BUILDING FRIENDSHIPS
Part One - Impressions of Ningxia
Greetings from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (with Inner Mongolia on it's northern border) in north central China. We first landed in/visited Yinchuan, Ningxia's Capital City. A city of over 1 million, here the streets are active but not as swarming with traffic and crowds of people as in Shanghai.
Part One - Impressions of Ningxia
Greetings from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (with Inner Mongolia on it's northern border) in north central China. We first landed in/visited Yinchuan, Ningxia's Capital City. A city of over 1 million, here the streets are active but not as swarming with traffic and crowds of people as in Shanghai.
Mel with Li Tao, Mr. He and our other hosts
We met a smiling, welcoming ,warm and very hospitable people, a mixture of majority Han Chinese(60%), Hui (Muslim) minority (30%) and a smattering of others. The Han are mostly urban and the Hui are mostly rural. At the airport our team, traveling with Shanghai Rotary's Frank Yih (we've told much you about him previously) and current club President Roger Owens (with wife Daisy) is greeted by officials of the Ningxia Charity Federation including He Yun-Sheng (whose son Lining was the person who introduced us to Ningxia and this project), Li Tao (a member of the Hui and an official with Youxie (the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries) and Frank Yih's very unique photographer friend Wang Bo. They accompany us throughout our stay here. As a leader of the USCPFA (US-China Peoples Friendship Association: see http://www.uscpfany.org/ for information about the Capital Region Chapter and http://www.uscpfa.org/ for the national web site) I have been meeting and traveling to China with Youxie since 1977.
We have just returned from our amazing visit to YanChi (City and County) and MaErZhuang, the site of our project area. In the project area a dry, warm air hits us during the mostly cloudy day; it quickly cools down at night. The dry reddish-brown earth quickly lets us know we are in the desert (even though we did "bring" a little welcome rain to the area; Helen said she always brings rain and that it can be blamed on her). Many here have never seen an American or even a Westerner and, at times, the widened eyes and stares are startling.
On arrival we are handed a schedule for our five and a half day stay there (arrival April 9, departure April 14). From the early rising and breakfasts to the evening banquet meetings we have 16 hour days with an amazing vast array (and that does not include our team getting
together to evaluate and plan). We begin in YanChi City and then move out into the countryside for most of our stay. The next several postings of this "Building Friendships" series will detail some of our experiences with outstanding individuals, visits with unique families in their home, visits to schools, food and beverages, the Hui Minority People and more.
Mel
We met a smiling, welcoming ,warm and very hospitable people, a mixture of majority Han Chinese(60%), Hui (Muslim) minority (30%) and a smattering of others. The Han are mostly urban and the Hui are mostly rural. At the airport our team, traveling with Shanghai Rotary's Frank Yih (we've told much you about him previously) and current club President Roger Owens (with wife Daisy) is greeted by officials of the Ningxia Charity Federation including He Yun-Sheng (whose son Lining was the person who introduced us to Ningxia and this project), Li Tao (a member of the Hui and an official with Youxie (the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries) and Frank Yih's very unique photographer friend Wang Bo. They accompany us throughout our stay here. As a leader of the USCPFA (US-China Peoples Friendship Association: see http://www.uscpfany.org/ for information about the Capital Region Chapter and http://www.uscpfa.org/ for the national web site) I have been meeting and traveling to China with Youxie since 1977.
We have just returned from our amazing visit to YanChi (City and County) and MaErZhuang, the site of our project area. In the project area a dry, warm air hits us during the mostly cloudy day; it quickly cools down at night. The dry reddish-brown earth quickly lets us know we are in the desert (even though we did "bring" a little welcome rain to the area; Helen said she always brings rain and that it can be blamed on her). Many here have never seen an American or even a Westerner and, at times, the widened eyes and stares are startling.
On arrival we are handed a schedule for our five and a half day stay there (arrival April 9, departure April 14). From the early rising and breakfasts to the evening banquet meetings we have 16 hour days with an amazing vast array (and that does not include our team getting
together to evaluate and plan). We begin in YanChi City and then move out into the countryside for most of our stay. The next several postings of this "Building Friendships" series will detail some of our experiences with outstanding individuals, visits with unique families in their home, visits to schools, food and beverages, the Hui Minority People and more.Mel
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