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Published: October 13th 2009
chickens
These are the pics of the chickens that run this town!Greetings All:
I'm back from my eight day Moon Festival vacation, and the calming scenery of the rural farming town WuYuan countryside really recharged my teaching battery.
My classes have been running splendidly since I returned, and even the random new 30 students who have appeared in my classes throughout the week hasn't bothered me.
WuYuan was amazing! I went with Shelly and one of her Chinese students Caroline, who is from the WuYuan area.
The bus ride taking us north of Nanchang was quite scenic. Most of the way, we drove through small villages where the flat farmlands give way to rolling dramatic lush green hills, and humble monks walk silently in a perfect line to their remote temples. As much as I tried to enjoy and soak up all the surroundings, there was a slight feeling of terror that kept befalling me. The driver was driving like a madman! He was speeding and beeping constantly at village people with their slow moving cars, and going around gas trucks on the opposite side of the road, even if someone were driving on that side. I know that this is just the way people drive in China! but the overt order
pagoda
Shelly and I standing infront of WuYuan Liking Village of driving in America still hasn't shaken itself out of my system, and the driving still petrifies me where ever I go!
We arrived in WuYuan in 4 hours despite the trip was supposidly taking 5 hours just to literally almost trip over running and cackling chickens at the bus station!
Then the mob of taxi drivers and those o-so-notorious men in helmets with motorcycles that all continued to harrass us for a fare. At that moment I couldn't have been more delighted that Shelly and I decided to take Caroline with us. She knew the area fairly well and negotiated a fair price to transport us into town and get us a cheap hotel.
After paying 100 yuan for a hotel room (relatively cheap, despite the holiday season) Caroline took us to her old high school. She had informed her old English teacher that she was bringing us, but she did fail to mention that her old teacher would have us teach his class for 20 minutes! The students were so excited to see us, as WuYuan is quite off the beaten path and I was forewarned that whites have made rare appearances in town, there hasn't been any
Liking village
Street in Liking village recorded blacks in town. Shelly and I introduced ourselves and then had a Q &A session with his class. They were very sweet and accomodating and by the time the bell rang, there were more than 100 more students outside looking into the windows of the class trying to get a glimpse of us.
The teacher was extremely grateful for our appearance and in typical Chinese style of showing gratitude, he decided to take us to dinner. The food was amazing and really really spicy, almost beyond the point of handling and as its been rumored about spicy food, I had quite a vivid saga-like dream that night. After dinner, Caroline introduced us to one of her friends from town, and he took us to WuYuan's city square where we played random theme-park games like bumper cars, the hamster wheel and a lame attempt at riding a carousel horse. It was very fun and there were lots of shared laughter throughout the night.
Then in the morning, after the most amazing greasy breaktfast in a dirty shack in a random alley, we took another 20 minute bus ride to Liking Village. The old village was somewhat of a tourist trap
boats
On a boat in Liking village with loads of Chinese people there with their cameras dangling around their necks. We each had to pay 60 yuan to enter the village except Caroline, who spoke the local dialect and was let in for free. We took boat rides, visited temples, walked around the marvelous old village looking at old caligraphy stands and walking into historic homes that belonged to famous ancient people. There were loads of people selling things and Caroline once again became our super bargainer and despite her amazing skill, I still ended up buying far too many things and spending way too much money. I even bought this really expensive oil that comes out of a tree that can be used to help soothe the discomfort of mosquito bites and other wounds, only for the oil to spill all over my purse half an hour later. (devastating!)
Then after the village, Caroline took us to her little town 45 minutes out of WuYuan where we would spend the night with her family. The town (forgot the name) was literally in the middle of nowhere! I'm talking beaten path road where clearly no foriegner had ever gone (I was warned again). This feeling as the
monk
Inside a Buddhist temple. They were blessing people. outsider became disturbingly evident, as men driving their cars literally stopped, backed up just to sit there and stare at us. Children ran around us laughing and pointing and women with their babies just stopped what they were doing and stared until we were out of sight.
Caroline's mother and father work outside the province so they were not in town, so we stayed with her aunt who majorly resembled a Chinese version of Rosanne! Also there were her 3 very-pregnant cousins and more uncles and his friends playing mahjong. The house which did in fact have a door was left open to the elements just as most of the houses in the neighborhoods were as well. There were at least 3 separate buildings that comprised of her house and the housing was literally just a series of concrete buildings, providing little to no protection from the heat or cold. She had her own little farm in the back with loads of rice, cabbage, bok-choy, eggplant and chillipeppers. Then there were the chickens EVERYWHERE! and the 3 cute big pigs in the pig pen. Chinese Rosanne cooked us the most delicious meal ever with chicken dumplings in a wonton broth
man and son
Man and son getting their blessings from a monk. and fried duck legs. It was so very delicious and in more typical Chinese fashion, Shelly and I were the spectacle as almost the entire neighborhood stopped by to pay us a visit (or a stare). Fortunately, for Shelly she had the luxury of being the less exotic foriegner and more attention was clearly being bestowed upon me as I innocently tried to keep up with the smiling and the constant food on my plate that was being piled on by Rosanne.
