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  • Good morning guys!

  • It is currently about 3 a.m.

  • I have just gotten ready to leave for my newest trip within China.

  • Today I am so excited to be going to a town in midwestern China called Lin Zhou.

  • Headed off to the airport, I'll be taking a 3-ish hour flight to Handan,

  • and then the town is about 2 hours outside of the airport.

  • Need to say bye to Livio because he is going to be staying back here in Shenzhen

  • But I will see him again in a few days.

  • Bye.

  • - Bye!

  • Just landed in Handan.

  • This is my ride for the next few days.

  • I don't know why this is the ride but... it is.

  • It's like a - it's like a tank limo.

  • It has a coffee machine, it has a fridge, it has satellite TV.

  • - Massage...

  • And why - but why is it bulletproof?

  • Why does it need to be bulletproof?

  • - Because...

  • - Just extra?

  • - Just extra, yeah.

  • Look at this place!

  • This is basically the view from the hotel.

  • The hotel is there, and then... there are these mountains in the distance.

  • Right now we are going to an award ceremony for an art competition.

  • The town actually sponsors this competition. And they invite locals and farmers to participate

  • in the competition and they actually buy all of the art supplies for the people.

  • Everything, and they just give it to the people.

  • And then everyone that wins an award gets a cash prize.

  • It's to kind of foster creativity among people that might not necessarily

  • get so many opportunities to let their creativity shine.

  • They are really for everyone being able to get an education

  • and a chance at making something of themselves

  • not just the rich are rich and the poor stay poor

  • they're really against that

  • So they try and support the community and yeah, it's just a really cool mindset

  • to be in, and be a part of.

  • Excited to go to the awards ceremony.

  • Actually I have to change.

  • You should introduce yourself.

  • - Hi, I'm Jason!

  • Jason Qiao.

  • - Yeah.

  • So, Jason is showing me around, um... yeah, apparently in style.

  • Jordan.

  • We're here.

  • - It's amazing!

  • - You're in a different world now.

  • Look at how beautiful this is.

  • Really cannot get over how beautiful it is.

  • Walking along one of the canals right now.

  • I really feel like I am in another world right now.

  • Look at this.

  • The awards ceremony has finished.

  • It was really amazing to watch, and in this gorgeous scenery.

  • Love this place so much.

  • I don't want to leave.

  • This must be one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen in my life.

  • Absolutely incredible.

  • Hi guys, I am here at part of the Hongqi Canals.

  • I wanted to tell the story of this place

  • the canals here have just a really fascinating story.

  • When you look at Lin Zhou now,

  • it's so vibrantly green,

  • you would never guess that for hundreds of years,

  • this area was actually the site of drought, famine, and starvation.

  • This is a story that they were trying to get the water from a very long distance

  • 7 or 8 miles.

  • The bucket of water was just flipped, and then they were so disappointed,

  • so upset about flipping the water,

  • so they actually committed suicide.

  • - Wow...

  • Because, they wasted all the water

  • over a matter of seconds.

  • Ever since the 1400's, people's lives here were majorly affected by a lack of water.

  • And as the centuries went on, the problem just got worse.

  • People couldn't farm, and without farming, they didn't have enough food to eat.

  • Water was so rare here, it became a currency,

  • but one far more valuable than actual money or gold

  • because water was literally life.

  • By the 1950's, times here in Lin Zhou were worse than ever.

  • But the village leader had an idea to build a complex system of canals

  • that would bring water - and life - back to the area.

  • Building the canals was dangerous and difficult - even politically dangerous

  • because at the time, the chairman of China didn't approve of the canals,

  • and he had ordered steel mills to be built instead.

  • Because there was political opposition, the project wasn't government funded

  • and the people that worked on the canals were volunteers.

  • Ordinary people, from all different villages,

  • coming together to work on this seemingly impossible project.

  • The leader even sold his personal belongings to keep it going.

  • At the end of 10 years of hard work, the canals were finished.

  • There were enormous celebrations, and people didn't have to go hungry anymore.

  • Also, further into the project, Chairman Mao actually recognized the vision behind it,

  • and ended up supporting it.

  • And after the canals were finished, he gave the village leader a very high ranking job in the government.

