As iron sharpens iron, people sharpen each other. The eight days spent in Yunnan Province, China, during our Social Practice have allowed us to gain more intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. We spent our first day teaching at the local primary schools in Jingdong. Some of us continued teaching until day five, while some of us finished our teaching on day two in order to conduct some research in other areas. With the help of local government officers, we visited different villages, plantations, tea manufacturers, and farms — which are all run by the residents of Jingdong.  

It was a short encounter with the students there, but we knew that we had left our legacy with them. A continuous flow of students came to us, asking for pictures or signatures with great enthusiasm, and a hint of sadness in their eyes. Some of them even came with teary eyes and runny noses, bearing the sadness of farewell. We thought we would be able to help them learn something new during our short teaching practice, but it seemed that the impact did not only go in one direction. At that very moment, we realized that we were also greatly impacted by their sincerity and love. It might have been our first teaching experience, but it taught us something extraordinary beyond just teaching the content to the students. We asked the students about their dreams and the futures they were trying to achieve. They blurted out genuine and innocent answers, and they were all filled with sincerity. Most of the children wanted to improve the life and quality of their families and hometown. Some of them even thought of the welfare of the country, so they wanted to serve China as soldiers. All of their choices were worthy of respect. As long as they work hard to achieve their dreams, their lives will be full of wonderful possibilities. It further warmed our hearts when one of them even expressed their feeling in English, using what we had taught them in the past two days. The effort that the students showed during the class — their laughter, their tears, and their smiles — helped us to learn more about the meaning of life, and how we can benefit the society where we live.

From day three to day five, we visited various places, which allowed us to learn the way of life and the local businesses of the residents in Jingdong. We learned about tea plantations and thier processing methods in two different local tea businesses. We visited the Yunzhonglai Tea House and Tianze Tea House. Ms. Gao, from Yunzhonglai Tea House, kindly showed us around the factory, where the tea leaves were processed and packaged to be sold to various places in China — even to the international market. Furthermore, she also guided us toward the tea plantation and showed us various herbal plants alongside the tea trees, which were grown in that area. We picked some tea leaves and ate them directly to taste the different leaf buds of the teas. They also served us a bitter green tea with a sweet aftertaste. It was my first time tasting such unique and elegant tea, fresh from nature. At Tianze
Tea House, we visited the facilities that were used to process the tea into tea cake. In their factories, we learned how to prepare the tea cake, ranging from drying the tea leaves, picking the best-dried tea leaves, measuring their weight, and compressing to re-dry them for tea cake. We also designed the package of the tea cakes ourselves. Thanks to Ms. Ma, the CEO of Tianze Tea House, we had an absolutely new and unique hands-on experience in making tea cakes.

Our journey became more adventurous as we visited Manwan Town, where we learned about the local agriculture businesses, especially its mango plantations. The mangos from this area have a longer ripening time, which enables this commodity to survive and maintain their quality during the long duration of shipping and storage. We were amazed at how hard the residents in Manwan Town worked in the various industries — including fisheries, agriculture, and cattle farming. After 10 years of tough struggle, the quality of life in this town has significantly improved, even though there are still obstacles to overcome and room to improve. Witnessing the situation in this town was a humbling experience. The people were so friendly and kind that they truly welcomed us to see the surrounding area of Manwan Town. Mr. Chai, as the Secretary of the Party Committee of Manwan Town, even spent the whole day accompanying us to various places. He brought us to sail the Lancang River and witness its beauty and the fisheries along the riverside. Manwan Town is quite a remote area, yet I could see proof of how the local government was committed to improving the quality of life by building various infrastructures that facilitate the local business. There were many obstacles as we explored Manwan Town. The mountainous topography required us to go up and down some slopes. Many of us might have never encountered such difficulties before. Although it seemed simple, this journey also helped one of our team members to break through her fear, since she was having difficulties climbing down one of the slopes around the cattle farm, even with the help of other members. Again, our unity and solidarity were strengthened as we bravely faced difficulties in our journey.

Different places have different problems to overcome. We also visited Shanchong Village in the Jingdong area that has different challenges compared to Manwan Town. Shanchong Village has sewage treatment difficulties due to a lack of unified waste disposal management. Yet, the local government tried their best to alleviate this situation by doing waste sorting, and encouraging the villagers to dispose of the waste appropriately by implementing a rewards system. The local government also renovated the public toilets and housing facilities that helped to promote healthy sanitation and waste disposal. The trip to Shanchong Village helped us learn about the complexity of managing rural areas, especially in improving the quality of life regardless of natural or social challenges. Our visit to Shanchong Village also broadened our perspectives on the complexity and the effort of the officials in various rural places in China, who serve the people for the betterment of their future.

We spent our last days in Jingdong summarizing our research, writing articles, and most importantly, preparing  to sell the local products of Jingdong online. We might not be able to directly help the local businesses there, but at least we could help them promote the products of Jingdong and improve their sales. The preparation and the online selling were led by Chen Ziyuan and Chen Zhirong. They divided and assigned different tasks to different group members to ensure that we had enough preparation for the task. Ziyuan even composed an ear-catching theme song for the live streaming. It was a particularly funny and uniting experience for us. For most of us, it was our first experience in online selling, yet we were able to do well during the event. It was all thanks to the hard work of the members in preparing, advertising, and executing the online selling. 

We could not have asked for a better Social Practice experience. All the preparations, challenges, and encounters with different people helped shape us and widen our horizons on life. Thanks to Zhejiang University and the local government of Jingdong County that facilitated this unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become better people.