September 12, 2014 - 16:13
On 29th of May, 2014, I finally graduated from high school and finished the arduous 12 years of Chinese education. Seen off my hardworking and busy three-year-life in high school, I found out that I would never have this kind of restrained life any more, but what would my future be. It seemed that I have never imagined my future with inspiring reverie. I’ve even never thought deeply about my inner enthusiasm, my dream. The only thing I’ve done so far was moving along with the hustle and bustle crowd. Though my brain has been stuffed with knowledge, I can feel that my heart is empty. So I embarked on the plane to Lijiang, Yunnan, starting off a trip to meet with different cultures and integrate myself.
I flew 4 hours from Shanghai to Lijiang, from the west coast to the plateau in the eastern part of China, from a bustling modern city to a tranquil little town. The first view of Lijiang from porthole of the airplane shocked me. A totally different scenery, different from the plains in Shanghai, the airport is surrounded by the reddish soaring mountains.
I chose to live in a quaint inn located in the ancient town. Looking out from the creaky wooden windows, I can see people dressed in simple cotton dresses on the bumpy stone path instead of those dressed in luxuries crowded in the subway in Shanghai. The sky seems clearer when I’m situated at a place with much higher altitude, or maybe it’s just because of the serious pollution in Shanghai veiled the sky. Anyway, Lijiang is completely a peaceful village close to nature.
As the sun was setting, I stepped on the rocky road and looked around in the ancient town. There are all kinds of little stores opened alongside the roads, selling a variety of things: from art craft to local flavors. I went into a delicate hand craft store, viewing all the art pieces hung on wall and wondering why isn’t any one coming to receive me. When I wandered to the back of the room, I encountered a young woman immersed in beading a rosary. She greeted me and continued her work, like the rosary has a strong appeal to her and she doesn’t even care if I would buy anything in her store. Looking at her picking and appreciating the wooden beads carefully, ‘What’s so interesting in the rosary?’ I asked. ‘Don’t you think the different textures of the beads are so amazing? It’s just like telling us its own story…’ She kept focusing on her rosary as she answered.
Her words inspired me: the unique grains on the beads are just like the wooden bead’s own identity. All things in nature had its own story its own identity and looking at the rosary is same as looking into a colorful world which contained stories with different background. I think these are the things I’m looking for: a different way of life, a different kind of culture: embrace and respect nature, what the fast-paced life in shanghai can’t give me.
Lijiang is a place where people are from all over the country. Many people came to Lijiang to escape from the stressful city life or to find a quiet place to clearly reflect on themselves, find their lost dreams. So all kinds of culture converged here and spontaneously formed into a kind of contact zone. However, Lijiang is a different kind of contact zone, a contact zone which contained many different cultures and will continuously adopt and inspire everyone here.
At this place, I could do nothing but pondering all afternoon with a pot of refreshing tea and I can chat with a stranger I just met for all day without worrying my dreams and thoughts being laughed at. In the different encounters with people in Lijiang, I heard about different customs, distinctive thoughts and others’ dreams. I introspect into myself while hearing others stories, and also share my thoughts and opinions with other people.
I heard many different stories. Sometimes, two people have similar experiences, but because of their different backgrounds, they gained different feelings from the experience. The same time as I was listening to others, I heard my heart. I found the lost part of myself here. Instead of a mechanical student, I was integrated to be an energetic human being with thoughts, trying to comprehend the mystic natural world and being enthusiastic to change the world.
I believe, as Lijiang enriched my inner soul and integrated me, there is also something that I left at Lijiang. Though my thoughts and experience isn’t significant, it is the part of the variety culture there, the part that support and expand the unique contact zone.