I didn’t even think to look up the Chinese word for Stop but the driver knew my stop and left me on the highway. It was a 15 minute walk down a quiet and narrow country road through thick green fields with all my gear on my back but I finally made it to the farm I’d be staying at for the next few weeks.
This farm ended up being a huge turning point for my visit in China. I didn’t have any idea what to expect before I arrived at Fanpu farm and I kinda figured I’d be one of maybe just a few volunteers, if that, but there were 13 others, all students from China, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Russia.
Prior to this point I was feeling a little dissatisfied with China because all the cool places I had visited or was trying to go visit were packed with people to the point where I couldn’t get the enjoyment out of it that I was expecting to. I wanted to lay low for a while until after the Chinese New Year was completely over and to slow down and try to get a little more connected to what rural China is like. Life on this farm was a stark contrast to the mega cities of China. From the farm, I could see rows of high rises of a nearby city twinkling in the distance each night but the farm was quiet and relaxing, for the most part.
I was asked where I’d like to help out and I just told one of the owners that I’ll help out wherever help is needed. This farm is a community-run farm focused on renewable resources and living a sustainable life and also has an affiliated homestay nearby called Fanpu Life that I worked at as well. Both of these locations are community run farms that have some unexpected methods of income. There are often constructive workshops and activities for kids and adults but agri-tourism seems to be really popular as well. I didn’t believe it at first because I couldn’t think of why anyone would want to come for tours or do photoshoots on a farm but WOW was there ever a lot of Chinese women coming in and getting dressed in traditional and very colorful Chinese attire and of course with an army of photographers in their wake. They would spend hours at the back of the farm taking pictures, breaking only for a huge catered lunch.
I ended having a nice variety of duties during my stay. My first day at Fanpu Life was pretty slow but relaxing. It was really cold out and I was painting signs outside so the owner kept telling me to stop and rest and have some hot tea. My progress was also hindered by Chinese tourists and a group of girls that all seemed to be more interested in me than of the tranquil homestay around them. I get it, I stand out…
You know, I intentionally packed clothes that are dark in color like black and grey and have very subtle logos or none at all to help me just blend in and not stand out like a sore thumb but I’m not Chinese so, just like in Mongolia, I catch a lot of attention wherever I go.
I partially took over from a German couple that was leaving that day but we had difficulty communicating the responsibilities I should be taking over. The guy barely spoke any English and, awkwardly, I didn’t realize right away that his wife or girlfriend is deaf. However, she can speak English much better than the guy can so we managed to chat for a bit before they left. I couldn’t help but imagine the added struggles of traveling through a foreign country without being able to hear. But then I realized it probably isn’t all that different because, although I am able to hear Chinese conversations, I can’t understand any of it anyway.
The agenda for the next three days involved helping a group of kids build their fantasy home out of cardboard and of raw natural materials we could find outside the classroom. Some of the kids had wildly imaginative creations but they soon realized you can’t practically construct a castle with 1000 floors or build your house inside of the sun. However, teleportation rooms and a room with a full stock of immunity and anti-aging elixirs somehow made the cut.
A few kids had practical or at least buildable designs and were able to build their homes incredibly close to the blueprints they drew up on Day 1. It didn’t take long for me to become popular with these little ones as well. Each time a kid asked me to construct something for them, every other kid loved the creation so much they wanted one too. To keep things interesting, I would only make two or three of something and then would instead build something completely different for the next kid. A car, telescope, chandelier, kitchen cabinets, computer desk, stairs, lamps, etc.
The kids were a lot of fun but there was a bigger reason why the other volunteers and I wanted to stay there and not go back to the farm. The food!
Maybe it was because the kitchen was catering to kids that may be fussy over particular foods but the cooks had prepared a large variety of dishes and all of it was unbelievably delicious. Out of this tiny kitchen they made so much food that we couldn’t get enough of. It was so tasty we just couldn’t stop eating it, even well after being full. Back at Fanpu farm there is a commercial sized kitchen and the food is delicious there too but there was just a larger variety of it at Fanpu Life so we really got spoiled.
Back at the farm my duties included helping with kids activities but most of the time it was things like clearing grass and other rubbish, organizing or moving piles of wood, carpentry duties, chasing and capturing a dozen ducks to relocate them to a pond, and installing the Mint Linux distro on a Dell PC with a Microsoft Kinect and projector attached and installing special software to create an augmented reality sandbox kiosk that will allow kids to terraform the sand and the PC will analyze that 3D topology and project grass, mountains and water on top of the shaped sand surface. You know, typical generic farm duties 😉
After the first week, all 13 students left so I was on my own in the large sleeping area. It’s a renovated cowpen that is open to the outside at the top of the walls so it’s basically always the same temperature as outside. That meant it got really cold at night and I had to throw some extra blankets on top of my sleeping bag. Showers weren’t much better. There were electric heaters to give you hot water but you just wash yourself while squatted over a squat toilet and then you brave the chilly evening air once you turn off the water.
Shortly before the students left the farm, it was the Chinese Lantern Festival which marks the end of the Spring Festival. I stood outside the farm gate and watched fireworks go off in every direction and the others that came to watch all regretted not buying fireworks that afternoon so we immediately walked to town to find some. By the time we got there, all the good ones were sold out but the one thing I had really wanted to experience prior to arriving in China was to watch lanterns float up into the sky. We weren’t close enough to the city to go see that so we bought lanterns for everyone back at the farm. Basically, you’re supposed to make a wish or write a wish on the lantern and then light it to let your wish float up into the night sky. In hindsight, we should have bought extra lighters to release more lanterns simultaneously but we all had a fun time and everyone enjoyed it. Even the Russian girl who was the only one who couldn’t get her lantern to float away. Twice actually. We gave her another block of fuel and it failed to lift off again. You could hear such a painful disappointment in her voice that her wish couldn’t float away so we had to burn the lantern in the fireplace to free the trapped wish.
The day after the Lantern Festival, very somber music started playing from a loudspeaker next to the farm, breaking the quiet atmosphere that made it so nice to work here. This music indicated that a person had died is about to die and this funeral music can go on for up to 10 days. The music woke me up each morning at around 7am because the speaker was right next to where I slept and it didn’t stop until the evening. On the third evening, it changed to a live band with almost endless firecrackers and fireworks. The fireworks were lit directly above where I was sleeping and fragments of fireworks were raining down on the roof above me.
The oddest part was the live band. It was still very somber music but it included some performances that I can only really describe as “Cry Singing” I’m not sure if that is even a thing but it sounded like a woman and man were singing songs while crying so hard they were gasping for air. It was so surreal to listen to.
I suspect the deceased was an elder because of how huge the celebration was. Chinese funerals are like what I imagined their Chinese New Year would be but not all funerals are a big event and it largely depends on wealth and the age of the deceased.
During my stay at the farm, I kept finding myself asking “What am I doing here?” My intentions were to get away from the city and be helpful. I wasn’t ready to leave yet after a couple weeks but, as the days added up, I felt I should stay focused on the “travel” part of travelling for the remainder of my Visa duration.
The staff were getting maybe a little too comfortable with me anyway. The owner never asked when I was leaving, even after a week from when I had originally planned to leave but he insisted on helping me get a work visa so I could stay long-term. They gladly would have kept me there longer but I had less than a month left on my Visa with plenty of places left I wanted to visit so I finally said goodbye in early March.