The visit to Hongqing was a really cool experience. I feel like we have seen a lot of urban places and getting to see a more rural village was a really cool contrast. First of all it was really shocking just how obvious it is that all of the young adults and middle aged people left to work. I really feel like 95% of the people there were either younger than 10 or older than 60. This really shows how the culture has changed and how people have to leave now for education and job opportunities. Xinli said when he lived there the population was about 4,000 and now it is around 1,000 because that large group of young adults and middle aged people who left. I also thought it was really cool to see how friendly and welcoming everyone was. All of the people outside were waving to us and had big smiles on their faces- they were welcoming rather than being angry or annoyed that we were there. There was two people an older man and woman who had a cumquat tree and they invited us in and let us pick some from it and then the woman brought out a huge basket of already picked ones. They kept insisting that we eat one and once we did they just kept offering more, I thought this was a really kind gesture because all they wanted to do was share what they had. Lastly, Xinli’s entire family his mother, uncle, siblings niece and nephew were all so welcoming. They let us into their homes, they hosted us for dinner, and they seemed happy to do it. The village seemed to have a really cool sense of community and I really liked getting to see that first hand.