This last weekend was a fun time and a great experience to say the least. Starting at 10 pm on Friday, CET students took the subway to the Hongqiao train station in Shanghai to board a 6 hr train (12 am to 6 am) south to Lishui. Lishui would not be our end destination however as we boarded tour buses and spend the better part of the day riding through China's countryside and up into the mountains until we arrived at a little rural village. By western standards, this was poverty. By rural Chinese standards, this was a wealthy village. The village were we stayed is completely self-sufficient. They do however import a few EXTRAS into the town like cheap tvs, baijiu and Snow beer. They are able to do this because they grow a unique mushroom that is sold not just in China but also in popular in Japan. I usually don't like mushrooms (and by usually I mean never) but given that is was there "cash crop" I had plenty of mushrooms to eat for the next 24 hrs.
The town has a central dirt and rock (not gravel) road running straight through it (although it curves around the natural hills of the surroundings). Houses are close to one another but it seems that families enjoy a comfortable amount of space. The houses are big and very creaky with all the open floorboards and exposed wood. Sheet rock is hard to come by. There are ducks running around and sometimes just sitting there honking. Ducks have pink spray paint marking who owns them. The village has dozens of dogs running around. Down the dirt road their is a centrally located outhouse that is no more than a shed with a hole dug in the middle of the ground. There is no sign indicating the facilities as the stench gives it away from about 100 ft. I held my breath every time I passed it.
In the afternoon that we arrived, wiling participants took a grueling hike up to the highest point overlooking the town. We took in the scene with a fresh breath of air (yes, fresh air in China DOES exist! AND I found it!!!) and while posing for pictures with friends. I also realized that I forgot camera, damn. (thanks Keel for the pictures) The village seemed even smaller as my eyes scanned the mountain ranges and put into perspective all the years that this small village has endured.
When night arrives, the town's only streetlight reveals four small boys playing together. Their fathers (I'm assuming) stand chatting and grinning at the play of the young boys. I watched from the centrally located house where we ate our dinner. The boys saw me and were very curious but too scared to come close. At one point they even approached the bottom of the path to where I was standing. However, when I turned to see who it was they gave out a yell and broke like hell for the comfort of the older men.
Dinner was a mix of bamboo root, mushrooms, tofu, pig's blood and of course plain white rice. Pig's blood is one of the most unappetizing foods I have ever eaten so I fight through my dislike of mushrooms and endure the filthy taste. There is also salty pork but most of the pieces are just fat. I probably ate more fat in that meal than any one other meal in my life. For this meal, I was completely content with being not quite feeling full.
After dinner we are shown where in the town each of us is supposed to sleep. We are on the buddy system so Keel and I drag our backpacks and sleeping bags further down the road and into the guest house of another family. Keel and I are classmates in third-year Chinese. He goes to Bowdoin College but is from Minnesota. The night was going to be a cold one as the room was not incillated, cold November weather adn mountain altitude were all working against the forces of my wool socks, multi-layered clothing and sleeping bag.
After dropping our stuff, we headed back to where we had dinner to partake in the evening festivities. The Chinese Communist Party Secretary for the area was sure to show us good hospitality by offering boxes of Snow beer and baijiu. Baijiu literally translates to White Alcohol and is China's version of cheap, horrible vodka. It will literally burn a hole through a person. The party secretary seemed immune to it though. He was a short pudgy man who smelled of beer and baijiu. His eyes were yellow glazed over and he had a long forehead that seemed to run to the top of his head where his dark black hair once existed. He tries to make up for it by allowing the hair on the sides of his head to grow a little thicker.
And after that it was a merry night that I don't have time to write about right now! Hopefully that will hold enough suspense for the next blog entry when I write about staying overnight in a Daoist temple deep in the mountains up a pathway that looked like something out of Kung Fu movie.
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