During my way coming down from Huang Lung (SiChuan), we happened to travel past this one village. Until today, I could still remember two experiences vividly to further mark this trip memorable.
The first - the river at the background of the picture does not freeze during winter. According to the native, there were an earthquake long long time ago in the middle of the night, which flooded the whole village and formed this river. As the villagers were soundly asleep then, they never knew that they were dead. Still, they carried out their daily chores. Therefore, the river is always active even during winter. Spooky...
The second - my tour guide left his very important bag, which had 10k RMB and credit card here. We would have to sleep on the street in cold, like all the suffering victims now. Luckily, the red jacket guy at the background drove for one and half hour, rushing down dangerous winding road in the dark evening to chase after our bus. He was courageous to park his old van in front of our speedy huge bus. Of course, the bus halted.
Our tour guide woke up from his dream, thinking that our bus driver had accidentally run over domestic animal on the way. When the guy handed him his bag, he was dumbfounded with just "thank you". The guy was not the typical china con man that we heard from all the China misbehaved by-the-roadside stall keepers/selling-fake-iphone gadget traders. He walked back to his van with an ear-to-ear smile, ignited his small white van and waving to us. He went in the opposite direction. I saluted him inside my heart. Later, my tour guide said the amount of money was able to sustain a whole big family for half a year at their village. Furthermore, he was only seem to make living by renting out his well-decorated bison for tourists' photo shooting. So, I completely respect his honesty, which with no expectation of rewards.
Why am I backtracking all these stories? It is because I have been following the earthquake news from SiChuan. I am reading all the familiar place names from newspaper. I am still caught in shock. Nine months ago, I was there hearing a sad story about one of the worst SiChuan earthquakes. Now, they are going through the worst earthquake in the history. I wholeheartedly hope the good Samaritan and his family have safely avoided this disaster.
The first - the river at the background of the picture does not freeze during winter. According to the native, there were an earthquake long long time ago in the middle of the night, which flooded the whole village and formed this river. As the villagers were soundly asleep then, they never knew that they were dead. Still, they carried out their daily chores. Therefore, the river is always active even during winter. Spooky...
The second - my tour guide left his very important bag, which had 10k RMB and credit card here. We would have to sleep on the street in cold, like all the suffering victims now. Luckily, the red jacket guy at the background drove for one and half hour, rushing down dangerous winding road in the dark evening to chase after our bus. He was courageous to park his old van in front of our speedy huge bus. Of course, the bus halted.
Our tour guide woke up from his dream, thinking that our bus driver had accidentally run over domestic animal on the way. When the guy handed him his bag, he was dumbfounded with just "thank you". The guy was not the typical china con man that we heard from all the China misbehaved by-the-roadside stall keepers/selling-fake-iphone gadget traders. He walked back to his van with an ear-to-ear smile, ignited his small white van and waving to us. He went in the opposite direction. I saluted him inside my heart. Later, my tour guide said the amount of money was able to sustain a whole big family for half a year at their village. Furthermore, he was only seem to make living by renting out his well-decorated bison for tourists' photo shooting. So, I completely respect his honesty, which with no expectation of rewards.
Why am I backtracking all these stories? It is because I have been following the earthquake news from SiChuan. I am reading all the familiar place names from newspaper. I am still caught in shock. Nine months ago, I was there hearing a sad story about one of the worst SiChuan earthquakes. Now, they are going through the worst earthquake in the history. I wholeheartedly hope the good Samaritan and his family have safely avoided this disaster.
All the people in China - jia you, jia you!
p/s: Our community team is driving a donation campaign for the Myanmar cyclone victims in the company until tomorrow. Now, I feel like initiate another one to help the lively people I met during my last trip in SiChuan. You can help too: KwongWah's SiChuan Earthquake's Donation Drive/International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies/World Vision