国庆节 - National Day

Famous for being the busiest travel week of the year, when foreign residents who've spent any period of time in China will tell you to stay at home to avoid the crowds, 国庆节 National Day, or 黄金周 Golden Week, is a public holiday where seemingly the entire country leaves their villages and crowds into the cities and popular travel destinations.

I experienced the holiday last year and, as such, decided to stay in Liuzhou this time, to avoid (not entirely successfully) being jostled and gawped at by tens of thousands of farmers. Besides, one of our members at Liuzhou Meet & Learn has some connections within the local tourism department and wanted some foreign volunteers to be taken around the city to attend the various events taking place. So, four members from our group set off to be photographed doing everything from walking around, to eating noodles, to being force fed tea by members of the local ethnic minority groups.

One thing that is so seductive about living in a smaller city in China is how special you're made to feel all the time, just by virtue of being foreign. The simple act of being able to use chopsticks, or stutter out a few words of badly pronounced Chinese, produces gasps of amazement from those not used to seeing foreign faces. So, in this light, it might make a bit more sense that the four of us appeared on local TV from the opening ceremony of a food event, ostensibly because we were eating noodles.

The following day, we were treated to amazing trips to an arts centre in a converted factory, where we saw local children working together to make an enormous group painting, and a nearby scenic area, (君武森林公园 Junwu Forest Park) where we were treated to traditional songs and dances by members of the local 侗族 Dong and 苗族 Miao minorities. We also participated in a 百家宴, literally 'hundred family feast', where everyone eats food prepared by local families together at huge tables. Just to see these great events would be an honour, but we were welcomed as special guests, given the best seats in the house and treated with a reverence that made me feel kind of guilty.

Once again, the benefits of being in this kind of social group, and getting to know such a wide range of people, foreign and local, can't be stated enough. If you're in Liuzhou, whether it's for a visit or to stay longer, contact us via email and get involved.

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Liuzhou Meet & Learn

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