Advertisement
It began with a bit of a hiccup. National or rumored international Mayday was the previous weekend. However, Senior 3 would need the entire school for exams the following weekend, so rather than giving the first and second year student's two 3 day weekends in a row they delayed the holiday to this weekend. Throw out the plans of students seeing their families when they were let out of the factory hundreds of miles away, teachers who had rented cars and made reservations with friends in other provinces, national edict and rumored international sanction.
After a week of hearing plans dashed, ours were delayed with little interruption. Students from the town of Jianghua itself wanted to give us the tour de culture past and present. As the students usually get up at 6am they decided to sleep in and not depart until 8am. First stop the temple of Pang Wang Dian. Pang Wang Dian is the ancestor of the local Yao people. They have their own spoken language and officially had no written language until 1949. However, many towns have tablets dating back at least 600 years? They also had a secret women's language Nushu, which was recently discovered. It
is said that many of the women had administrative say over much of the local governance. This secret language may have been a key to their maintaining balance in the otherwise patriarchal setting of Han China.
The temple is deeply embedded in our small community. It is behind many larger residential buildings and can only be accessed by what appears to be an alley. Once found, this alley opens up to a large area with a walled in temple. Sophia the student who organized the excursion bartered tickets for us all. I think it was supposed to be 20 a person Keren and I got in for 5 each and the students got in for 10. After this masterful display she then translated for our tour guide and interpreted many of the temple pieces for us. We were led around to the statue where offers and prayers can be made. Behind the throne is a door to the back living quarters or in this case a Yao re-enactment site. It was mostly unused but the students were excited by them as they have many similar working pieces at their homes and were able to elaborate the functionality of the
Poet of tea
Wood Carving gallery and studio otherwise inoperable artifacts. Berry one of our most avid learners and best speakers gave Keren the full working tour of the Yao household as she grew up in a very remote place which still utilizes all of the equipment. After we visited the souvenir shop we were out to eat the most common lunch especially for students a bowl of noodles for 2 yuan ($0.25).
Next we were off to visit a wood carver who carves intricate visages of poets and many other literary characters. The poet of tea Lu Yu is pictured here. Just a few doors down we treated our young guides at the ice cream cart depot, offering Jianghua's entire ice cream selection.
A short walk later found us at a local calligrapher's house (Yang Hua). His day is filled with writing calligraphy for funerals, weddings, and other special notices. This provides him an especially good life in Jianghua. His calligraphy ink is made by a process of rubbing two smooth stones together to make a paste when combined with a little water. He has begun to add geologic educational outreach to his repertoire. He collects stones mostly uncut, which are then mounted in various
Yang Hua's tea set
Complete with giant chair, slotted table with drain to catch spills and stones that drastically change color when hot water is poured over them. artistic positions. He also has several stone rice milling and chafing wheels on display. We spent our time there drinking many rounds of Tie guan yin tea made at his elaborate tea desk with slotted draining table, giant chair and wafting incense.
Now caffeinated we headed to the rose garden. We caught a bus out of town and a short distance later could see a plot of roses planted among the rice paddies. We walked the roses for a bit, bought a few and headed home. It was a wonderful day spent exploring the local sites with our students.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0525s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Hannah
non-member comment
Looks amazing
Sounds like your adventures are quite interesting and informative - they look amazing! I'm so excited to come to China and soak it all up for myself. You two look fantastic as well. Hope daily life is treating you well. LOVE!! hannah