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Hi All,
So day two and up with the cock crow literally. Had a great nights sleep on a very hard bed perhaps the only thing that kept me awake for a while where the frogs croaking but I soon drifted off. We found which direction we neaded to head out of Huangdu and we set off for Yutaozhai. I kept asking, well pointing in the book, people along the way if we were on the right track. Again the people we met on the roadside and in a village we popped into were very friendly. We came across one guy doing his washing near a well in the village and he offered us something to eat but it was early so we declined. The road up to Yutaozhai is off the road that goes from Tongdao to Huangdu. It's an uphill road but not difficult to walk up. Again we met people working on the roads and in the fields who would all say hello and nihao. About an hours walk from Yutaozhai it started to rain so we were very pleased when we finally arrived. As we entered the village we said to each other that we would
head to the main drum tower and sit down, have a cup of tea and then find a place to eat. In the drum tower were lots of old ladies all sat around a fire and they were very surprised to see a foreign couple. We were given a place by the fire and the ladies wanted to know where we were from and from where we had walked. We sat there for around 40 minutes and more and more old ladies were coming out of their houses to see what all the fuss was about. One lady took a real shine to me and was chatting away like I was a long lost friend, it was a shame I couldn't understand her. We asked if there was a place we could eat in the village and they pointed to a restaurant nearby but it appeared closed so a younger woman in her late 30s, I guess, took us to her house and cooked us some lunch. She told us to rest after lunch as it was still raining. With the help of the dictionary we had a chat of sorts and we had a look at photos of her
and her family that she had on the wall. Once the rain had died down we said thank you and went for a walk around the village. The village is in a spectacular location up in the hills with lots of drum towers, village gates and shrines. Drum towers were used in the old days for the village to meet and make important decisions a bit like a council chamber I imagine. There would of been a huge drum inside at one time which they would beat to warn other villages of dangers and the likes. They would also carry out punishments there on people that had commited crimes. So after saying thank you again to everyone we said goodbye. As we were leaving the small children had come out of school and they accompanied us out of the village to screams of "Laowei, Laowei" (Foreigner, Foreigner) they were very cute. Just as we left the village we saw a very small wind and rain bridge and sat inside was a man weaving a basket out of bamboo. He invited us in to show us what he was doing. I'm so pleased he did or we would of missed a
magnificent cultural revolution mural of Mao Zedong as the sun shinning light down on to his sunflowers ie the Chinese people. The walk down went quicker than the walk up and we soon arrived back at the road to Huangdu. Whilst we we waiting for the bus a local school's bell rang and the children came out of class. Again they were flabergasted to see a couple of foreigners and they were going crazy. The bus soon arrived and we headed back to Huangdu.
It has been a really brilliant day. The people here have been so friendly and the scenery in places is jaw dropping. I will take a lot from meeting these people. I will never complain about work again after seeing how these Dong peasants live and work. It must be a very hard life yet they all seem blissfully happy.
Enjoy the photos and Jah Bless
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