The most beautiful sight in China

We have seen some amazing sights in China. We have seen skyscrapers, ancient imperial palaces, Buddhist temples, immense karst landscapes, rivers and waterfalls winding through cliffs, hills and hills completely covered by rice terraces. What is the most beautiful sight we've seen so far? People. Yes, people. I am realizing that although we have seen some stunning scenery and a lot of beautiful, interesting architecture, what continually surprises me is the beauty of people. China has a lot of them. :) It is so beautiful to see real lives, complete with the messiness of life (especially life in a non-western country) and the complexity of human work and relationships. I think because China is such a densely-populated country, with a more collective culture (rather than an individualistic one), you catch glimpses all the time of life and relationships that you don't get to see often in Canada. As we travel, we drive through small villages and walk down narrow streets. I see a few generations sitting around a little table, playing card games, families working and playing together, old people sitting hunkered down outside buildings in the sun. I see a woman washing laundry in a stream, and another woman washing her hair outside her hut using a plastic bowl. I see men welding an ancient tractor and a middle-aged couple both pulling a motorized bike cart loaded so high with construction supplies that it takes the motor and both of them straining in order for it to move at all. I see children playing games together in a field beside the village, those peculiar and mysterious games that children come up with, squabbling and leaping and making alliances and negotiating. I see people calling to their neighbours, laughing and joking. I see an old man, stooped over, carrying two baskets full of potatoes hanging on the ends of a pole across his shoulders. I see a group of men and women digging a huge ditch, taking turns with the pickaxe and buckets. I see a teenage girl sitting at the front of a small hovel, waving flies off of chili peppers drying in the sun. I see groups of men and women sweeping and bagging up rice that has been drying on a basketball court in the sun, while a little boy plays with his toy backhoe in the pile of rice. I see grandmothers playing with their grandchildren, cooing and glowing at the babies tottering around. And I am so struck by the beauty of human life and relationships, in all its messiness. Landscapes and architecture start to blend together, no matter how impressive, but people are so complex and deeply beautiful that they stir my heart. I want each of these people, these reflections of God's image, to be able to reflect that image more perfectly. I feel twinges of pain and sorrow for those who don't know him, who have never heard the gospel, and I want them to know! I don't want that beauty to be wasted and destroyed, polluted and ruined. I want each person, these deeply marred reflections of God's glory, to be able to see God's beauty and live in his grace in the midst of our messy lives.