While taking a 20-hour train ride along the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in northwestern China, I had the kind of humbling, educational, and above all else, wonderful 1 with a local that all travelers long for. A young Chinese man 2 me on the train. My 3 friend spoke virtually no English, so I happily took the 4 to practice my Chinese.
Over several hours he would tell me about how he had 5 a two-year professional school to quickly find a job 6 highways in order to help support his family. Perhaps the most 7 , however, was the fact that this man spent hours studying every day after hard physical labor. Without batting an eye, he would 8 a translated Emerson passage before asking about the literary influence of American 9 as a whole. "And what do you all learn about Russian authors?" I 10 him asking at one point.
It would have been easy to 11 my assumptions about this highway builder who had never been more than a few hundred miles from home. But this highly informed, 12 , and admirable person prevented me doing so. In the course of a couple of hours, he 13 me just how much one can gain from 14 with an open mind, and a willingness to 15 with locals from all walks of life.
