Night is closing in. My elder brother and Mum are raking wheat grass in the field. We have two mus of land and two cows, and have rented some uncultivated land to grow wheat and corn. The wheat was harvested last month and the straw is being dried thoroughly to feed the cows. We keep our noses to grindstone to earn our living.
Huang Xuelin
Ningxia University
I graduated from university this year and will soon be working at Wuhan Railway Bureau. While still at home, I take the opportunity to help in the field.
Today I shovelled the celery and washed it after reaping. Dad then transported it to a cold storage which is tens of kilometres away. It might fetch more than 1,000 yuan, which is not bad.
Xi Jianguo – Lanzhou Jiaotong University graduate 2020
First time in my life to be stung by a bee!
How does it feel? Let me tell you: I feel the prickly heat and tingling in the swollen wound. It’s really tough!
Back to the issue. Today we have new honey again, homemade, natural, unprocessed and pure. It’s really good for health. Come and taste it!
Jiao Yan – Gansu University of Chinese Medicine
These are some of the radishes grown by Grandma.
Grandma’s house is very close to ours, almost like part of our home.
Grandma can be said to be an elderly dweller of an empty nest, with very little to do. We usually visit them during holidays or festivals.
Grandma grows flowers and plants, some ornamental and others edible. They are all very lovely. This is also her vegetable garden. Their family hardly buys vegetable throughout the year, being self-sufficient. She also gives a lot of the vegetable to her daughters. Today, my sister-in-law visits Grandma, and comes home with a big basket of vegetable.
Cao Zhenmin – A student of Dingxi No. 1 Secondary School’s who took the University Entrance Examination in 2020 and waiting for university admission results.
This is the teaching building where I have stayed for three years. Once the campus was particularly clean after raining, so I took this photo. Ours is a droughty climate, so every time it rains is a very precious moment, especially for the farmland at home. Our crops depend on the preciously little rain for growth in these few months of the year.
Zhou Zhifeng – A student of Dingxi No. 1 Secondary School who sat the University Entrance Examination 2020 and waiting for university admission results.
I have never seen such a clean and beautiful sky and intricate and changeable clouds outside my hometown. I think this is the most beautiful scenery in my hometown.
This photo was taken in mid-July 2019. The sun shines brilliantly in the near end, and pierces through the clouds in the distance. Each cloud expresses a feeling of freedom. At the same time, at the bottom left of the photo, you can see the original dirt road in the village hardened, and internet cable erected. Life is getting better and better. I am full of hope for the future.
Zhang Yonggang – Graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2020 and has just arrived at the State Grid Electric Power Research Institute to study a master’s degree.
There has been a lot of rain this year so that the wheat grows exceptionally well. The wheat stalks alone are more than a metre tall and the wheat ears are very large and heavy. The family is both happy and worried, happy because of the abundant harvest, and worried because of the increased difficulty in manual harvesting. As the wheat is heavier at the top, it bends in all directions, making it difficult to cut with a sickle and to put away. The wheat should be harvested as soon as it is ripe, or the wheat ears will fall. So the whole family has to be mobilised as soon as it is ripe. Grandpa, Grandma, Dad and Mom all work together.
I watched Grandma cutting the wheat. She has been doing farm work all her life. Even though wearing thick knee pads, she cannot avoid getting hurt by the forks of the wheat piercing through. Very often, she would say, “I was born on this land, I have grown up here, and I will stay here after death.” I think this is their generation’s feelings for the land!
Wang Xinyuan – Shaanxi Normal University
Let me make a grand introduction: an irresistible temptation, Northwest Mala soup.
Mala (spicy) soup – a favourite of all Northwestern people. You can choose your own combination. It can be vegetable or meat. The important thing is the burning hot and spicy soup. When you get off work and the weather is cool, it is a blessing to take your beloved to eat Mala soup. The taste and joy linger on! Unfortunately, I still lack a girlfriend, mainly because there are few girls in my workplace.
Upon graduation, I joined a company in Jiayuguan which develops nuclear power. For the first three years, I lived in the quarter provided free by the company. It was very good, with two bedrooms and one living room for two persons. In the hot summer, I could see the white Qilian Snow Mountain through the window. Now I have given up the quarter to a new colleague and have rented my own house. I have considered buying a flat, which is about 5,000 yuan per square metre. This is affordable. Jiayuguan is a good place to settle in. There is a high-speed rail and it takes only 7 hours to go to my home town, much faster than 12 hours when I first arrived! However, it is still too early to talk about marriage as I lack a partner.
Wang Xicheng – Graduated from Lanzhou University of Technology in 2017 and is now a staff member of a nuclear energy development company.