These pictures represent a small glimpse into the workings, projects and characters of The Yellow River Soup Kitchen. Below this gallery are a couple of brief extracts and opportunities to continue reading, first, the founder’s enlightening thoughts on his and the projects motivations and growth, and second, some thoughtful observations from a visitor’s chance encounter. The Yellow River Soup Kitchen was established here in Xi’an in December 2005, it was the first Soup Kitchen in China.
*Each picture can be clicked through individually or a slideshow can be created by pressing the PicLens tab below. (The 3D link just goes to the designer’s site.)
A Couple of Inspirational Notes from Tony, the founder of the Yellow River Soup Kitchen:
i. A Note From The Founder
“This project or period of my life has dominated my every waking and sleeping minute for the past 3 years but in reality goes back 6 years and beyond… The catalyst, which sparked a change, waited until 2002 to break through into my consciousness; it was during a trip to Gaia House on my first ever Buddhist retreat. At the time I was working 16 hours a day running two businesses, as I had been for the previous 12 years, and I was loving every minute of the madness… I arrived at Gaia House, in typical fashion, at 100 miles/hr in a shiny car, suited and booted. The cushion, that I was to be crouced upon, must have had a knowing smile as it watched me unwittingly approach. By the time I left Gaia House four days later the decision had been made to sell everything that I owned and leave the UK, to where was not important, but what I fully realized was it meant me not returning…” read on
ii. The Birth of The Soup Kitchen
“The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion”Socrates
“We are asked many times – “Why?” Not an easy one to answer. I can only give you my ‘why’ as best I understand it, and cannot speak for all the many wonderful volunteers who have offered their time and energy in various forms. Teaching English in remote villages in sweltering classrooms to those that some how find the time week after week to serve food to the homeless in all weathers; during the height of the summer to the depths of the winter in temperatures ranging from +45c to -11c. They will all have their own reasons and I am sure they would be wide and varied.This project began for me with an old woman in Xi’an, on December 15th 2005. However, in reality maybe my reasons ‘why’ go back much farther, maybe as far back as more than 10 years ago to an orphanage in Romania. I was on my second trip to Romania delivering medical equipment and supplies to hospitals and orphanages for a charity I and four friends had set up. Seeing the children and observing the Mother Teresa nuns’ selfless acts and their amazing strength despite ridiculous odds was humbling and inspiring. So powerful was the experience that I am still unable to reflect back on that time without that same warm tingling feeling invading me and a lump lodging itself firmly in my throat.
That day in 1996 I made a silent promise that I would one day give more of myself to these people, both the nuns and the children, and others like them. Having no idea at the time what may lie ahead…” read on
Claire Hall offers a few insights after a chance encounter with the project back in 2008:
“Around the world the term ‘Soup Kitchen’ is not an alien concept, these places are necessary life lines to those who find themselves for what ever reason on the streets, but here in China they have never thought about doing this for their poor. Tony had introduced something so foreign to China that many Chinese questioned its authenticity and his motives. Why would one man from England come all this way to personally feed China’s homeless using his own cash?” read more
Times, Address and Map
The Soup Kitchen runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening, from just before 7.00 pm. It can be found at the Catholic Church on wu xing jie (五星街) tian zhu jiao tang (天主教堂)17号:
*These pictures were taken by a number of different volunteers, one contributor was Gareth Blackett, this is a link to his site where he has other great photographs from around Xi’an.
The images are from Kashgar- here they link to the China News Page.
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