Long time no blog (Rose visits rural Chinese village)

Adventure in Hunan. 

In the small village of Shiyanping, I find myself sitting on a wooden porch, admiring the views of green lush mountains rising above rice paddies and the occasional Traditional village wooden sloping roof. Chickens are squawking, bees buzzing, a slight well needed breeze every so often moves the Chinese red lanterns hanging above me. In the past few days it feels like I’ve done a whole lot of nothing, but in reality, what an adventure I’ve been having.  This is my second trip to a Laojia location, the first one being outside of Guilin last October (check out that blog here).

After a very delayed flight, I arrived in Zhangjiajie airport at midnight, and was picked up by a man (boy?) who then drove me the 2 hour rocky mountain route to the village. Along the way, the stars shown, the planets were out, the mountains just shadows in the dark.  Here we go!

At breakfast after a mere 5 hours of sleep, I was bombarded with questions about who I was, what I do in Beijing, where is my husband, why do I like to be tan, do I know a random American from shanghai who came here once, how old am I, and so on. Due to my lack of Chinese and sleep I’m still unsure whether they asked me if I was married or if need to lose weight. I went on an exploration of the village, which has a town center, one bar, and about 5 homes. So peaceful, so tranquil. I tried to read but ended up just staring at the mountains and farmland for hours.

Yeye was my host, apparent old man from appearance but young in his sprightly step, loud fast talking communication, and eagerness to show me off and show me around. This Laojia is relatively new, and the village has not received many foreign guests. English is not an option. Yeye’s accent was thick, I often found it hard to understand him. I kept saying ‘ok’, so many times that he started to make fun of me for it. I overheard him explaining who I was to some townspeople, ‘She’s American, she works in Beijing, she says ok…” Yeye showed me his goats, his pigs, his water buffalo. He continually showed up at my door to take me somewhere, and I never knew where we were going or why. We walked in the mountains, we walked through a giant cave, we wandered the town together.

 One morning, I thought we were going to walk to a scenic spot but we hitched a ride with the garbage truck instead. Imagine, me squished between two local garbage men asking me questions that I don’t understand, with Yeye hanging on the back for dear life as we swerved down the mountain. (watch this video!)

One night, Yeye came out with his portable tv and showed me his favorite Chinese music video. I listened to him sing along and thought, how genuinely happy he is, surrounded by beauty, nature, friends, music. What more do you need? Besides some awesome gym shorts J

I was able to go hiking a bit, although almost got scared off by a giant snake. Only a few cars drove by me but each one slowed, rolled the windows down and asked who I was, if I was alone, where I was from, what I was doing. After a quick, jia you! (go!), they would speed off up the windy mountain road. The views were everything I had hoped for. I wandered past farm houses, in and out of jungle vegetation, along rivers and streams, up to the top of the mountain range. On my way back, I stopped by the village ‘bar’ where I bought a soda, and everyone said hi to me as if I were a local. 

A challenging few days due to the language barrier and unfamiliarity with the area, but by letting go and letting things be whatever they were going to be, I was also able to find some of this village peace. Can't wait to return!