Sanyi

““Without water, the flowers cannot survive.”

Sanyi is known in the village as the kind of child adults point to as an example. His parents work away from home for much of the year, and from an early age he followed his grandfather into the mountains to gather bamboo shoots, matsutake mushrooms, and other forest products. Summer harvests are an important source of income for the family. Because he knows the mountain paths and moves quickly, his family once gathered enough bamboo shoots in a single day to earn 2,000 RMB—a story people in the village still remember.

Within the Shanhe Garden volunteer team, Sanyi was chosen by the group as a team leader. He knows the surrounding forests well and is particularly good at organizing people and solving practical problems. During the search for a garden site, he and Feifei explored valleys around the village looking for a suitable location.

On the day the Shanhe Garden was formally established, Sanyi first dug a water basin. “Without water, the flowers cannot survive,” he said. He then helped build a fence to keep cattle and sheep from entering the site. When the fencing materials ran short, he improvised a simple gate from branches and solved the problem on the spot.

This habit of acting rather than waiting for instructions is one of his defining qualities.

After middle school, Sanyi plans to study traditional Chinese therapeutic massage in Qujing, hoping to acquire a practical skill and eventually work in Lijiang. He also accompanies a local doctor into the mountains to gather medicinal herbs, which can then be sold to a clinic.

His life reveals one way a rural young person grows between different worlds. He knows the forest but is also drawn toward opportunities elsewhere; he understands the traditional economy of mountain products while beginning to acquire modern vocational skills. Wherever he goes in the future, his relationship with this landscape has already taken deep root.