Ni hao, family and friends,
Happy tax day! Hope you all have finished filing your taxes!
Well, we survived our second Chinese domestic flight experience, this time on Hainan Air; we flew a very modern A319 Airbus (equivalent to our own Boeing 737). It was on time and very comfortable. Nothing but good things to report about it. Again, we were the only westerners on the flight.
While at the airport, we had an incident which we now regard as almost commonplace. As we sat waiting for our plane’s departure, 4 Chinese men and a child (about 4 years old) walked up to us and stood less than 3 feet away from us, and just stared. And they stared, and continued to stare. Did we mention that they stared??
It was quite blatant, not to mention uncomfortable for us, as we sat there with our heads bowed down trying not to look up and make eye contact. They stood there staring, no speaking, no smiling for several minutes (seemed longer with all the tension they were creating). Finally, in our minds, the situation had gone on long enough, so Anne raised her head to the child and uttered our now familiar and trite phrase “Ni hao” to the child. Of course the child shyly backed away and disappeared behind his father’s legs, just peeking in horror and surprise at us white faces from between his father‘s legs; all of the adults just laughed.
Frank then got down on the floor and used his camera to take a picture of the child, and showed the child the digital picture on the display on the back of the camera. The child responded by slowly coming forward and curiously looking at the picture. When he finally recognized himself in the picture, he beamed with a smile at these crazy westerners. Everyone laughed again, and the tension further subsided. A few smiles later, and the 4 curious gents and the child walked away.
Never a word was spoken in English, just a few well-placed Mandarin words, and probably poorly spoken by us, I‘m sure. So, now we know – as long as there’s a child and we’ve got a digital camera, we can diffuse these frequently occurring staring situations!! Oftentimes, a pre-emptive move on our part - like a few simple words in Mandarin tend to take the staring individual by surprise and quell the discomfort of the situation immediately.
We are staying in the remote village called Aishanmen, just about 6 km outside of the bigger town of Yangshuo at an old former farmhouse called “The Giggling Tree.” With Dutch owners, this place has a European flair. In fact, the picturesque courtyard could be in Tuscany. Services are a bit basic with lukewarm showers and little heat in the room, but the staff are extremely friendly and all the guests are too, making this an enjoyable stay in the countryside.
If there’s a drought in China, it is not apparent here in the Li River Valley right now. It has rained every day since we arrived. Sometimes quite hard, and constantly. But, we just don our raingear and carry on with any plans we’ve had in mind. The roads are dirt roads, full of ruts and puddles and mud; whenever we take a shuttle into town, it’s a very rough ride with us being hurtled back and forth in the backseat for the first few kilometers till we hit the smoother roads. Welcome to rural China!!
On Tuesday, we took a rafting trip on a portion of the beautiful Li River. Of course, it was raining, but onward and forward we went. A taxi driver took us about 80 km upstream to the village of Yangdi, where we boarded a strange motorized pontoon-like boat, which was devised from 11 lengths of what appeared to be 4 inch diameter PVC pipe, capped at each of the ends for buoyancy of course, and lashed together like logs on a raft. With this construction, we could see that this boat, fully loaded, only sat about 2 inches deep into the water; the primitive, but sleek design could easily traverse any shallow conditions presented by the Li. And, it was rugged too. We imagined that in days of yore, the “PVC logs” that made up the flotation part of this vessel were formerly big tubes of bamboo; now, the modern , lighter-weight, more standard sized PVC material has replaced the old.
Strapped to the deck of the boat were a couple of passenger seats, a seat for the boatman, a canopy to repel rain and sun, and a low horsepower motor with a long tail and prop that is steered by hand from the back of the boat. It was a kluge for sure, but it was an efficient kluge - and a simple design. We will put pictures on our website when we can, so anyone who wants to see more detail will be able to see this clever contraption soon.
Even tho it was raining, the river was still shallow from the drought; from time to time, we skimmed over stone bars that were easily visible just inches beneath the water‘s surface. We prayed that the old man driving this boat would not break a prop or something worse. Often times we could hear the disturbing sounds of the prop crunching loose stones as we scooted over the shallow parts.
The day was cold and damp - and raining hard at times. Not the best day for sightseeing in an open air boat. But, we were very secure under the canopy of the boat, and under our own full-length ponchos. A little cold perhaps, but essentially dry. The mountain formations along the Li offer some of the greatest scenery we’ve seen in China thus far.
