We woke up at 6:30 a.m. We took very nice showers and then headed down to the 2nd floor for breakfast at the Cilantro restaurant at 8:00. There was a nice
buffet with a huge variety of Chinese and American selections. We were the only westerners to be found. Our breakfast consisted of:
It was delicious! The dining room overlooked the lobby and we also had a view outside through the glass walls. We could tell that it was raining outside. After we finished eating, we stopped back at the room and exchanged our normal daypacks for our waterproof ones. We would be spending the morning in the ancient village of Qingyan. We met Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou at 9 a.m., and got settled in the van. On the ride, we chatted with Wang Jun. He asked why we chose this particular itinerary, visiting an area that isn't frequently visited by westerners. We explained that we were travelers in need of a destination when our trip to India was postponed due to the impending arrival of Mukul's grandbaby. We said that we had asked Toni where we could go that would satisfy our cultural interests while also featuring a phenomenal guide. She told us she had the perfect trip and guide for us, so we said "Sign us up!" Wang Jun laughed and said that it was a bit ironic, because when Toni had initially contacted him to see if he was available to guide us, he couldn't answer her immediately. It turned out that he and his wife Xiao Yi had just found out that they were expecting a baby. They had to figure out her due date before he could commit. Luckily for us, their baby isn't due until the end of November, so it all worked out. It took about an hour to get to Qingyan, located in the hills of Huaxi. The "ancient town" has a storied history. It started off as a post station in 1373, and was turned to a garrison during the following decade. Soldiers were stationed here to squash a minority rebellion. In the 17th century, the Bouyei ethnic minority turned it into a town. And in 1939, the Red Army occupied the town. It is one of the few walled towns remaining in China, and is under ongoing restoration. It is being developed into a tourist destination, as a picturesque and historic shopping and dining attraction. Although the place wasn't incredibly busy at the moment, they were definitely gearing up for its future. Tourist facilities (welcome centers, rest rooms, parking lots) were in the final stages of construction. Brand new signs showed maps of the city, which encompasses 3 square kilometers. Despite all the modern infrsatructure surrounding it, we felt like we were stepping back into history as we walked down a stone path and up some stone steps to the imposing walled city. The city walls snaked up the surrounding hills like the Great Wall of China, disappearing into the foggy misdt. The walls had originally been made of earth, but over time they were fortified with stone. We could see Chinese tile roofs and red paper lanterns peeking over the top of the wall as we entered through the 17th century Ding Guang Gate, known as the Southern Door of Guiyang. There were two limestone gates in the city. One was built by a landlord for his widowed daughter-in-law. The other was built by Zhao Yijiong, the Zhuang Yuan (winner of the national examination) of Guizhou Province (see Jiaxiu Tower from yesterday), in 1843 to celebrate his father's 100th birthday. It is known the Centenary Memorial Archway of Zhao Lilun. The archway has three square openings, and is decorated with male and female lion sculptures at its base. We walked through the streets of the village, which were lined with shops and food stalls. Wang Jun pointed out that the drains in the cobblestone streets are shaped like ancient Chinese coins. Although it was raining today, the rain was quite light. You could barely feel it. We didn't even really need to wear our raincoats, and our waterproof backpacks kept everything dry. Lots of different types of food were for sale. A woman had a wooden spinner with various animals represented. Wherever it landed, she would create the shape of that animal out of melted brown sugar. There were more types of tofu than we even knew existed...red "blood tofu" which was soaked in pig's blood, big cubes of brown smoked tofu, and flat sheets of tofu cut into many different shapes. Pigs' "trotters" (feed) and tails were being served, a local specialty. There were pastel-colored rice cakes made of sticky rice. There were stalls selling many different kinds of chilies (another specialty of the province). They were piled high in shiny metal bowls. We sampled three types. Wang Jun expected them all to be too hot for us, but we loved them and it left us wanting more. I especially enjoyed a sweet and hot variety. Wang Jun said that he doesn't usually get to order hot dishes for tourists, so he was eager for the opportunity. There were clay jars full of rice wine, and traditional medicine shops with various herbal remedies, including giant mushrooms. There were lots of other items for sale as well: cheap plastic toys (including brightly colored toilets), hair accessories jewelry, semi-precious stones, embroidery, and small souvenirs. We saw a woman dressed in the clothing of one of the local ethnic minorities who was doing silverwork. Cigarettes and soft drinks were for sale. There was also a shop where you could dress in traditional Miao ethnic clothing and jewelry to have your photo taken. There was no demand for this service in the misty rain, so the two young women who run the shop were just sitting with their faces buried in their cell phones. We passed a lazy cat and dog napping next to one another. Some Chinese tourists asked to get their photo taken with us, and as we did so, more and more people jumped into the picture. It was very cute. We saw a Catholic church which was orginally built by missionaries. The missionaries were killed by a local lord (Lord Zhao) in the mid-1800's. He was banished to war after pressure from the French government following the killing of the missionaries and the burning of the church. He died in combat, and they erected a limestone shrine to him here. The current church was built in 1987, and is still used for Masses today. After giving us an overview of the town, at 11:30, Wang left us on our own to explore for 45 minutes. He pointed out a restaurant where we should meet for lunch at 12:15. There were shops which had a lot of nice items for relatively cheap prices. We bargained with the sellers and got some good deals. One store we went into had cool lanterns and dolls. In this shop, everything had prices posted on them. A young woman followed us around and offered to help us. Craig really liked a Peking (Beijing) opera shadowbox. We assumed that there was room in the proce for bargaining, but we weren;t 100% sure. So we offered a slightly lower price. The young woman asked one of her coworkers, and they agreed to the price. They then went skipping off to the cash register, so I suspect we could have gone a bit lower. But the list price hadn't been unreasonable, so we all left the transaction happy. They all said "Bye bye" and giggled and waved to us as we left the shop. We met Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou at the restaurant at 12:15. We went through the courtyard to the back building, where two big tables of Chinese tourists were just finishing up a meal of pig's trotters. Bones and napkins littered their table. We sat at a separate table from Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou. We still weren't used to this arrangement. Being a self-contained group, meal time is usually a nice time to bond with guide and driver over meals. But we understood the logic behind this separation, and respected their policy. Wang Jun ordered for us, and we were very happy with his selections:
