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Jiang Tou Village in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China
Stewart, a Chinese brother, who takes sisters and brothers from US to nearby villages to help local families every year, received an mail from Tim on June 22, 2004.
Tim and other Christian sisters and brothers visited Jiang Tou Village in Mid June. He wrote:
i wanted to let you know again how much i appreciate all the effort you put into our groups visit. i know you went way beyond the norm, and if there's anything i can do for you, please let me know. it's an honor to have a brother in Christ who is as dedicated and caring as you. thanks, tim.
Jiang Tou Village is located in the north of Guilin and about 32 km always from Downtown Guilin. It is a very famous ancient village with the history of 600 years.
The building s built in Ming & Qing Dynasties survived and they are preserved very well .
There are 158 families with population of 680. The family’s name of all the villagers is Zhou, because their ancestor is Dun Yizhou, a famous philosopher of Northern song Dynasty (over 1000 years ago), whose essay “on lotus—loving” is so famous that nearly all the Chinese students can recite it.
In front of the village is a beautiful river like Jude—ribbon encirling the village. The village faces some beautiful hills, such as brush—rest hill, brush—holder hill, the emperor’s chop hill ,ect. Between the hills and the river are the vast fields. Because of the hills and the rivers, geomanticly, there once appeared so many famous scholars and officials. From Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to Qing Dynasty (1644-1910), 7 students from this village passed through the National test and got the scholar’s degree of “Jinshi”, 25 students passed through the provincial test and got the scholar’s degree of “Juren “, 160 students passed through the county—level’s test and got the scholar’s degree of ‘Xiucai “, Among them, 8 persons got the position of “ShuJishi”, which is equivalent with today ‘s chief of National Academic House.
There is a variety of buildings, including residential house, water well, ancestral temple, alley, gate, bridge, tomb and so on. The residential houses survived are in a large scale. Those anti—fire walls, the wood carvings, the old court yards, the narrow pebble’s lanes…all of these will take you back to those old times, The “Ailian”(which means lotus—loving ) ancestral temple is the village’s important building and also their public house. There were once six rows of house but only three rows survived, they are the big gate, Clan—rejuvenating gate and Wen Yuan Tower The last two are the main buildings of the temple. They were the place for the home schools and also for the ritual ceremonies.
The scenery is so unforgetable that we just want to thank Lord. We wanna sing, wanna dance...
" There are songs which can only be learned from the nature. No art can teach them; no rules of voice can make them perfectly sung. Their music is in the heart. They are songs of memory, of personal experience. They bring out their burden from the shadow of the past; they mount on the wings of yesterday..."
Streams in the desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Our Schools Story of Chunli Jiangtou Village Project Hope
