I visited North Lake in Shihezi last week and had a delightful experience. It is these kinds of incidents that influence my decision to remain in China.
North Lake is a reservour established north of Shihezi for irrigation and fish farming. It may have a dozen artesian wells feeding into it below the surface. An artesian well is: "A well drilled through impermeable strata into strata that
receive water from a higher altitude so there is pressure to force the water to
flow upward." I am delighted to see artesian wells and there are many of them around this area. These wells are seen as a large diameter pipe protruding from the ground with water gushing from it, different wells flow at different pressures. Some have fast flows while others flow slowly but the water is always cold and clear. I can sit for hours and look at a well and imagine the flow of clear,
cold water seeping along underground from the mountains 50 km away to this place
here it exits the ground. They flow continuosly throughout all the seasons into
man-made ditches or creeks that meander to ponds and then lakes.
My friend and I were walking towards the entrance/exit of this lakeside entertainment facility when we happened upon a small group of young children playing along the water's edge. As we passed a girl's voice spoke,
" Hello..."
I smiled and turned back to say,
" Hello! How are you?"
She responded just as I expected with, "I'm fine, and you?"
I said,"I'm fine. My name is David. What is your name?"
Only one girl answered, "I'm Lucy."
I then asked each one of them, "How old are you?"
Each one answered,
"I'm 10!", even the littlest girl who could only be about 6 years old. :-)
After my "I'm glad to meet you" and "Bye bye!", we continued onward, leaving the group giggling.
I did not expect to see any of them again but they followed us and without speaking ran past us as we arrived at the place where we expected to catch the bus back to Shihezi.
A few minutes later they approached us again as a group and handed a card to my
friend saying something in Chinese to her. My friend told me they said they were giving me this card and I asked her, "Where did they get the card?"
"They went into that shop and pooled their money and altogether had enough to buy the card. Open it up, you will be surprised!"
She opened it and immediately a musical melody began to play.
I was touched.
"Give it back to her and ask her to give it to me again, OK?"
I then, respectfully, bowed slightly towards her extending both my arms and hands and she, using both her hands, passed the card into my hands with a shy smile.
I carefully thanked her, then each one of them in turn.
They then they ran away with shouts of delight.
I was left feeling happy and warm inside.
I don't think that this would happen with a simlar group in Canada. Children are not as naive ("Marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or
worldly experience") and friendly with strangers; they are taught not to talk to strangers at all.
I love Chinese children!
...to be contiued...
Canuck
