Trip to the Countryside!

All is still well. Hannah is more sure of our family every day. We could not be more pleased. Judy has done such a nice job of dressing Hannah in the cutest clothes, and picking out a nice Chinese wardrobe for us to bring home for her. When we were shopping on Shamian Island yesterday, Judy met a man who was from Suixi County where Hannah is from. He said that he could take us to a place about 2 hours from here that looks like Suixi County. It was more or less what I expected: mud brick homes, wood fire stoves, water pulled from a well or pump, rice paddies planted using water buffalo and a hand plow, and probably for the most part subsistence from the little food they grew on their lots (no one owns land in China, it all belongs to the government). The most common agricultural product, at least by the area needed to grow it, was lychee trees. I also saw a few Asian persimmon and peach trees. The reception of the people varied tremendously, from the Asian death stare, to inviting us into their home for tea. Unfortunately the 81 year old lady (pictured above) who invited us in for tea was drawing her water from a well at least 100 years old that had a dead toad and fish floating in it, so we politely as possible declined the tea. But trust me, her hospitality was genuine. I'd guess that the antique Asian style bed shown in the photo above was probably worth about as much on the US market as this lady has made in 81 years of life (her husband was 84, the secret to their longevity was to keep a dead toad in their well). What impressed me the most about the village was the old age of what we were seeing. The family showed us a stone and wood tool that was used to separate rice grains from the glumes. The stone was estimated to be 200 years old and there was and older, out of use one, on the other side of the room. The temple where the family conducts ancestor worship had a stone door frame with Chinese characters carved on the top stone, which must have weighed nearly a ton. The fresco like, three panel painting above the frame depicted birds and other images of farm life. We were told that these carvings and paintings were so old that the 81 year old lady did not know when they were set in place. Our guide showed us some faint red Chinese characters painted on mud bricks that he said were special characters used only during Chairman Mao's era. He said the characters were likely painted by upper class Chinese sent to the country during Mao's rein. We ended the trip by playing 15 minutes of basketball with some of the town children. Then we had a great country style lunch of rice, swan boiled in huge clay pots (I've progressed from eating duck, to goose, to swan over the last three days), five small bony catfish served with heads on of course, and a plate of delicious greens and Asian green beans. More photos of this trip to the country and some of the antiques we saw are posted on today's other blog entry.