My home town

I was born in Lianyuan Hunan in China. It was a big town, also it is a middle sized city now. I hope you didn't get confused. It is a same place. I say that because it is totally changed from when I grew up.






First the river is changed. There were many piers and fields along it. I could see the river's bottom with grasses and many rocks when I followed my mother to go carry the water to drink. Now, many houses and factories stand on both sides of the river. I can't see anything on the bottom, nothing except dirty water. No water to drink, nobody even swimming in it. Good thing we have running water now.

Also the roads are all different now. The narrow dirt roads where people walked have been changed to wide asphalt streets and there are many cars and motorcycles going back and forth on it. I don't think anyone will ever walk on the road without shoes again. The taller and modern houses have been built all over the town. In the summer, some people think that the old short houses were more comfortable to live in. They were built of earth brick and warmed in the winter and cooled in the summer. I can't see anymore fields near the town except some gardens.

The best change is people's opinions. When I studied in grade school, there were seven other neighborhood classmates the same age with me, but I'm the only one that studied in middle school. High school and college were out of the question. A lot of parents thought that planting grain and feeding a pig would make money. It had more benefit than spending money to learn something. Now many families have college students. The parents now support their children to go to school until high school and college if they can. They know how important it is to progress their knowledge.

I love my home town even when somethings changed for the worse. A lot of things are much better than before. It is not only that the place has changed to be more beautiful but also the people change to have children become well schooled.