We took the subway from the Jishuitan stop near our school on Line 2, transferred to Line 1 and went all the way to the end of the line to the Pingguoyuan stop (the name means apple garden, but it was all surrounded by shops and department-store style buildings). The subway was incredibly busy and it took some struggling to get on board. After we arrived at the final station, we went to try to find the 929 bus to Zhaitang. Because I was the only obvious foreigner in the area, we were constantly surrounded by people asking where we were going and offering to drive us there. I didn't want to get there that way (plus the prices they offered were insane, although if we had chosen to go that route I'm sure we could have bargained them down a lot). We finally found the correct bus stop and were very happy to find seats and that the bus was air conditioned too! It took about 2.5 hours to get to Zhaitang. The bus had seats that could be folded down to fill the center aisle, so I had a mom and her little boy sitting on one side of me and a middle-aged guy on my other side. Behind the mom and the little boy was another kid. As the bus wound its way along the road to Zhaitang, the kid behind us started making burping and gulping noises. Luckily his dad was watching him closely and brought him a bag and soon enough he threw up. I couldn't look as I was concerned I'd end up puking too. Other than the motion sickness, though, the trip was comfortable and uneventful, just rather long.
Zhaitang, the town we disembarked in, is a dusty, kind of depressing place. It seems that a lot of the male residents have cars and that they make their living driving tourists from Zhaitang to the even smaller tourist attraction of Chuandixia. Zoe and I shared a car to Chuandixia with two other tourists. It cost us 10 rmb each. We were dropped off at the village gate, where we paid 10 rmb to enter.
Below are the first couple views I had of the town. The buildings are all courtyard homes from the Ming or Qing dynasties. I could see that it was once a very beautiful place; it is still quite pretty, but many of the homes are quite worn and run down now.
Here's a peek into one of the courtyards. The villagers all had squash vines of various kinds growing all over. The people in here were watching TV. Above the village were terraces where they seem to grow corn, squash and other vegetables.
Here's some of the aforementioned corn hanging over a walkway in the village.
Some clothing drying in the sun:
This was a carving on a stone that was part of a courtyard entranceway:
It was nice to see the different flowers around the village:
Here is a grinder that didn't look as though it had been used in a while:
I loved this little guy. There were some kids standing in a crowd looking at him.
This little lizard dashed across the path in front of us and then sat still as could be for a while.
And now the best part, the food. The villagers all seem to have made a business out of the tourism in their town (and one interesting thing to note is that none of the people living there seemed to be any younger than 40...seems as though all of the young people must have gone elsewhere to make a living?), so they have made their courtyard homes into little restaurants and they also rent rooms for people wanting to stay overnight.
Here's a peek into one of the courtyards. The villagers all had squash vines of various kinds growing all over. The people in here were watching TV. Above the village were terraces where they seem to grow corn, squash and other vegetables.
Here's some of the aforementioned corn hanging over a walkway in the village.
Some clothing drying in the sun:
This was a carving on a stone that was part of a courtyard entranceway:
It was nice to see the different flowers around the village:
Here is a grinder that didn't look as though it had been used in a while:
I loved this little guy. There were some kids standing in a crowd looking at him.
This little lizard dashed across the path in front of us and then sat still as could be for a while.
And now the best part, the food. The villagers all seem to have made a business out of the tourism in their town (and one interesting thing to note is that none of the people living there seemed to be any younger than 40...seems as though all of the young people must have gone elsewhere to make a living?), so they have made their courtyard homes into little restaurants and they also rent rooms for people wanting to stay overnight.Zoe and I ordered stir fried squash, beef and potatoes and bean rice. Although it might not look fancy it was really delicious. I would say it's probably among the best food I have eaten here thus far.
Standing in the doorway to a courtyard:
Chuandixia is apparently known for its numerous Maoist slogans that still remain on the village walls. For some reason, Zoe and I didn't see any, except for the one below which is half-covered. The part that can be seen and that I photographed says something like "the red sun in our hearts." (red referring to the CCP) I'm not sure if we just missed seeing other slogans or if they've been painted over since the guidebooks we have were published.
Here's a plant that looked to me like some kind of sweetpea, but I'm not really sure:
We climbed up to a spot overlooking the village:
I enjoyed the visit to Chuandixia, but I wished we could have had more time to explore. Given how long it took to get there, we only had time to look around for about 2 hours (the last bus home was at 4 or 4:20pm and we didn't want to miss it). Maybe at some point I'll go back again, but we'll see.
Standing in the doorway to a courtyard:
Chuandixia is apparently known for its numerous Maoist slogans that still remain on the village walls. For some reason, Zoe and I didn't see any, except for the one below which is half-covered. The part that can be seen and that I photographed says something like "the red sun in our hearts." (red referring to the CCP) I'm not sure if we just missed seeing other slogans or if they've been painted over since the guidebooks we have were published.
Here's a plant that looked to me like some kind of sweetpea, but I'm not really sure:
We climbed up to a spot overlooking the village:
I enjoyed the visit to Chuandixia, but I wished we could have had more time to explore. Given how long it took to get there, we only had time to look around for about 2 hours (the last bus home was at 4 or 4:20pm and we didn't want to miss it). Maybe at some point I'll go back again, but we'll see.We got back to Zhaitang by around 3 or 315. Again we were followed by guys wanting us to pay them for a ride back to Beijing. Again we said no thanks, and most of them listened. However, one obnoxious guy wouldn't give up and kept coming back to try to convince us. He was really annoyed that we didn't take a ride with him. When the bus finally came at 4pm, I could hear him talking in an irritated way about "Laowai's (foreigners)" to the other villagers around him. I recognize that he must lead a difficult life, but I also really dislike that kind of attitude.
When we got on the bus we found that there were no more seats. So we stood, packed in, for 2.5 hours. I was so relieved to get off the bus once we finally arrived back at the Pingguoyuan subway station.
On our way back to the university we stopped to pick up some snacks, including tanghulu, my favorite sweet snack of candied hawthorn berries on a skewer. They taste way better here than they ever did in Shanghai. The guy who sells them also makes delicious looking popcorn, but there was such a line-up that I didn't bother to try any this time. I'm looking forward to doing so soon though!
From left to right are Xiuyong, Yiwen, JiChun, Edward (from England), Zhiyi (from Korea), Ilyn (from Israel) and Al (from Scotland):
