Ningxia Part 2: Village Comfort

Trip 2: Liujiamiao Village, Ningxia
Mid November 2007

Unlike my first trip to Zhangjiashu, the scenery this time round was completely different. No rain. No muddy slopes. No more greenery. Everything was brown. Dirt brown.

When I said there was no greenery in sight, I meant none at all. Not even green vegetables. For a dry village high up in the mountains, it is not possible for villagers to grow their own greens. Therefore, the only vegetables that they use here are root vegetables such as radishes and potatoes.

We visited the village of Liujiamiao and spent the night with the local families there. As foreign guests, we were very honoured to be invited to 3 dinners and 3 breakfasts during our time there. Every household insisted on having us over for a meal.

Handmade noodles are basic staples here. Freshly made in the little room that is at once their bedroom, kitchen and living room, we sat on the warm kang bed and watched as food was prepared in front us and served to us right there on the bed. That’s right, if you live here, this tiny room is all you get. Eat, sleep, cook, entertain your guests all in one multi-function room.

That night, after 3 dinners and some in-village entertainment over dancing and karaoke, we finally went to sleep inside one of the houses. Nothing was lacking in this village. My stomach was so full after 3 dinners that I couldn’t immediately sleep. The kang bed was in fact too warm that I had to take the blanket off every 5 minutes. The stove, which was next to the bed, was kept burning to keep the room heated so I could smell the charcoal burning throughout my sleep. And thank god I didn’t have to pee that night.

Now that’s another story. There are no toilets or bathrooms here. Or should I say, everywhere can be a toilet. When I asked one of the ladies to bring me to the toilet that evening, she brought me out to the open field next to the house and said, “Here. I’ll stand behind you to keep watch.” I looked out to the vast open land in front of me and the house behind, frantically trying to see if there’s a ditch or an elevated slope there. I was walking in circles.

“Stop walking any further. Do it here,” she said, wondering what the heck I was looking for. So there I was, in the middle of the open field under freezing conditions, answering nature’s call with the lady behind me.

Planet In Peril

The documentary Planet In Peril has been aired on CNN. Below are links to the China stories mentioned in previous posts (Staking out with CNN Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).

Planet In Peril - China: Part 1

Planet In Peril - China: Part 2

Bai Juhua- - the Mother behind Ma Yan

I’ve never heard of Ma Yan before filming this story. Excerpts of her diary published in the French newspaper, Liberation, got the French public talking. A little village girl in China who had no money to go to school—exotic location, mysterious Chinese village, touching story about a girl’s struggle to go to school—I can see why this was a story. However, as we got to know Ma Yan and her mother Bai Juhua, we discovered that the story was more about a mother’s struggle and sacrifice rather than just a girl who wrote a diary.

Bai Juhua, like many other villagers in the area, had to search for work in the neighbouring province of Inner Mongolia and nearby area of Jiayuguan. Many of the villagers survive on the odd labour of picking ‘facai’ or black moss. ‘Facai’ grows in the wild and finding any of this highly-prized delicacy depends very much on luck. Most of the ‘facai’ can be found in Inner Mongolia. It is also the widespread harvesting of these mosses that caused soil erosion and desertification in that area.

Bai Juhua and her fellow villagers had to climb onto moving trains to get to Inner Mongolia because they did not have enough money to buy a ticket. “We hid on the train for days and by the time we arrive, our faces were all black,” Bai laughed. Once, when she was gathering ‘facai’ deep in the mountains, she became so ill that she needed others to get her home. She had not eaten for 8 days and had severe gastric pains. “I was sick and I didn’t earn a dime,” she recounted. And Ma Yan couldn’t go to school because they did not have money.

“Initially, my reason for sending Ma Yan to school was because I didn’t want her to be like me. I only went to primary 1. I didn’t get to study anymore after that. So I told myself, no matter what happens, I am going to send my daughter to school,” Bai told me. Many girls in the village at that time were considered lucky to be able to go to school. Most would be married by the age of 15 or 16.

When Bai Juhua asked if I was married, I couldn’t help but let out a surprised laugh. I was 26 but I never thought I could be way over the hill compared to the village girls who got married at 16. When chatting with one of the village mothers with 3 kids, I discovered that she was only 25.

Many of the women in the villages did not get a chance to go to school. Right now, Bai Juhua devotes most of her time helping Enfants Du Ningxia, a French NGO set up by the journalist who discovered Ma Yan, providing scholarships and better education opportunities for poor children in rural areas. A portion of the royalties from Ma Yan’s publications goes into a trust for helping these children. Bai Juhua is also currently trying to set up a program to empower the rural women of Ningxia through a cooperative embroidery project.

Far Away from the Maddening Crowd

The villagers in the rural areas of Ningxia are Hui Muslims. As a minority group, couples are not restricted by the one-child policy. These kids here have 6 other siblings, making it 9 children in total for this family in Zhangjiashu.

From what we have seen, the whole family practically sleeps together on one bed in a small little room. How couples manage to procreate under such cozy conditions remains a mystery. It must have been a merry occasion by the time the 9^th child was conceived.