On our tour across China last year, Michelle and I had the chance to experience the hospitality and cooking of a local Chinese Family in the Dongcheng District of Beijing. The family hosted our entire travel group for an authentic meal.
We were served rice, green beans, pork, and chicken along with chips and sodas. Michelle is a pescetarian, meaning she eats fish but not meat, so she sat with the other members of the group with dietary restrictions. I remember the pork and chicken being tasty and flavorful, and I was told the non-meat eaters enjoyed their meal as well.
After the dinner, the father took us outside and told us about his life and his family. He made a career for himself in martial arts and both of his sons teach martial arts. One of his son's was successful enough to move to the United States to teach. You could tell he was very proud.
The man told us of his martial arts studio and how grand his dojo used to be. There were pictures and awards hanging all throughout the house. The dojo was once connected to his house, but in China the government owns all land. Every 70 years people must pay to keep using the property. If you can't pay then you lose it and the government gives land use rights to someone who can. The house and dojo were built very close to an ancient bell tower causing the property value to increase drastically and he could no longer pay for the land of his house and dojo. He chose to keep the house and continues teaching out of his home. The government might have stolen his property but they have yet to take his spirit and passion for martial arts.
Before we left, the father played us a song on an ancient Chinese two-stringed fiddle called the Erhu. It was a real pleasure to watch and listen. I will have a dtube video up shortly of the song he played.
Below are some pictures from the experience:
Michelle and I took a month to travel across Japan and China last May (2017). It was epic! Follow me, @slickwilly and Michelle, @curiouser for posts about our travel adventures!
Hi there, I’m Will. First and foremost I am an entrepreneur and voluntaryist. I aspire to help build a more free world, one that we all want to live in. Some of my biggest passions include cryptocurrencies, marketing, finance, cannabis, traveling, bodybuilding, snowboarding, motorcycles, and Subarus. All pictures are my own unless otherwise stated. I release everything under CC0.
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