CRI听力:With Guide Dogs, a Better Life for the Blind

"On August 1st, new policies regarding guide dogs for the blind came into effect throughout China.  The new regulations  give guide dogs and their owners access to public places and transport.  This is good news for Chen Yan and her guide dog, Jenny, whom she adopted last year - though it will take time before all the relevant authorities are aware of, and follow, the new regulations. Here's Chen Yan."

"In my family, my husband and I are both blind. He's a massage therapist, and I'm a piano tuner. So in our family, there's only one pair of eyes, and that's Jenny's. 

Jenny is the 18th guide dog in China - I adopted her in April 2011.   She's a four-year-old black labrador.

She can take me to the supermarket to help me shop, without using her mouth. She follows my orders - if I say 'Jenny, find the yogurt', she'll take me to it and stop. 

One month ago, Jenny took me outside.  We were walking and Jenny suddenly pushed me into a wall. I felt a wind pass in front of me.  And something ran into Jenny. A passerby said that an electric bike -  an express delivery bike had hit Jenny with the boxes strapped to the outside.  Actually, Jenny could have gotten out of the way of the bike, but she didn't. She was trying to protect my legs using her body. Only family would do that.

I have my own ways to go to the places I want.  Before I go somewhere, I'll call them and ask if I can bring Jenny. If they allow it, I'll go. If I go in person and they don't let us in, and there's an argument, Jenny can understand and she'll be sad.
 
As people's awareness of guide dogs increases, Jenny and I will be able to go to more places.  For the majority of Chinese people, there's not much understanding about blind people's lives - I started a Sina Weibo account named 'guide dog jenny', and so many people ask me 'how can you use weibo if you are blind?'.  They don't know about our lives.  Although we can't see, our other senses are heightened to make up for it.  The world I hear is also beautiful."

"It will take time to guage the success of the new regulations since there are so few guide dogs in China, and they're unheard of in many places.  Chen Yan is trying to change that, and has written a book, an autobiography she says, for Jenny.  She's donating the proceeds from her book to the China Guide Dog Training Center in Dalian, where Jenny was trained.  For CRI, I'm Seth Coleman."