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Published: November 29th 2013
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Winter is coming.
This is the theme of our trip, that winter is coming. And this heralds two omens. 1st that it will get colder in the north, and 2nd that the Typhoons, monsoon rains and the burning heat of summer will temporarily subside like the red sea and give us an easy cycling passage to the south.
When we left Fuzhou the temperature had been dropping quickly for a subtropical envirement. The days of 30-40 degress celcius were over and shorts and a shirt were becoming a thing of the past. By the time we made it to Xiamen and then Zhangzhou we had returned to conversations involving, "I don't think
I'll need a jacket yet." And , "I'm just waiting a few days before I stop wearing my
shorts." This was spoken by the manager of an English school in Zhangzhou and a good host of ours, really friendly and optimistic chap, but the true picture he painted for us of teaching in China leads me to the next paragraph, a warning to the rest of our teachers.
This is a real warning, in China, the classes come prepared and in fact our easier to manage
but this because no one considers you a real teacher. If you are a Native speaking teacher You are not the one maintaining relations with the parents, you are not the one responsible for your class or the one people will give credit to, this credit goes to the Chinese staff, to your T.A.s. Many policies in many schools are designed to keep you as a simple commodity, and give credit to the Chinese T.A.s for well managing of their students and there teachers. Its an easy life but you are but a voice, or in some cases a puppet with a big fist stuck up your ass. And while you have wiggle room, even when you do something great it'll never be seen as because of you.
But we left Zhangzhou. To take advantage of the near-december Indian Summer, into the mountains to visit the hekkans and the mark of a different culture. Our entire time in China has been spent among the Fujian culture, but now in the mountains we discover the culture of the Earth People, in their amazing Donut Castles.
Now about the Tulous in Nanjing County Also known as Earthen Houses, and
simply Tulous we rode hard uphill for a day and a half before we saw our first one. Now i'd love to get all mystical, and oh-so romantic about their Earth houses, but first before you see this you must wade through swamps of tourism culture. All the way up we were shingled and ripped off. After hours of riding in the dark we were charged ridiculous prices to eat the asses of pigs, to drink cheap beer and sleep in a "Guest House" that originally was 55RMB but turned into 110RMb the second they realized we had no other place to stay. Despite the lack of complete walls and roof we crashed their and drank their boiled water and ate their dry pomelo.
Though after that we peaked a crest and rode past a village when we spotted our first Earth Castle. Now I can be romantic about these things because despite the overt tourism in a few many are amazing and contain true feelings of Chinese culture. The first one we stood outside and asked several times if it was OK to enter until finally the man said, "OK!" (later we would discover the first three responses
were him asking for money, but due to the language barrier he simply let us in).
Its a true home, were people are dwelling. You'll see their makeshift kitchens in the open area of the arena, the wells, children playing and the closed but decorated doors to their living quarters. As you go around the area you'll realize that the earliest Tulous from the 13th century were designed in a square fashion but as time went on towards the 14th, 15th and 16 century they evolved into the more well-known circular buildings(As seen in Avatar the last air bender's Earth Kingdom cities). They were even popular during Chairman's Mao's cultural revolution as despite their long history the Tulou had always been designed in the form of equality for everyone. Each apartment is the same size leaving no room for the Hekka people to lord over eachother.
And so we experienced this by staying in a Tulou turned to a hotel. For a cheap price of $20(120rmb) a room we enjoyed a soft clean bed, warm showers and heat lamps. All in all a great experience. Spending two nights there and another one in a hotel in TaXia we
noticed something chilling. Winter is coming, and the temperature in the mountains is dropping. Its time to go.
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Fran
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Pictures
Great pictures. It's been freezing here what is the daily temps there?