How Far Can We Walk

              CuiCui's trip

Good afternoon，everybody！I’m CuiCui，I have been studying at Web for 4 months，and this is my first presentation. I’m going to share a very important trip with you that I took last year.

In China，there is a secret nation called DuLong. The whole nation only has 4,000 people who were unknown untill the 1950s. They live in DuLongJiang Valley at the northwest corner of YunNan. There is a broken stone road that connects the valley to the nearest town, GongShan. Before the road was opened to traffic in 1999, DuLong people had to walk to the outside and get their living goods by horses. (2 photoes: 1 for DuLong people, 1 for map )

Last October, as a volunteer for Hope Project, I went to DuLongJiang Valley on foot. The beginning of the trip was at GongShan town, and the end point of the trip was at KongDang county. We walked 86 kms to experience the difficulty of DuLong people in traffic. It took us 3 days.(2 photoes: 1 for volunteers 1 for road)

The  volunteers came from 7 different citys in China, but most of them were from YunNan. Our baggage was carried by a truck and when we were tied, we sat on the road and cooked lunch. When the sun set down, we camped on the road.(2 photoes: 1for truck, 1 for lunch)

Although today, there is a road, it’s still very difficult for DuLong people to go out of the mountain because only one jeep runs from the town to the county every day. Due to the heavy snowfall, transportation to the valley is blocked for more than 6 months every year, so for at least half a year, they can’t go out of the valley. Perhaps there are few people, the nature of the valley is very good.(2 photoes for nature)

The DuLongJiang middle school was built in 2006, before that, the children had to walk 4-5 days to get to GongShan school. They carried quilts and pans by themselves and when the sun set they slept on the road. Now, they don’t have to go outside for school, but the condition of the DuLongJian school is not good. There aren’t bathrooms, so the children  often have to go to the bathroom in the river, and it’s very dangerous.

If the student can hand in 25RMB and 12.5 kg rice one term，they can have meals at school. Every meal has a vegetabale or soup. The teachers said they could eat a little meat once a week. When we asked the children what they ate at dinner, they said:“Milk! Eggs!Sausage!”In fact, that’s their imagination: the best food in the world. Most of the children haven’t seen a PingPang bat.(3 photoes for children)

HongKong Oxfam, two campanys in YunNan and all 66 volunteers bestowed 900,000RMB to YunNan Hope Project. The money will be used in the school and the children that need help.(1photoe)

This was the first time I had walked for so long. When I got to the end point, KongDang county, my foot was swelling, it was so painful that there were tears in my eyes.

After I came back，I often thought about a question:“If I was born in DuLongJiang and my family was very poor, what would I do?”

And now I want to ask you the same question. After the presentaton you can tell me your answer.

At last, let me share my few photoes in DuLongJiang with you.

Thank you!!