A Poignant Farewell To China: July 11th

This is the Pedestrian Market. It's lot of fun to go people watching here. While I was taking this pictures, other people also stopped and took pictures of my family too. If I had a dollar for everyone who took a picture of Nicole this trip (primarily men) I could have paid for her airfare!

Today was our last day in China. We had to checkout at 2:00 p.m. but our ride for the airport didn’t come until 5 p.m. My family would have been happy to “veg” for those few hours, but I, being the overachiever that I am, wanted to cram one last site in.

We first went for lunch, flat rice noodles. We have sure loved the yummy Chinese food we’ve had here. It’s hard to find good Chinese food in Utah, and we’ll miss it! We stopped at the pedestrian market to look for a book that Derek wanted. Then with an hour left, we hopped in a Taxi to go to the Six Banyan temple.

The temple was first built around 400 A.D. but then rebuilt around 1450. It is a traditional Buddhist temple. Before “New China” and the cultural revolution, a large majority of the population were Buddhist, which also encompasses ancestor worship. During the Cultural Revolution many temples were destroyed, and most religious practices were forbidden. Even with more religious tolerance at present, much of the traditional religious practices have not rebounded. Some of the older generation still practice, but much of the younger generation are not religious. Christianity has been allowed in, but on a limited and controlled basis. Religion has been such an integral part of Chinese culture and society it’s unfortunate so much of that was destroyed and taken from the people.

There were three main buildings, The 11 story Pagoda, The temple with the three Buddhas, and the temple with GwanYin, The Goddess of Mercy and of women. As we walked out of the temple to catch a taxi back to the hotel there were a couple of men begging. When they saw us they walked over to us, but they did not ask for money. They came to see Siyuan. The one, like Siyuan, was missing his arm and hand. The other had both arms, but no hands.

We love China, it’s culture, it’s history and mostly it’s people. They are intelligent, warm, creative, resourceful and resilient. But we feel sad that they still have so much ignorance and prejudice towards people with disabilities. These men were probably not allowed to even attend school. We asked our guide about Siyuan. With more openmindedness towards disabilities he most likely could have attended school. However, after high school he would not be able to get a job. He too would probably have spent his adult life as a beggar.

They were curious why Siyuan was with this American family. We told them we had adopted him, and he would return and live with us in America. Their faces were filled with emotion and we could see how touched they were by this. For them, their whole life was defined, not by their personality, not by their abilities or talents, or even their desires. Their life was defined by their disability. But this little boy, his life was open to possibility, open to dreams. "XieXie, XieXie, (Thank you, Thank you)" was all they said. As we got in the Taxi they waved goodbye to him, their faces beaming. Their smiles showed no bitterness, but genuine joy that this little boy had a chance at a life better than theirs. This last interaction with these men, was a tender and poignant farewell to China.