A trip to a small village in China

Since we moved to China, Tim has always wanted to visit a small village in China. With the help of our Chinese teacher, we did it! It was one of our best experiences thus far and one we will forever remember. The people of her village let us take a glimpse into their lives and welcomed us to their home.

The location is in Zhejiang province, Taizhou City (prefecture-level city), Xianju County, in the village of Qiushan. While the village is too small to be on a map, you can click here to see where the county is: http://www.maplandia.com/china/zhejiang/xianju/. Zoom out a bit to see it relative to Shanghai.

You see three villages in this picture, so close, but definitely very seperate.

The Ride There

We boarded a bus at 2:30 in the afternoon with an approximate arrival time of 10:00 pm that night, and then a 15-minute taxi ride to Jane's town from the bus stop. We told Jane that we were happy buying 4 tickets, so that the 6 of us could share 4 seats. Kids under a certain height are free as a lap child. We told her that we would rather buy the ticket to ensure Adayla had a seat. She insisted that the bus wouldn't be that full and she would have a seat anyways. Since this is quite a bit of money to them, I didn't want to be like who cares, we want the seat. So I listened to her... she was wrong. We picked up people along the way and so for about 6 hours we had the kids on our laps. We definitely would buy the extra ticket for the ride home! The bus was pretty comfy. The Chinese, as always, were sleeping before we hit the first stop light after loading. The girls were great travelers and before we knew it, we arrived!

Tim was fascinated by this guy's feet!

Don't you wish all the truck stops in America had signs that were this welcoming! You can thank the Chinese Propaganda Department for such "heartfelt" welcomes. The two "buckets" this guy is holding are super-sized bowls of instant noodles -- a favorite at rest areas.

FYI - Each ticket one-way was 160 RMB or about $23.00.

The Language

As with just about every region in China excluding Beijing, this region also has its own local dialect. It sounds nothing like Mandarin Chinese and so we couldn't understand when they spoke in their local language. The interesting part about this is that it can't be written, it is just passed on from generation to generation. This is the case all over China, I couldn't even guess how many different dialects there are. So I asked Wikipedia how many there were and found that there are 220 dialects in China, not including Mandarin Chinese (you can see the list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_dialects). Kids first learn their local dialect at home and then are taught Mandarin when they go to school. Mandarin is the standard and is definitely used here in Shanghai, but not so much in these small villages -- particularly not with the older generations. So their Mandarin is not very good. Jane's father spoke quite well, but her mother's Mandarin was even more limited than mine. Jane stepped in when needed and translated between us. But we still had many a good conversations!

One of the many chats outside of Jane's parents' home

The Welcome... We Eat (Only the Beginning!)

Pictures of us at 11:00 pm. We're still so amazed at how well the girls did. Adayla & Tally are on Jane's lap, Jane's parents, and Jane's best friend who picked us up from the bus stop and drove us the rest of the way

As we arrived, I have to admit I was a bit nervous about what to expect. Did her parents really mind us staying there, how hot was it really going to be when we slept, what would we eat, was it a place that really could handle us with our 3 small kids? These fears were eased as we were warmly welcomed and the food started (it did not stop the entire time we were there, although we really, really wished it would have!)

Morning Walk

After a decent night's sleep....

We went for a tour down mainstreet. And because we arrived in the dark, we had no idea the beauty we would find when we woke up. This village is beautiful! Mountains encircle the village, a little river at one end, and a mostly natural setting without much modernization. The nicely paved road was just barely finished through the town. People took advantage of it, going 50 miles an hour through the village, honking to let you know they were coming with no intent to slow down. Hence the decent night's sleep. We were 10 feet off the road and construction trucks came through all night and just as they hit the edge of the village they would lay on the horn. Tim said his back hurt a bit in the morning from jumping out of bed as he kept thinking he was going to get hit!

See the sign in the picture above? It says 10 km/hr, but this is not a speed limit, but merely a speed suggestion that is unfortunately completely ignored.

When they say fresh meat, they mean fresh. Don't worry the pig head won't go to waste, they will eat everything including the brain. (I don't think we were lucky enough to eat that!)

This is the view from one of the houses we went into. Their crop areas are beautiful as well, everything in perfect rows. But lots and lots of hard work for sure.
Rice paddy (field) on the left, corn on the right. The person walking is transplanting rice plants from a preliminary growth field to where the rice will be harvested.

This is at a house off the main street.

Through the fun, winding alleys, all the older houses. Tally has her gifts from the previous stop firmly in her grasp. Her shirt is spotted with the juice from a local fruit that is in-season, yangmei or bayberry http://www.yumberryjuice.com/en/wh.asp. Everybody offered us yangmei to eat, and Tally was happy to oblige.

This is somebody's meat supply for the year. They buy a pig, raise it, and then at Chinese New Year they butcher it and have their meat for the year (preserved by salting). We have this on video, but we will save it for another day. Tally was very interested in the pig until all the sudden it woke up with a snort, she jumped back like five feet and grabbed onto my leg.

The Buddhist Temple

On our morning walk, Jane brought us here. She told us that this was the village temple. From the outside it doesn't look too much like a temple...

I asked Jane how old it was, she said 20 years! What? It looks hundreds of years old? She can remember the village collecting money to have it built. She said most people in the town claim to be Buddhist, including her mom, but says her mother never goes there to pray or worship. Jane claims to be an Atheist. These are just pics from the inside. It is a mix of traditional Buddhism and local folklore.

Did somebody say Buddha? Here is Tally showing off her "Buddha Belly"

Lunch

At 11am lunch was ready, I think this was so that they could squeeze 4 meals into that day for us. We had pig skins, salted pork, some kind of duck, and then 3 veggie dishes. The pig skin dish was just a weird taste and texture that we didn't go back for seconds of it, except Adayla...


