China-Village Homestay

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Oct. 1 National Day

Last night we were treated to a Tang Dynasty 617-905 AD cultural show and dumpling dinner. The Tang was the peak of wealth in this area, and Xi'an was the capital city. Costumes were very elaborate, and women's hair was piled high on their heads. They performed about six dances, and the musicians played traditional instruments with unique sounds. One man had some sort of device that fit in his mouth and made him sound like a duck. For dinner we had 17 kinds of dumplings, including walnut, celery, shrimp, bean paste, chicken, pork, etc. Most looked like the Peking ravioli appetizers we get at home, but a couple had special shapes: one like a duck and another like a monkey face.
For the following two days we must have everything we need in carry-on bags, because our suitcases will be driven to the airport while we stay overnight in a local village with a farm family. It is always a bit challenging to anticipate what one will need and to keep all toiletries in sizes of 3 ounces or less. Wayne is going to have to go without shaving and, worse, use Lady Speed Stick tomorrow morning. And we thought we were finished with packing anxiety when we left Massachusetts!
We were sorry to leave our Xi'an hotel with its beautiful garden and sumptuous breakfast. One treat I will miss is the hot milk that I add to the coffee (about 2/3 milk, 1/3 coffee - I'm not much of a java freak). Wayne liked the lotus root and spicy pepper beef (yes, at breakfast - a real eye-opener).
Our first stop of the day was at a lacquer furniture shop. We seem to have an inordinate number of buying opportunities on this particular trip. I loved a black lacquer coffee table with inlaid jade leaves and flowers, but it would be a pain to dust and would just get covered with books, I figure. Otherwise I'd be happy to spring for the $3000- plus-duty price tag, of course! I think our tour organizers had a wealthier clientele in mind. It is rather fun to window shop, anyway.
At the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, we had a peaceful walk in gardens built around a pagoda commemorating the journey of a Buddhist monk to India and back. He spent 17 years in that country learning to translate the Buddhist writings accurately into Chinese. I think this was in about 700 AD, but I've heard so many dates lately that I could be off by 1000 years more or less. Anyway, he was saved in the Gobi Desert by a wild goose who pointed the way for him to find water when he was about to perish. Hence the name of the pagoda. If you found that interesting, you would be a great candidate for a trip such as this one, and if not, I'm sorry I bored you. Meanwhile, back at the pagoda, we saw about a million cute little kids out celebrating National Day (like our Fourth of July) with their parents and grandparents. This little girl was being posed by her mother when I asked if I could take her photo, too.
Another random cultural item: here is a picture of a traditional kang bed from the 8th century, but still used in some homes today. In fact, we saw one of these beds in use at the village we visited. Its base is brick, and there is nothing but a thin straw mat on top. The "pillow" is a stone shaped to cradle the neck. Ouch! The space underneath the bed could hold hot coals. One of the ladies of a certain age in our group shuddered and said, "so it is hard as a rock and hot to boot."
At about 3 p.m. We arrived at Donghan village, a community of farmers who have done well enough to trade up to relatively nice homes where they can get permission from the government to take in foreign travelers for occasional overnight home visits. Wayne and I along with a couple from Minnesota stayed with the Xao family. Mrs. Xao walked us to her home from the bus. She has two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs set aside for guests. We attempted to communicate using some phrases that had been given to us on a cheat sheet with Chinese characters. We could point to the characters that went along with the English phrase that we wanted to say. This did not work as well as intended, first because the light was fairly dim in the room where we were sitting, so Mrs. Xao had to carry the paper over to the window to get some light whenever we asked a question, and in the process, she could lose her place on the paper, so my first question to her was, "How many people are in your family?" and her response was an exuberant show of gratitude. We realized she thought I was pointing to the following phrase, "Your home is big and clean." I guess that was a polite way to begin, anyway, and one could hardly say, "No, no! I didn't mean THAT one!" We finally communicated enough to learn she had a husband, son, daughter, and two grandchildren. She gave us a lesson in making noodles from scratch, and she and her husband served us a dinner of large thin pancakes, like crepes, with egg and vegetable fillings, along with a soup made from the noodles. Very tasty. Then we worked it off with dancing with the village women in the town square. Along with some Chinese dances we did the Electric slide, the hokey pokey, the Macarena, and the chicken dance! A highlight of the trip.
I didn't sleep well on the hard bed (not the brick one but hard nonetheless). Wayne and I were trying to share a single comforter, I think, and parts of us kept poking out. At first there were lots of dogs barking, but by the middle of the night there was a complete silence that you never get at home unless you go way out in the wilderness. We had some interesting congee and quesadilla-type things for breakfast, then saw two demonstrations: oil painting by famous farmer/ painter, Wang Ni Liang, and paper-cutting. Then on to the airport to fly to Chengdu.

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