  • I've always thought that some of the best stories are ones about

  • ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

  • And the story of the Hongqi Canals is definitely just that.

  • This tiny little village, coming together - to accomplish something.

  • So far, in this town of Lin Zhou, it has been nothing like what I expected.

  • I was invited to come to this town because basically, the town wants to increase tourism here

  • which I think really makes sense, because I mean, the town is absolutely beautiful.

  • The surrounding countryside, the mountains.

  • When I was invited to this town, I um...

  • I didn't really ask for much details because - I just like to say yes to things.

  • Definitely I didn't expect it to be so "glam."

  • But I was picked up in a half million dollar car.

  • Which...

  • I don't need that, but that's their car, so.

  • What kind of drone is this?

  • DJI Phantom 3 Professional!

  • Let's see how it works.

  • This is SO cool!

  • This is the coolest thing.

  • Jordan, you should try this.

  • Just -

  • okay

  • Whoa...

  • We're trying to get the drone up and working right now, but...

  • For some reason the camera won't turn on.

  • We're able to record, but it just films nothing.

  • Hopefully we can figure it out because I would so love to film with the drone for this video.

  • It's so close!

  • We still can't figure out how to work the drone, so we are driving to the office

  • to get internet to find out how to use the drone.

  • Jason is guarding the drone.

  • Look how thick the doors are of this car.

  • Been here for maybe an hour trying to figure it out.

  • What is this?

  • GREEN!

  • It's green!

  • It's green now!

  • - Does it work??

  • Can we film?

  • - I don't have - - Is there an image?

  • We don't have image.

  • What?

  • We did everything.

  • Yeah, we did pretty much everything.

  • Professional drone flyer!

  • Professional drone pilot to come and help.

  • Just - just out of nowhere!

  • Where did he come from?

  • Who called him?

  • I don't know.

  • I was like, "do you know how to fly it?"

  • And he was like "Sure, I'm a professional.

  • I'm a professional at flying this."

  • Apparently he has a team of drone flyers.

  • - What, that's so cool!

  • He's going to call them.

  • It's going something... but not really.

  • The drone professional that happened to be walking by (!!!) is now helping us and we are going

  • to go to their office and if we cannot get the drone to work, then I think they're giving me

  • permission to use some of their footage that they have taken themselves.

  • Which is really nice of them.

  • It's a shame that it's not footage actually by me,

  • but it WOULD be if the drone would just work!

  • So, we'll see what happens.

  • Okay, so these are the guys that filmed the drone video that I'm going to be able to show you

  • and they're so nice with helping me with the drone and everything.

  • Thank you, thank you.

  • And this is their company up here.

  • That's it.

  • Yep.

  • Okay, bye.

  • We have gotten to the canal museum.

  • You're basically like a leader right now!

  • - No, not with all the people!

  • - Yeah, we gotta have all the people in the back!

  • It's like you're the leader of this, all the people now!

  • We just walked up ALL of these stairs and

  • I don't know if you can tell in the video, but it is a lot, a lot of stairs.

  • And it's also extremely hot outside.

  • And now, we've found out that apparently someone is here waiting, um back at the entrance

  • to do an interview with me.

  • And they're waiting for me there, and we didn't know they were even going to come.

  • So now we have to go all the way back down the stairs, give this interview,

  • and then go up again, I guess.

  • And it's so hot!

  • Just had the interview...

  • My thoughts on the canal and the story and the history would be - (abrupt cut)

  • Maybe now we can finally get into the museum and start touring the canals.

  • We're just sitting right now because we're overheated.

  • - Tired.

  • All these delays keep happening that prevent us from seeing the canal, right?

  • - Yeah, exactly.

  • Hey Jason.

  • Yeah

  • How much are you looking forward to going up those stairs again?

  • So much.

  • This museum is really cool to walk around.

  • Scaled model of the landscape where the canals are now.

  • And you can see where the canals are, all the way over there.

  • That's the town of Lin Zhou and you can see that surrounding the town are canals and mountains,

  • and the canals are up in the mountains as well.

  • From so far away, all coming to the farmland and the town here.

  • There's this really loud thunder in the distance, so I think we're leaving at the right time.

  • And it's also really hot and humid.

  • And Jason is...

  • Hot.

  • And humid.

Good morning guys!

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