Adayla is surprisingly quite adventurous, she'll eat anything that's new!

Afternoon Walk

Tim and Adayla headed out with Jane while Tally, Ryann, and I headed for naptime.


Just a fun place to walk through with the charm of winding alleys.

There is water running throughout the village from the river where villagers can wash their clothes, themselves, etc. I'm sure living upstream is a premium.

Jane stopped to help a lady push her bike (or rather, trike) loaded with rice plants to transport to the rice paddies.

We just loved how mystical and beautifule it was here.

The Local School

The "new" school that was built after Jane went to school is actually in the next village over, literally just across the bridge. School runs from 7:30 to 12:00 and then a 1-hour break for lunch. The local kids go home for lunch and everyone else eats at the school. From 1:00 to 2:30 they all have a nap at the school. This is a must for all Chinese students as they stay up really late and get up really early. This skill then is useful for the rest of their lives as most Chinese are able to fall asleep anywhere for any amount of time. They then have school until 5:00. The older kids, maybe 3rd grade and up, return to school at 6:30 until about 8:00 in the evening.

The kids pictured above are some of the kids that crowded the windows to see the foreigners!

A first grade chalkboard -- they're starting to learn Mandarin. Perhaps we should have stayed for the class.
Tim thought it was strange that as kids returned from lunch there were kids everywhere without a teacher in sight. These kids were just hanging out by themselves in this classroom until they invaded for some pictures.

These are the kids that are from neighboring villages that then sleep in dorms during the week and only return on the weekend. Maybe their village doesn't have a school or their parents think this one is better and pay a little more money to send them here. We thought of signing Adayla and Tally up here.

This is the bridge that the kids from Jane's village cross over the river to get to school....looks real safe right?

Looking at the Outside of Houses

Just like most places in America, there were new houses and old houses. The old houses were what I expected. Many people still live in them. The new houses are built, but very slowly. People mostly go outside the city to earn money and they build the houses over years. They earn a little extra money and will buy the windows. So the "new" houses have a very incomplete look to them because most of them are still in the process. Because people leave to earn money, many of houses were completely empty. They will return at Chinese New Year and then live in the bigger cities the rest of the time. To many of them, their big house is the goal and want the pride of having their own home. They are kind of like townhomes, some people buy the single wide or double wide and a very few are triple wide. Then some are just 2 stories, others 3, or even 4 stories tall. This is Jane's parent's home, a double wide - 4 story home. These are the houses that you see out the back her house.

This is the outhouse off of main street, still used these days, just go sit on the wooden edge and do your business for all to see.

This is 4 houses all connected in a square with the courtyard in the middle. The one on the left was the house Jane grew up in, where her mom's dad now lives.

This is the view of the courtyard area from inside her old home.This picture shows that many houses are still being worked on. The homes are added to as their owners earn money (a couple of bricks here, a couple of windows there). These newer homes were mostly empty while we were there because most of the money earned to build these is earned outside of the village.

Villagers from all over China go to the bigger cities to work, only returning for three weeks for Chinese New Year. For example, Shanghai has a population of 25 million -- 18 million Shanghainese and 7 million migrant workers. It is the migrant workers who are doing all of the construction jobs, manual labor, and maids here in Shanghai.

Most of these workers leave their children with family back in the villages because, for example, only Shanghai citizens have insurance for Shanghainese hospitals, can attend schools in Shanghai, etc, and getting big city citizenship is impossible for migrant workers.

Christmas Lights Anyone?

So we woke up the first morning and it was raining, it actually rained most of the time we were there. We look out the screen door during breakfast and the neighbors are sitting outside working on something. We asked what they were doing and Jane said they were making lanterns. What?? You know those things that are along the Bund in Shanghai? Well, she was talking about Christmas lights. People bring these villagers the bulb and the plastic piece that the bulb goes in and they put them together. They then get 2 RMB (about 25 cents) for ever 1/2 kilo that they do (about 1 pound). Those young people like us, if they work most of the day, can get about 5 - 1/2 kilos done....$1.25. But this particular lady who Tim took a liking to, couldn't see very well and would get just 1 - 1/2 kilo down per day. He had some time one afternoon and went to help and talk to her. She is 77 and her husband was 83. Cute, happy couple! I said to Jane, I don't know if I will ever be able to put Christmas lights on my tree again and she said I definitely need to, it brings the village extra money.

Inside a village House

Somethings that jumped at me about the inside of the houses: one actually had a pump to pump the water into the house, the kitchen and way to cook, the lack of hot water (why not to visit in the winter...cold, cold showers), almost all had electricity, and that though some had the inside sit down toilet, they still preferred to use the outside one! They were all so welcoming and wanted us to come inside and sit and visit.

This was a 3 story house, the steps going all the way are just cement, no hand rails or gaurds!

This is the water pump at Jane's aunt's house, the girls loved it!

This is in Jane's old house, where her Grandpa now lives.

Jane's kitchen at her parent's home.

Jane building the fire with the twigs in the background....more hard work! Talk about food storage! This is what they store their rice in.

This is one of the only picture we took of the room we stayed. It was quite finished and even had a bed. The girls slept on the floor on top of a summer mat and winter blanket. They loved it!

Random Villagers

I love their raincoats!
Nice day for a stroll down the street.
This little guy was walking home from school all by himself....on the same road that cars don't slow down, but do blast their horn for you to get out of the way.

Why take your dog for a walk when you can take the cow?!
Going to fast around the corner will put you into someone's garden.
I am betting this machine is fun to ride!
This was the morning we left, you can see that only the left side of the road has been paved with a good foot drop down to the gravel. We had traveled a 1/2 mile and were close to then end when this yellow truck came down the pavement. He would NOT back up the 100 yards, but instead made us and the car behind us back all the way up.