One of her uncles friends had what I would call a Chinese Afro and she kept asking me questions about my hair, so finally I told her I could hook her up if she really wanted to because she had right around the right texture for me to do so. This had everyone in a pit of hysterical laughter and even with all their constant inquiries and stares they were still extremely nice.
Then after dinner, Shelly and I decided to escape the attention by going for a walk around the neighborhood. The silence was defeaning and quite a relief from the madness that is Nanchang!
In the morning, we went to visit her grandmother who was quite
incense
Giant incense outside temple. possibly one of the cutest spunkiest old ladies (other than my own two grandmothers) that I have ever seen. She did all her own farming and her 75 years showed on her physical body but she had more energy than the 3 of us combined! She stuffed our faces with treats and insisted that we take some peppers and fresh pears out of her garden. She was so very nice and took us to this 2500 year old enormous tree! which was also one of the more incredible sights I had ever seen.
Then afterwards, we went to visit her uncle and brother who lived another 40 minute bus ride away in this copper mining town. The town was bigger than Rosanne's but the staring there was actually agressive and not very nice at all. I was visually assulted time after time which in a way ruined my time there (it was really that bad).
We met her uncle in his restaurant for a late lunch where he asked us what we wanted to eat. First I thought he asked if we liked 'duck' which I promptly responded a big yes to. Soon I discovered he actually meant 'dog' which
Wilderbeast!
Shelly and I touching Wilderbeast! and on the side there were loads of Chinese people taking photos of us! I had to protest because I've only been in China a month and a half and I'm not ready to eat dog just yet. So they took us to the kitchen and had us pick all the things we wanted to eat. I did insist on seeing the dog meat, just for future reference. It was just a slab of unrecongnizable meat oddly similiar to dark turkey meat. Her uncles friends ordered the dog anyway and the meat looked like chopped beef stew on the plate. I decided that the dead dog was being devoured anyway, I might as well attempt to try some of its delicious flesh as an appreciation for its sacrafice. And despite the mental hesitation I was encountering, I must say the more impartial part of my taste bud/mind told me that it was in fact delicious. I suppose dog really is the other red meat. While in Rome, do as the Romans do!
After lunch, Carolines ridiculously gorgeous brother and her cousins took us to hike up this hill to this temple and pavillion. 600+ steps later we arrived to a gorgeous view of everlasting rolling hills mixed with farmland. It was an absolutely fabulous
snake in booze
A snake laying in a bottle of liquour! view and definitely one of the highlights to the trip, as hiking is often very rewarding anyway.
After climbing down the hill and having to kill some time before our bus departed to Nanchang, they took us to this river for a boat ride. As we got closer to the river, I realized this god-awful smell. There were dead fish just floating around the edges of the river....and these dead were everywhere! I realized that the town was a copper mining town and the dead fish was probably a sign of pollution. Then in sick twist of fate, this dog came out of nowhere and started eating on the radiated dead fish, then I started looking around and realizing that all the farmland around the area was totally using this polluted water for their farming. The dog I ate earlier that day started to taste a little less splendidly and Shelly and I decided to just wait at the bus station for the bus to come instead of discovering more disturbing facts about this town.
The bus ride back was just as crazy with a load of students coming back from their hometowns to Nanchang began to attack us
foot binding
These shoes were for women who binded their feet! not even my nephews could could wear these things!! to practice their English on the ride home. I eventually pretended to sleep which actually gave way to real sleep and we arrived in Nanchang this time in only 3 hours!
Then we had to take a taxi back to the university and as luck would have it we ended up with the most prejiduce taxi driver in Nanchang. He kept asking Caroline why she was hanging out with dirty Americans! Then this fool held this cloth over his nose, as if we stunk! Then after taking us about 10 blocks he insisted that we get out his taxi! Caroline told him to go to hell and take us back to the university and that he should stop acting ridiculous where he proceeded to cuss her out some more. She didn't back down and still insisted he take us back. Then he proceeded to drive literally like a madman back to the school. I've been in enough crazy taxis around this town to not be scared anymore but this was probably the worst car ride I had ever been in! I know he was either trying to scare us or just trying to get us back fast as he could
drrrrrty
Filthy kitten laying under a bag of dried fish. to get the dirty American stinch out of his car. Either way, this had Shelly and I rolling all over the taxi laughing at this hilarity. Then we threw the money at him and left the car where he still was fuming! We asked Caroline what he was saying about us but she would not tell us.
Ahhh....so that was my trip to WuYuan in a nutshell. I absolutely loved it and enjoyed the authentic experience of staying with a Chinese family. Good times and good memories I will keep from this trip and I'm so excited to get some more traveling done while I'm still in this big red state!
Zaijian
Latifa
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Daddy
non-member comment
So You Really Ate Dog Meat :))))
This sounds like an incredible adventure. It is great to hear about the fascinating events and all the places and people. I am sure you enjoyed it. You have depicted that trip quite beautifully Latifa. I am over whelmed with happiness for you. I am sure these adventures will be with you always. May Allah keep you safe and grant you success. Love ya,