This was my Wuxi Green Days group before and after a trip to Taihu Lake on a hot summer day. It was truly a labor of love and a lesson for the community. [Photo provided by Peter A. Stanleigh for wuxi.gov.cn]
September, 2001 was the beginning of my decades-long sojourn in China as both a teacher and a retiree.
My first evening, after checking into my hotel and settling in for a light dinner, I went out for an evening stroll. This was in the city core area, in the Temple quarter of downtown.
My first impression was the quiet and the solitude. I felt at peace and safe as I strolled the empty streets of the neighbourhood. I had a feeling of safety and cleanliness. I was impressed. Physically, the area looked just like the city-center Chinatown of Toronto, only cleaner.
That's where this story begins.
This is our group at the end of a day of waste collection. [Photo provided by Peter A. Stanleigh for wuxi.gov.cn]
My first impression of the city, hence of China itself, was one of safety and cleanliness. Today, 23 years later, I now know that I was half right. I still feel safe anywhere I go, day or night, city or countryside. There are no roaming robbers to accost me. It's a welcome blanket of safety.
Now for the other half. Yes, everything is still clean, much cleaner than many North American cities. But I did also see an opportunity to help enhance the city's cleanliness even further. After one frustrating instance in which I saw someone dump trash behind some hedges, I contacted the local administration and reported my findings.The next day, we went past the same spot to see if anything happened. To our pleasant surprise, all of the waste hidden behind the bushes had been cleaned and removed. This was a wonderful example of people and community working together to keep our Wuxi clean.
I told this tale to my bi-weekly English Corner club. It was suggested that we become role models and start doing this around Wuxi. I contacted the Volunteer Bureau and explained our plans. They gave us their full support! Hence began Wuxi Green Days. Each Saturday, the Wuxi Volunteer Bureau supplied us with gloves, caps, and empty trash bags. We would go out to places we knew were frequented waste dropping sites. We started at Nanchan Temple Market Area. This was followed by Central Park. This was followed by Lihu Lake Beach. Next came Huishan Mountain. We named these days "Wuxi Green Days". Our idea spread, and some local service clubs picked up on our idea and started their own Wuxi Green Days to give back to the community.
So, now that you've read this, you can join in and "recycle" this story.
The author, the first foreign volunteer registered in Wuxi, has been devoted to public service in the city since arriving in 2001.
If you would like to share your Wuxi stories, then send us your writings at wuxiexpatstories@outlook.com.
