Good morning guys!
It is currently about 3 a.m.
I have just gotten ready to leave for my newest trip within China.
Today I am so excited to be going to a town in midwestern China called Lin Zhou.
Headed off to the airport, I'll be taking a 3-ish hour flight to Handan,
and then the town is about 2 hours outside of the airport.
Need to say bye to Livio because he is going to be staying back here in Shenzhen
But I will see him again in a few days.
Bye.
- Bye!
Just landed in Handan.
This is my ride for the next few days.
I don't know why this is the ride but... it is.
It's like a - it's like a tank limo.
It has a coffee machine, it has a fridge, it has satellite TV.
- Massage...
And why - but why is it bulletproof?
Why does it need to be bulletproof?
- Because...
- Just extra?
- Just extra, yeah.
Look at this place!
This is basically the view from the hotel.
The hotel is there, and then... there are these mountains in the distance.
Right now we are going to an award ceremony for an art competition.
The town actually sponsors this competition. And they invite locals and farmers to participate
in the competition and they actually buy all of the art supplies for the people.
Everything, and they just give it to the people.
And then everyone that wins an award gets a cash prize.
It's to kind of foster creativity among people that might not necessarily
get so many opportunities to let their creativity shine.
They are really for everyone being able to get an education
and a chance at making something of themselves
not just the rich are rich and the poor stay poor
they're really against that
So they try and support the community and yeah, it's just a really cool mindset
to be in, and be a part of.
Excited to go to the awards ceremony.
Actually I have to change.
You should introduce yourself.
- Hi, I'm Jason!
Jason Qiao.
- Yeah.
So, Jason is showing me around, um... yeah, apparently in style.
Jordan.
We're here.
- It's amazing!
- You're in a different world now.
Look at how beautiful this is.
Really cannot get over how beautiful it is.
Walking along one of the canals right now.
I really feel like I am in another world right now.
Look at this.
The awards ceremony has finished.
It was really amazing to watch, and in this gorgeous scenery.
Love this place so much.
I don't want to leave.
This must be one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen in my life.
Absolutely incredible.
Hi guys, I am here at part of the Hongqi Canals.
I wanted to tell the story of this place
the canals here have just a really fascinating story.
When you look at Lin Zhou now,
it's so vibrantly green,
you would never guess that for hundreds of years,
this area was actually the site of drought, famine, and starvation.
This is a story that they were trying to get the water from a very long distance
7 or 8 miles.
The bucket of water was just flipped, and then they were so disappointed,
so upset about flipping the water,
so they actually committed suicide.
- Wow...
Because, they wasted all the water
over a matter of seconds.
Ever since the 1400's, people's lives here were majorly affected by a lack of water.
And as the centuries went on, the problem just got worse.
People couldn't farm, and without farming, they didn't have enough food to eat.
Water was so rare here, it became a currency,
but one far more valuable than actual money or gold
because water was literally life.
By the 1950's, times here in Lin Zhou were worse than ever.
But the village leader had an idea to build a complex system of canals
that would bring water - and life - back to the area.
Building the canals was dangerous and difficult - even politically dangerous
because at the time, the chairman of China didn't approve of the canals,
and he had ordered steel mills to be built instead.
Because there was political opposition, the project wasn't government funded
and the people that worked on the canals were volunteers.
Ordinary people, from all different villages,
coming together to work on this seemingly impossible project.
The leader even sold his personal belongings to keep it going.
At the end of 10 years of hard work, the canals were finished.
There were enormous celebrations, and people didn't have to go hungry anymore.
Also, further into the project, Chairman Mao actually recognized the vision behind it,
and ended up supporting it.
And after the canals were finished, he gave the village leader a very high ranking job in the government.
I've always thought that some of the best stories are ones about
ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
And the story of the Hongqi Canals is definitely just that.
This tiny little village, coming together - to accomplish something.
So far, in this town of Lin Zhou, it has been nothing like what I expected.
I was invited to come to this town because basically, the town wants to increase tourism here
which I think really makes sense, because I mean, the town is absolutely beautiful.
The surrounding countryside, the mountains.
When I was invited to this town, I um...
I didn't really ask for much details because - I just like to say yes to things.
Definitely I didn't expect it to be so "glam."
But I was picked up in a half million dollar car.
Which...
I don't need that, but that's their car, so.
What kind of drone is this?
DJI Phantom 3 Professional!
Let's see how it works.
This is SO cool!
This is the coolest thing.
Jordan, you should try this.
Just -
okay
Whoa...
We're trying to get the drone up and working right now, but...
For some reason the camera won't turn on.
We're able to record, but it just films nothing.
Hopefully we can figure it out because I would so love to film with the drone for this video.
It's so close!
We still can't figure out how to work the drone, so we are driving to the office
to get internet to find out how to use the drone.
Jason is guarding the drone.
Look how thick the doors are of this car.
Been here for maybe an hour trying to figure it out.
What is this?
GREEN!
It's green!
It's green now!
- Does it work??
Can we film?
- I don't have - - Is there an image?
We don't have image.
What?
We did everything.
Yeah, we did pretty much everything.
Professional drone flyer!
Professional drone pilot to come and help.
Just - just out of nowhere!
Where did he come from?
Who called him?
I don't know.
I was like, "do you know how to fly it?"
And he was like "Sure, I'm a professional.
I'm a professional at flying this."
Apparently he has a team of drone flyers.
- What, that's so cool!
He's going to call them.
It's going something... but not really.
The drone professional that happened to be walking by (!!!) is now helping us and we are going
to go to their office and if we cannot get the drone to work, then I think they're giving me
permission to use some of their footage that they have taken themselves.
Which is really nice of them.
It's a shame that it's not footage actually by me,
but it WOULD be if the drone would just work!
So, we'll see what happens.
Okay, so these are the guys that filmed the drone video that I'm going to be able to show you
and they're so nice with helping me with the drone and everything.
Thank you, thank you.
And this is their company up here.
That's it.
Yep.
Okay, bye.
We have gotten to the canal museum.
You're basically like a leader right now!
- No, not with all the people!
- Yeah, we gotta have all the people in the back!
It's like you're the leader of this, all the people now!
We just walked up ALL of these stairs and
I don't know if you can tell in the video, but it is a lot, a lot of stairs.
And it's also extremely hot outside.
And now, we've found out that apparently someone is here waiting, um back at the entrance
to do an interview with me.
And they're waiting for me there, and we didn't know they were even going to come.
So now we have to go all the way back down the stairs, give this interview,
and then go up again, I guess.
And it's so hot!
Just had the interview...
My thoughts on the canal and the story and the history would be - (abrupt cut)
Maybe now we can finally get into the museum and start touring the canals.
We're just sitting right now because we're overheated.
- Tired.
All these delays keep happening that prevent us from seeing the canal, right?
- Yeah, exactly.
Hey Jason.
Yeah
How much are you looking forward to going up those stairs again?
So much.
This museum is really cool to walk around.
Scaled model of the landscape where the canals are now.
And you can see where the canals are, all the way over there.
That's the town of Lin Zhou and you can see that surrounding the town are canals and mountains,
and the canals are up in the mountains as well.
From so far away, all coming to the farmland and the town here.
There's this really loud thunder in the distance, so I think we're leaving at the right time.
And it's also really hot and humid.
And Jason is...
Hot.
And humid.