Beijing Experience - Elaine Yu

As if the Great Wall wasn’t great enough, we visited Mu Tian Yu Village’s old mayor to hear his story. After lunch at The Schoolhouse, we walked over to his village home to visit him, his wife, and new puppy. His story was one of his struggle for education, his experience in China’s Great Leap Forward, and his fight for Mu Tian Yu Village’s survival.  Watching him tell his story in his native Mandarin Chinese was very touching, thought-provoking, and nostalgic. The mayor is similar in age to my own grandfather. But rather than staying in China during that time period, my grandfather and his family decided to move to Hong Kong where the social, political, and economic situation was and is still so different. It was very interesting listening to someone who made a different decision and witnessing the implications on his entire family lineage even today.