{"id":9,"date":"2011-01-06T02:54:33","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T02:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/?p=9"},"modified":"2016-04-09T02:55:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T02:55:19","slug":"first-glimpse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/2011\/01\/06\/first-glimpse\/","title":{"rendered":"First Glimpse"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>Beheaded willow trees lined the paths to the countryside.<br \/>\nSand dunes sat motionless in the winter, under a thin layer of snow.<br \/>\nHere the desert is like a sleeping giant, tamed by the gentle touches of the grasses and low shrubs.<br \/>\nIt is no longer the monster it once was.<br \/>\n\u2013 a first glimpse at Maowusu<\/p>\n<p>Two giant tubs of preserved cabbage, the kind of tub that only exist in the distance memory of my childhood.<br \/>\nTwo firewood heated beds, the locals call them kangs.<br \/>\nTwo old persons, a sick man and a very wrinkled woman stood by a small stove, burning corn husks.<br \/>\nIt was a typical house in the countryside.<br \/>\nMud houses were replaced with brick blocks, featureless and dull.<br \/>\nSheep are no longer allowed to roam the fragile land.<br \/>\nAnd people are left with no music to sing but only TV to watch.<br \/>\n\u2013 my first village stop<\/p>\n<p>One next to another,<br \/>\ncoal mines.<br \/>\nOne after another,<br \/>\nbig loaded trucks.<br \/>\nBy the ruin of the ancient walls,<br \/>\nthe development machine marches on, powering the civilization in the city, perhaps the light on my desk right now, and this computer.<\/p>\n<p>In the old town, by the brightly painted drum tower, the dark-faced coal seller peddled hard on his tricycle.<br \/>\nHis load must weigh a ton.<br \/>\nAround his nose, all dark.<br \/>\nHe remined me of an old poem.<br \/>\n\u2013 my first walk through the old town of Yulin<\/p>\n<p>The coal mines, the source of wealth and warmth for the city, is also collapsing the water table under this unique desert.<\/p>\n<p>I need to go further. Fancy dinner with government officals in a smoke-filled room doesn\u2019t inspire anything out of me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beheaded willow trees lined the paths to the countryside. Sand dunes sat motionless in the winter, under a thin layer of snow. Here the desert is like a sleeping giant, tamed by the gentle touches of the grasses and low shrubs. It is no longer the monster it once was. \u2013 a first glimpse at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10,"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waterdropfilms.com\/desertblog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}