Changjiao Village
View from the beginning of the path to the village
When we arrived at the village, we knew we were going to have to walk into the village as the busses couldn’t really drive right into the heart of the village. This gave us an incredible view of the landscape. I’m not sure the photos do it any justice, but the village was surrounded by dragon’s teeth mountains. Most of the land at the base of the mountains had been farmed, and a paved road winded through the fields to the village which was tucked up against the base of one of the mountains.
Fields nestled into the valley formed between the mountains
As we neared the village, you could see that they had organized a welcoming party. Not just a party of people to welcome us, but more literally a party. The road was lined with what was probably everyone from the village. Many were dressed in traditional clothing as well as a group wearing Chinese opera costumes and masks. Later the opera group would perform for us. The women wearing the blue, I had at one point thought, had dressed for us, but later I started noticing more and more women in the region simply dressed this way. I’ve decided that in general, while it is considered traditional clothing, it is also just regularly worn by many of the women. The blue we learned is from the indigo dye which is readily available.
Nearing the village welcoming party
Everyone was very excited to see us as we arrived. It was a bit overwhelming to be welcomed as we were, but given we numbered almost 200 Americans, and the village school was supposed to have about 180 kids, our delegation must have been a bit overwhelming to them as well. The kids in the village were happy to pose for photos, and like their counterparts in the city, they too flashed the two finger “V” sign. I saw this in Beijing as well while touring the Forbidden City among people in their teens and twenties, so I guess its just a common practice all over China as I’m sure the people I saw at the Forbidden City were not from Beijing but from parts all over China.
Some of the boys
[/caption]When we arrived at the school, we greeted the children and looked at the school which was built with funds donated by People to People. Then the students sang us a song, the opera group performed, and a group of mothers performed a dance. As a reciprocal action, one of the delegations had organized themselves to sing the Hokey Pokey to the great amusement of both the other delegations and the villagers. After one performance, they pulled in as many as they could and did a joint delegate/villager performance of Hokey Pokey. All had an especially good laugh as they “put their backsides in”.
Another shot of the dragon's teeth
Ping Pong anyone?
There are far more photos of this than I can post here on the gallery.