A Trip to Hebron

“Country road/ take me home/ to the place/ I belong…” while seeing this sentence, I couldn't help singing it out, this is the first American folk song that I could sing. Impressed by the feelings the song had brought to me, I've been always wondering what it would be like in an American country road.

The dream finally becomes true today, we went to the Hebron, Ohio, a typical American country side, and we experienced the real American country side scenery there. The first stop is their chamber council, the mayor and his assistance delivered a welcome speech to us and introduced the history of the community, the basic functions of the village government, by showing us vivid examples, we knew directly about how many departments there are and how each of the departments runs and how the democracy lies in the tiny political system of US.

The next stop is the State Fish Hatchery, we saw the innovation and technology that have been put into use in raising fish, the new technology and cooperation with university are the key to the increasing of fish product in this area.

Then we went to take a country bus in a corn field, there is no windows for the bus, only a shed covers the top of the bus, keeping the passengers away from serious sunshine. The bus took us to the middle of the corn field, it felt so wonderful to see the bus moving on the “road” between corn fields. Here is a picture I took for the real “country road”, at that moment; I suddenly realized that a long dream has become true, the wild and sightless flat field, and the prosperous corn products, which are what I think the symbols of American country life.

On our way to dinner, we played Frisbee game on a spacious grass land and had ice-cream in a local ice-cream shop. The dinner was in a local restaurant; the food there was delicious and awesome.

Having experienced the whole afternoon in an American village, the most impressive thing for me is that the American country and cities are not so different, despite of the population and economy, the life in a country is quite convenient and comfortable, the houses that country people live in are as large and well-decorated as the urban places. Compared to China, the gap between the country and city are so huge, that’s why our Chinese government are putting more effort to encourage the development of villages, to improve the farmers living condition, to stimulate the farmers’ interest on farming. Agriculture is the fundamental of society, once we built a better country, we can get better educated farmers, and then more products for selling, then the sustainable development of the whole society.

                                                          ---by Alan Liu