9.27
Another Ancient Village in Anhui
Today, I want to talk about the second village along the hiking trail I traveled in the Anhui Province during the mid-autumn holiday.
It’s called Mulihong, 木梨硔mù lí hóng.
It’s a small village dating back to the Ming Dynasty. About 50 families live there currently. You can see their houses in this video.
The character 硔 means a large valley in Chinese, so you can imagine the natural environment around this village.
Its most amazing feature is the sea of clouds in front of the houses. But we didn’t visit at the best time. You can only see a few clouds in that video.
We spent the night in a B&B in the village. It was totally worth it because we viewed a marvelous show of sunset clouds at dusk and some clouds the next morning.
9.26
From The Days When I Was Suffering from Hypothyroidism
As mentioned in my previous entries, I have just recovered from hypothyroidism that lasted for over 600 days.
When I got home yesterday with my latest health examination report, I reviewed those days and the whole process, and then I summarized it into some lessons for myself in the future.
1. Take my body seriously
I aimed to excel academically in school and to remain driven in my professional career. I thought it was the right way to be a good person. And indeed I had some achievements with this mindset.
But I had ignored my body for too long until COVID-19 hit me with hypothyroidism.
Now I have a checklist that includes diet, exercise, enough sleep, etc. Additionally, I have established a series of daily routines to ensure that I can prioritize my physical well-being every day.
2. Instead of regretting and complaining, think about what I can do right now
In the beginning, I had many regrets. I shouldn’t have worked overnight when I hadn’t fully recovered from COVID-19. I should have gone to the hospital the first time I felt something wrong with my body. I also complained a lot. Why did my parents bother me with small things when I was sick? etc. etc.
I found that regret and complaints were detrimental and only worsened my feelings and the situation.
Then I started to make plans and schedules to help myself get better.
3. Choose people who can positively influence me and tell them the truth.
My parents don’t know anything about my thyroid disease, not even today. The reason I chose not to tell them was that my parents tend to blame me for everything bad that happens to me. I had done some research online and found that I would suffer many low and depressed feelings because of the disease. Usually, I can deal with my parents, but I didn’t think I could handle them well when I was in a bad mood.
So I just told four of my closest friends about my situation.
I’m so appreciative that they cheered me up every time I was down, and gave me many great pieces of advice when I needed them.
4. Be considerate of others because I don’t know how others are suffering
When you see a person with a weakened thyroid, you would probably assume that he is a healthy person, who is at best a little fatigued. I hadn’t known that before, and I thought there were more things like that.
I realized that when I was treated inappropriately. Then I decided to try my best to be considerate.
That’s all for today. I will try to write more tomorrow.
9.25
An Ancient Village
There are three ancient villages along the hiking trail I traveled on in Anhui Province during the mid-autumn holiday.
The first one was a village built near a mountaintop. Its most noteworthy feature was its rammed earth buildings.
It’s said that the original people came there from Henan Province to flee a war over 800 years ago. At that time, it was difficult to transport materials up to the mountain. As a result, the people developed a method to construct houses using only the materials available in the mountains.
You can find some pictures here and a video here.
I really love this small village. Even just walking along the small stone path was cozy and relaxing.
9.24
Health Examination
I went to the hospital near my apartment this morning.
It wasn’t because I didn’t feel well, but rather because I needed to check the status of my health every half year ever since I recovered from COVID-19, which was about a year and a half ago.
During that time my doctor discovered a weakened thyroid. The symptoms were not serious, so she told me to adjust some aspects of my lifestyle and to take some medication as well as come in for regular checkups.
I tried my best to do as the doctor recommended, and she told me that I was much better during my second examination, so I was allowed to stop my medication.
The latest report will come out tomorrow morning.
I hope everything will go well.
9.23
I want to recommend an online Chinese dictionary
I think I’ve written about this topic before. However, perhaps it was not on this platform.
This morning, an online friend asked me about a poem written in the Qing Dynasty. It wasn’t very good, even when compared to other poems by the writer.
A few minutes ago, I found a reply to a previous correction that referred to the wrong words from a dictionary.
There is a tremendous amount of Chinese information online. But I have to admit that many of them are not useful or confounding, just like many other language resources.
So I would recommend the online Chinese dictionary that I normally use.
You can find it here: https://www.zdic.net/
It includes a dictionary of characters 字典, a dictionary of words 词典, a dictionary of idioms 成语词典, and a dictionary of poems诗词.
I think it’s the best online Chinese dictionary I’ve ever used.
Of course, if you have a hard copy of the Xinhua Dictionary (新华字典), please just ignore this entry. I hope one day there will be an online version of 新华字典 too.