Today was a fabulous day! I'm not sure if it's the smaller community feeling or the people in general but the Yanji area of Yanbian is just amazing. We are grateful to our friends in Yanji for taking care of our
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Our group outside the Yanbian College of Foreign Languages. |
dear companion, Nancy, who is ill and traveling back home today to Washington, DC. We hope that Nancy is feeling better soon and we are praying that the doctors in the U.S. can find and treat her illness quickly. The people here have jumped right in to take care of us. One young man helped get her to the hospital. A wonderful teacher, Gloria, from Yanbian University, sat with Nancy the entire time at the hospital so that she would not be alone and could translate for her. We have truly been blessed by their kindness and honored to call them our Chinese brothers and sisters. We also said a tearful goodbye to our Chinese guide, Mr. Zhai. He escorted Nancy to Beijing so that she could fly from there directly to DC. He has been our rock and has a great sense of humor; both of which are needed with such a rigorous schedule. How lucky we are that he crossed our path.
This morning we went to the Yanbian College of Foreign Languages. There we met with a variety of teachers and the President of the College of Foreign Languages. They were so forthcoming in helping us understand the Yanbian area and the large ethnic Korean community that resides here. You can see the Korean influence on the streets and through the food that we have been eating, a little spicy (and it included dog). Geez, I hope our two home-bound pooches aren't following this blog! Many of the people we have met are tri-lingual Chinese ethnic Koreans who speak Chinese, Korean, and English. It was very interesting to hear the options students have in this: Attending Chinese or Korean schools, and that they have the option as an ethnic minority to take the college entrance exam in Korean.
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At the Yanbian Arts Theatre we watched a traditional Korean flower dance. The ancestors of the Korean ethnic group here migrated from the Korean peninsula from about the late 17th century, mostly peasants fleeing from their oppressive feudal landlords. The Koreans are very fond of music. They sometimes sing and dance to the accompaniment of drums and flutes in the fields or on construction sites. |
Tonight's highlight was a traditional Korean song and dance show at the Yanbian Arts Theater. We had marvelous seats to see the beautiful costumes and hear Korean music. Midway through the show we were served rice wine. Sorry, not brave enough. Besides, we toasted so much during lunchtime that more alcohol was not in my picture tonight. I cannot believe we only have one more full day in Yanji. I would love to stay here longer and highly recommend that everyone put Yanji on their places to travel list. Wow!!
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