Dramatically shear limestone mountains with smooth rounded tops and covered with dense vegetation undulate in various shapes at the river’s edge; eerie mist swirls about the peaks and valleys and make for some unique ghostly, but artistic formations. Giant ferns line the banks of the Li, and the unique vegetation everywhere makes the Li valley look like a primordial jungle where Jurassic Park could have easily been filmed. Water buffalo graze on the banks while dainty swallows skim the surface of the water collecting insects as they fly. This idyllic setting is often reflected in the flowery artwork that you see in lots of Chinese paintings. In fact, the back of the Chinese 20 yuan bill has a picture of these Li River mountain formations.
On Wednesday, we decided it was time to learn a little about Chinese cooking. It was raining again all day, so what better place to spend our time than indoors learning about Chinese food. Our young 25-ish English-speaking Chinese instructor “Tessa” first took us to the local market to introduce us to some of the foods of the region, and also to buy a few goodies for today’s class. Wow, the market in Yangshuo was an unforgettable sight. Lots of unknown critters hanging from meat hooks in the market, even skinned dogs and cats. Yes, they eat dogs and cats here. And donkey, eel, frogs, snakes, rabbits, scorpions, and almost every other animal that has enough flesh on it to make a meal. The unique smells of the market are some that you will never forget as you peruse their booths and their wares. Live geese, chickens, rabbits, and others are penned in stacks in small cages, waiting to be purchased “on the hoof “by hungry patrons, then slaughtered. You can’t get much fresher meats than that. It is not uncommon to see a shopper carrying a slain chicken or rabbit bound by a rope and tied to the legs of the animal, dangling upside down at the shopper‘s side.
But, back to cooking school. After showing us around the market, Tessa took us over to the Yangshuo Cooking School, which has a patio and kitchen right on the banks of the Li River. Of course, she taught us the techniques and benefits of using the wok, as well as other tricky shortcuts and techniques, and many secrets of using Chinese ingredients. The Chinese, as we learned, use minimal amounts of meat in their dishes, and many veggies and black mushrooms. Also, fresh garlic and ginger is a frequent (and delightful!) combo. We even learned that one of a Chinese cook’s favorite tool is a meat cleaver, for both meats and veggies. One dish that we prepared was a Yangshuo specialty called “beer fish.” This is actually catfish caught right here in the Li River, then seasoned with many Chinese spices and veggies, and sizzled in beer for that extra bang of flavor. Yummy!
Wednesday evening, we headed to the “Light Show” here in Yangshuo – a performance by a cast of 600 Chinese singers and dancers done via spectacular lighting, costuming, and singing at the edge of the Li River with a backdrop of lighted mountain peaks. The show was designed by the same director who did the famous opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics and this one was performed in front of an audience of about 3000. It rained throughout the performance, and we had to sit out in open seating in the rain. With ponchos worn by nearly everybody, we stayed quite dry underneath, and there were no complaints about the weather; we all enjoyed a great performance despite the unfavorable elements.
This morning, Anne had a Tai Chi class with a Chinese Tai Chi master who goes by the name Jason. The class was one-on-one with a heavy emphasis on breathing and feeling your “chi.” It was amazing to practice Tai Chi in front of a window looking out at water buffalo, rice paddies, and dramatic mountains.
The rain finally subsided so we set out to hike the area surrounding our hotel. What an adventure! We hiked over to the Yulong River where local people kept coming up to us and saying “Bamboo.” We eventually realized that they wanted to take us across the river on one of their flimsy bamboo rafts. Why not? At least the water was shallow and views were magnificent.
Once we were safely across the river, we hiked through orange groves and rice paddies, and occasionally, we spotted small family gravesites. Decorated with red banners and spent incense sticks. This was our best day here since we got to wander through this gorgeous lush landscape without the hassle of taxis or crowds. No one out here but us and the water buffalo. At one point, an old farmer appeared in front of us on the narrow path driving his three water buffalo toward us -- we gladly jumped to the side. Those water buffalo are too big to mess with!
We crossed back over the river and hiked through some poor, ramshackle villages. We met three children who ran out to greet us, yelling “Hello!” Their English was pretty good so we chatted with them for a while, and they even showed us their English school book. Frank pulled out his harmonica and led the group in a spirited version of “London Bridge is Falling Down.” The children sang along with us and even knew all the words. It was so much fun to interact with these enthusiastic local children.
Tomorrow we leave here for the bigger city of Guilin - we will miss our country retreat, and all the new friends we made here.
One final note: a few of you have asked us about the earthquake that recently hit China. As we understand it, the quake hit near Tibet many hundreds of miles west from where we are. But then, with American news coverage, you probably know more about the details than we do. There is no TV where we are staying now. But, we are nowhere near the vicinity of the quake, and are quite safe where we are. Thanks for your concerns.
Take care for now.
Zai jian,
Frank and Anne
