6/16/13

6/16/13, 9:00pm, Taiyuan

This morning we took a bullet train to Taiyuan from Beijing. Taiyuan is in the province Shanxi, which is on the Loess Plateau. Once we got here we checked into our hotel and then took a bus to Wangwenling, a small village of about 200 people on the Loess Plateau. The plateau once had really dense forests but is now very bare, and is used for growing sorghum. Because of deforestation, there has been a lot of erosion in the area. This is detrimental to the surrounding communities because when soil erodes, the nutrients and minerals wash away with the water and what is left is really weak soil that is not good for crops. This is how the Yellow River got its name. There is now sediment that changes the color of the water. 

While there, we climbed through some of the hills and did soil testing for erosion. We took samples from high, medium, and low vegetation areas. For the low vegetation, we took a piece of soil from the side of the hill where it looks like the soil is most prone to eroding in rain. The sample only scored a 3 because much of the soil dissolved into the water when we did the test. The soil surrounding trees did not erode a lot, which shows that reforestation is a very worthwhile effort because while it reduces erosion by holding onto the soil, it also restores it. 

Visiting the village was extremely valuable because I’ve never been anywhere like it before. There were a lot of sustenance farms around; I believe every home had a little farm outside. We also saw some donkeys, goats, sheep, chickens, and dogs. The dogs are used mainly as guard dogs. As we got close to the houses most of them started to growl at us! To dispose of garbage, some things are pushed over ledges nearby their homes. I heard someone say that once a week they burn all of their trash. This is bad for the environment especially if they have anything plastic to burn.

We had dinner at the Village Head’s house and the food was fantastic! I love Chinese food more each day. There were different types of tofu with many vegetables. We watched one of the women hand roll little noodles out of dough for us. Everything they gave us was delicious and extremely fresh. I’m assuming most of the food served was relatively local – they probably have local markets that they go to for food. Some of what was served may have come straight from their garden. I learned that in Chinese culture, it makes the host feel bad if all the food is finished. They worry that they did not provide enough food! So if someone keeps finishing their plates, they will keep bringing them more food! This is completely opposite of American culture, because many people think it is rude not to finish all of the food provided. But Chinese people feel rude if they did not provide enough food. I think this old tradition is starting to change, however, because food is becoming scarcer with population growth and land loss. 

This area is also extremely dry, so water is valued. To wash our hands before dinner we all shared a bucket of water with a bar of soap. It was clear that water is scarce just by looking around because most of the soil was dry and crumbly. They also integrate this need to collect water into their architecture. Many of the roofs are sloped with holes in the top so the rainwater can be collected into a bucket. Much of the large-scale farming takes place on terraced land. This is when the farmers flatten out sections of hills to make it suitable for farming. There were plots of crops all over the mountains using this method.