This past weekend I had the chance to visit a small town in Zhejiang Province, here in China. It is called: TienTai. The town itself is practically insignificant, but it is surrounded by wonderful natural places, which are actually some of the National Parks of China in this province. I was with a colleague from work, a Chinese guy.
My Chinese is worst than ever (spoken), but I can understand a lot, nowadays (which makes me feel very proud!). During out trip, we met some of my friend friends from TaiZhou, a place near to TienTai. There were an old couple, their son and their little grand-daughter.
First, we went to the mansion of a rich old Chinese guy, from Qing dynasty (apparently he was very close to the Emperor). Afterwards, we visited a Temple, where I wanted to stay because of the peaceful atmosphere; then a forest with a beautiful waterfall, where it rained heavily for an hour or so; and finally, we ended up at the most wonderful place I have seen in China up to now: a national park with a huge cliff.
The place speaks by itself. It was astonishing just sitting there in the middle of a small peak and surrounded by a great canyon while admiring the sunset. I was speechless! When I went up again to the place where the old couple was standing (because we had to go downhill to reach that peak in the middle of the gorge), I told them with my poor Chinese and lots of signs that I loved the place. What I could understand from them was that in another province (Anhui), there’s an even better park than the one we visited (I cannot wait to go there!).
During the trip, we hardly talk to each other, unless we had my friend as translator. However, we got along pretty well. I wonder what it was: the facial expressions, the signs, the general attitude… but they liked me and I liked them, too. At the end of the trip my friend told me they were very pleased to meet me and that I would be most welcome to go there again.
I decided to title this post “A universal language”, because the more I relate to other cultures, the more I realize we all have the same “operative system” written in our souls.
Sometimes, we can speak with words, but they could say almost nothing… or we can speak with the mouth of our heart, and it could say thousand beautiful things that will be able to touch every single soul we encounter on our way. It all depends on us to make it pleasant or sorrowful to others. I definitely go for the former one!
Striving for Love,
AG
First, we went to the mansion of a rich old Chinese guy, from Qing dynasty (apparently he was very close to the Emperor). Afterwards, we visited a Temple, where I wanted to stay because of the peaceful atmosphere; then a forest with a beautiful waterfall, where it rained heavily for an hour or so; and finally, we ended up at the most wonderful place I have seen in China up to now: a national park with a huge cliff.
The place speaks by itself. It was astonishing just sitting there in the middle of a small peak and surrounded by a great canyon while admiring the sunset. I was speechless! When I went up again to the place where the old couple was standing (because we had to go downhill to reach that peak in the middle of the gorge), I told them with my poor Chinese and lots of signs that I loved the place. What I could understand from them was that in another province (Anhui), there’s an even better park than the one we visited (I cannot wait to go there!).
During the trip, we hardly talk to each other, unless we had my friend as translator. However, we got along pretty well. I wonder what it was: the facial expressions, the signs, the general attitude… but they liked me and I liked them, too. At the end of the trip my friend told me they were very pleased to meet me and that I would be most welcome to go there again.
I decided to title this post “A universal language”, because the more I relate to other cultures, the more I realize we all have the same “operative system” written in our souls.
Sometimes, we can speak with words, but they could say almost nothing… or we can speak with the mouth of our heart, and it could say thousand beautiful things that will be able to touch every single soul we encounter on our way. It all depends on us to make it pleasant or sorrowful to others. I definitely go for the former one!
Striving for Love,
AG
3 comments:
Geez, that cliff is gorgeous!!!
And it's a pity you couldn't see the rest of it... it was awesome! You had to be there to enjoy it as much as I did.
You're right to suggest that we have a common humanity. Have you ever looked at the planned universal language called Esperanto? It has speakers scattered all over China.
Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Bill
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