A day in the life of XinXiang

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My son had envisioned a tour company that would bridge the two cultures
so when we discussed a tour we said we'd like to combine both sightseeing and the
life in China.
Dragon's Village has two people in Xin Xiang a city SE of Beijing who are
helping, Feng Xhao and Jiang Jiang. Both people were our guides for two days.
Feng arranged for us to go to his family's village where we would have lunch.
They picked us up from the train station at a.m. and after dropping our
stuff in our hotel room we were off.
We had a 1-1/2 hour drive out to the village, a suburb of Xin Xiang. Feng's
brother is a driver so we all piled in his van for the trip.
The area of Feng's village is close to the Yellow River. The ground close to
the river has clay in it suitable for making bricks, hence there are several
brick factories. We stopped at one to see the process from start to finish.
Most of the photos from here will need to be posted once I get home.
But it was so amazing to see the small children playing in the middle of the
Te brick making process and men working barefoot in the dirt.
The brick factory brings it's dirt from the yellow river close by and a drive there
was in order. The yellow river was muddy but a collection of birds were flying
around and fun to watch.
Feng's mother called as lunch was ready. They had prepared about 6 dishes and
we were able to share in their family meal. As we talked we learned that
Mrs. Zhao is a weaver and a seamstress so I was immediately interested.
She left the table and brought back a piece of cloth she wove, a colorful
piece with shadow color on the opposite side. Later she presented each of us with
a piece of fabric which she grew the cotton, spun it into thread,
dyed the thread and then wove it. I'll post photos when I can.

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