In 2003 my brother, a childhood friend, and I traveled though various parts of northern China. My friend spoke Mandarin Chinese, but my brother and I could barely buy a bottle of water at local shops.
We made our way by train and bus to a tiny farming village on the edge of Inner Mongolia, far from major cities. The village was located next to the Great Wall of China, and some of the structures were built with bricks from a fallen section of wall. As we arrived in this village it was nightfall and cold, it was almost winter. Realizing that there probably wouldn’t be any accommodations we asked if we could stay on the bus to continue on. The bus driver refused to take us any further and we were stranded in this village, which amounted to just a handful of buildings.
A small makeshift hut with smoke rising out of a metal pipe in the roof was near the road where we were dropped off. It appeared to be the only inhabited structure, so we headed for it as our most immediate option. As we entered the shelter, which could barely contain the three of us, we realized it was a shop that had a few basic necessities like rice and water and a wood burning stove. A woman was huddled in the corner, and my friend politely asked if there was a hotel or somewhere to stay nearby. The answer was essentially no, but that we could stay at her house down the dirt road. We said ok, as we didn’t appear to have any other options.
After some waiting, a man arrived, apparently the woman’s husband, and we follow him to a one room candle lit house that contained a Buddha statue near the entry, a brick wood burning oven/fireplace, and a bed. The bed was built out of bricks, probably taken directly from the nearby Great Wall, and was attached to the stove so that the heat from the stove went under the bed. The bed was about queen sized and took up almost half of the house. Little else was in the house. We asked about a bathroom, at which a bucket along the wall was pointed out. We couldn’t engage the man much in conversation as he could not speak Mandarin, because only his wife knew Mandarin.
The man left the house abruptly without further instruction. I quickly went outside to use the bathroom as I didn’t want to use the bucket. Not knowing what to do next we decided to get in the bed and try to go to sleep. About 30 minutes later we heard the door open, the man was soon crawling into bed next to my brother, and we all went to sleep.
Chinese couple with my friend and me the next morning. Yes, it was cold
The main road in the village - notice the pig eating trash
The next morning we showed much gratitude to our hosts, took their picture, and were off to explore an unrestored section of the ancient Great Wall.
We were probably some of the very few foreigners to ever arrive at that village. At much more populated cities, people greeted us as though they had never seen a foreigner before. This generous couple opened their humble house and bed to us, and the woman stayed in her small shop through the night. By western standards they were very poor. However, it left me pondering, how many of us would be willing to be so hospitable to foreigners we had never meet before?
Below are some pictures of the remote and abandoned part of the great wall that we explored. It was an awesome adventure:
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!steemitworldmap 39.77 lat 112.86 long Great Wall China d3scr
Wow amazing story, amazing photos. Thank you for sharing them.
Hospitality in other countries put us to shame. We are naturally suspicious of people who do not have the same culture as us, but most are not deserving of this treatment. The ancient city of Sodom was known for it's lack of hospitality, I believe eastern cultures still remember this (like it's in their DNA) even to this day: God knows the heart and expects hospitality to strangers. What began as fear of God became love for the stranger. And that's where wisdom always begins. With the fear of God.
Bless the Most High!
@ironshield
Thank you fòr the good words @ironshield
The photos were taken with disposible cameras, one black and white and one regular, so the quality isn't so great. This was mostly before cell phones with cameras, google maps, and google translate.
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That looks like quite the adventure you guys had. Good thing none of you were married at the time as your wives probably wouldn't have been sleeping in a strangers bed that night... ;) And now here we all are, married and with children.
Yes, it was an adventure, you would have loved it.
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This was an adventure of a live time. Hospitality in eastern countries is astounding. Other cultures seem much more willing to share what they have than we are.
It was an adventurous trip with other stories. They are very generous and hospitable, often offering to give visitors their best.
What a great story, the best travel experiences usually come from the less beaten path. It is amazing to me the welcoming nature of many non-western cultures.
Wow very enjoyable trip!
Looks awesome, this does not look like any touristy part of the great wall, you went further up north?
No, certainly not the touristy part, there were no signs, trails, or trash to indicate any tourists. We came in from the north and headed south after visiting this part of wall.
Often when you have nothing much to lose, you actually have more to offer.
This couple is a classic contrast between those who have simple live and those who have so much that they are just not willing to give up.
Often times we are trapped in the latter group.
(I can't upvote this post but I'll love for another one to support you)
Yes, it's seems to be more freeing the less we have, we have gone through the process of getting rid of stuff for our recent move to Panama, but I think we still need to purge more things.