and the statue second from the right is that of St Francis Xavier. We visited Macau Museum of Art. Our tour did not include the Ricci Institute. We were in Macau for a few days and then headed back to mainland China to Houjie. We visited Huang Furen.After nearly 2 weeks in the area we flew back to Nanchong.Xiaoxi then boarded a train to Ziyang to see his father, brother and friends. Life has changed here in Nanchong

It is spring. The gray-opaque fog that hung on for most of the day was gone.The sun was out and temperatures now reached 21 degrees Celsius.The spring season is changeable.It is also the rainy season where the area will get several days of rain and then several days of sunny weather.The semester has started and the sports fields are full of activity. The students like to fly kites.The analogy is eastern. It is the (kite) soul being freed from the body by the winds into the sky onward towards the stars. Soon the landscape is in bloom with rapeseed which can be made into canola oil. Summer approaches early in May.The dragon boat festival ushers in the season into people eating Zongzi. It is cooked rice wrapped in bamboo leaves.Most Chinese holidays can be learned from using a web search engine.Most of the Chinese festivals are celebrated in The United States today in our Chinese Communities.Philadelphia celebrates a dragoon boat race every year. 

It has been nearly a year living in China. It has gone by quickly.My two site mates, Ashley Givan of Kentucky and Durf (David) Humphries, of Atlanta were here showing me how to live in China are closing out their service with Peace Corps, China 13.. Will I miss them?It will be my task to show my new site mates China 15 how to live in Nanchong. come September. The semester is closing and I am on my way to summer project in Leshan a few hours from here. Then, I am on to northern China and The Great Wall in August.I hoped you got a good insight into my first year in the Peace Corps. Until next time if you have any questions, e-mail and I will try to find an answer for you in the next blog hopefully near the mid autumn festival.

I recall the geography classes in elementary school.I now get to see the places I studied. Too, a basic language course will teach you all the things ‘Mommy’ taught you by the time you went to school. You will learn manners and customs, to say please and thank you, to get permission, making an apology and how to live with people and how to live with people globally.I write, thank you Lois Coppersmth.

“Let good manners be your companion

In the long sight- enjoying the journey

The Cliff is high and the plank road steep

Please be mindful of your step and give praise

To the many people you meet”.

-Mt. LinyunNanchong

And one of my students (young man 20 yrs.) spoke out so unlike traditional Chinese students saying “Don’t you have any manners!”I replied, “Congratulations young man, you sound like my Mother.”

Peace,

Donald Coppersmith

Peace Corps Volunteer

China 14

"The contents of this letter are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps."