Sunday, June 13, 2010

My home in China!

Ever wondered what a typical Chinese Migrant life is like in China? Most of us from the country side still farm crops as a main occupation. My parents are both farmers and we live on a piece of land where we built our home. Our homes are not modern in any way. It's made mostly of concrete and has basic amenities by most country's standards. Some areas, such as the toilets are still made from bricks. Here is a picture of the toilets. No modern flushing system for sure.... but it serves its intended purpose well enough.

We don't have hot water or tap water and we have to get our water by manually pumping them from the ground. Ha, you may think this is ancient but recently, I was back home and it is exactly the same as when I left. While China has progressed by leaps and bounds, this is only in the city. The country side is much the same. Can you imagine being without hot water in the winter... and I can assure  you that winter is very, very cold here in Benxi.

We do have a pump system run by a generator but this is only used when we need lots of water in a hurry such as when we need ground water for irrigation. Otherwise, for most day-to-day use, we have to resort to pumping manually.

Is the water clean enough for drinking? For us, yes... but I guess that's because we've been acclimatized to bacteria present in the ground water. We boil the water before drinking them of course and they do taste different from the clean tap water in many developed countries. In fact, they have a rather unpleasant smell sometimes.

Well, I will tell you more about home every now and then... but you can see, we're used to hard work and life can be tough at times.

13 comments:

  1. Dear Li Jing,

    Not sure whether you are for real or not. Fact is that you write extremely well - as good as any journalist. Your English is excellent!

    I am reading your blog from Singapore. I hope you will finally make it to Singapore without too much hurdles. But there are certain things you need to know about life in Singapore. Please e-mail me urgently at:

    meimei5151@gmail.com

    Enjoyed your blog. It's very touching and inspiring. Hope to meet you in person in Singapore one day.

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  2. Wow, very interesting blog. And you do write well. In fact so well that I think you'll be doing yourself a service if you tell your readers where pick up your English. Don't get me wrong. I'm not looking down on you. But people can't help but be skeptical when you claimed to come from such humble background yet have such a good command of English.

    Cheers

    David

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  3. Hey, what are you up to? Why are impersonating a Chinese gal with this blog? The passport you put up was issued 2 years ago. Yet you spun a story about applying for it and getting it this year. You think your readers are idiots??

    Wake up, man.

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  4. Hey..she's writing about her past..so nothing wrong when the passport was issued 2 years ago.

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  5. Dear Li Jing,

    Just to confirm that you're the person that i know...you work at a canteen somewhere at the eastern part of Singapore.

    During your last day of work...you mentioned "this is the last time i'm making coffee for you today, as I'm returning home to China tomorrow".

    A lady that never fail to say good morning with a smile on her face :-)

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  6. 对了, 就是我啊!欢迎你来读我的blog!

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  7. 哈哈,这世界也真小。。。从你的部落格才知道呢的名字,不好意思!

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  8. 哈哈Roland, 要告诉你 Chai Chee 朋友来我的部落格参观参观啊!OK!

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  9. 一定。。。希望你回家后生活过得还好!

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  10. 谢谢,我回来新加坡会告诉你!我好想回来啊!这边很难过活啊!哈哈!

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  11. Hi Li Jing, 怪不得最近没在Chai Chee看到你。你亲切的服务态度给我留下深刻的印象。希望你能得尝所愿。

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  12. 谢谢, James, 我好开心看到你们找到我的部落格啊!多感谢!

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  13. Hi Jing,

    Please send an email to me, I can look for jobs for you.

    Arthur

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