There was a very cute little dog in the restaurant, and Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou were holding pork up in their chopsticks, getting the dog to stand on its hind legs, and then dropping the pork for him to eat. I tried to do the same thing, but klutzy me dropped the piece of pork and it fell right into the dog's eye. The chilies made his eyes burn, and he squirmed around on the floor rubbing his eye on the floor trying to get the chili out of it. I felt so bad! Luckily, he seemed to recover quickly. The foodd was delicious and we ate so much. We felt guilty leaving some behind, but Wang Jun said that they feed leftovers to the pigs and the dogs. We left the ancient village via the North Gate. There was a lot of infrastructure development going on on this side of the village. Massive parking lots, large brand new bathroom facilities, cranes constructing other new buildings. Perhaps they would be hotels. It looked like they were preparing for a much higher volume of tourists. This could be because there has been an increase in interest in the ethnic minority cultures of this province from the majority Han Chinese population. The growing middle class is spending its money on vacations, and Qingyan Ancient Village is ready to receive them. We saw a man dressed up in a golden monkey costume. We assumed that he represented the Monkey King. We walked back to the van and then drove back to Guiyang where Wang Jun had arranged a visit with a local family. This was very special and difficult to arrange, and Wang Jun considered it to be a challenge, which he enjoys. The family lived in a condo, and we met the mother, 7 1/2-year-old daughter Sara, the grandmother, and the 76-year-old grandfather. (Sara's father was notg at home because he was at work at the post office). Their condo was gorgeous and very spacious, on two levels. They had two modern bathrooms, a modern kitchen, three bedrooms, an office, and a playroom for Sara, plus lot sof closets and storage. They had a nice private garden where they grow vegetables and fruit trees (they grow large peaches, apples, etc.), and they have a nice gazebo / pergola area. They gave us a tour of the house and garden, and Sara showed us her pet mouse. They got out their camera and took some pictures of us all together, and so did we. We went back inside and they offered us a large spread of refreshments - rose cakes ("MiLian Flowers Pastry"), pummelo fruit, red dragonfruit, kiwi, chestnuts, dates, and raisins. They gave us a very special "robin's tongue green tea" (no actual robin's tongues were used in its production, but the needle-like tea leaves which float in the water apparently resemble them). It is the best tea, according to Wang Jun. They showed us family photos on their iPad. They do a lot of traveling both within China and abroad; they travel 7-8 times per year. People after our own hearts! They showed us baby pictures of Sara, pictures of them visiting the pandas in Xi'an, etc. We got out our little photo album and showed them pictures from our home and travels. Sara loved the photo of us with the Galapagos giant tortoise. The family thought it was a statue at first. When we told Sara that it was over 100 years old, her jaw dropped. The mother really liked the photos of us with the 450-pound silverback mountain gorilla in Rwanda. "Photoshop?" she joked. She took a photo of our gorilla photos. We discussed the gorillas and when we said there are only ~700 alive in the world, Wang Jun was surprised to hear that they are more endangered than giant pandas. Sara played the piano for us. She is such a sweetie. Everyone was so nice and they wanted to take more photos with us inside the house. Before we knew it, we had been there for an hour and a half and it was time to go. The grandfather motioned for us to take some food home with us. He gave us two dates. I took a couple of rose cakes in a napkin. When the mom saw this, she presented us with a nice box of cakes wrapped in pretty wax paper in packs of 2. We said our goodbyes and chatted in the driveway. We saw the family's white Buick SUV. The mom suggested taking a photo of us in front of the house with our camera. It was so nice to see a glimpse into the day to day life of a family in Guiyang! They were so sweet and we always enjoy making new friends. It took about 20 minutes to drive back to the hotel. We got back home at around 5:15 p.m. After freshening up, we met Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou at 6:30 for dinner. We crossed the street from the hotel using an underground tunnel. Instead of stairs, there were escalators to enter and leave the tunnel. There were no shops underground here. These tunnels had more passages than the one we had been in yesterday. Wang Jun led us through the proper course and we riode the escalator to street level. We noticed that there are no real crosswalks in the city. Everyone crosses via these tunnels. We turned down a side street to Fu Nan Xiao Chi Restaurant. We were seated right in the front window. Most of the furnishings in the restaurant were purple. Wang Jun ordered our dinner once again:
Everything was exceedingly delicious. Wang Jun came over to the table and asked if we could get back to the hotel by ourselves if he and Mr. Zhou headed back now to get some rest. We hadn't been paying much attention and were afraid we might take the wrong tunnel. We hadn't known we might be on our own, and had been complacent that we would have them to lead us back. They said no problem, they would wait for us. It had been a long day and we didn't want to keep them up late. We finished up quickly and walked back to the hotel together at 7:45. It was drizzly out tonight so nobody was in the parks. We were glad that we had checked them out yesterday when the weather was good, even though we had been tired. If the weather had been nice tonight, we would probably have stayed out. But the drizzle meant that we went to the room early and got some good rest. We had asked Wang Jun about postcard stamps. He said that postcards aren't available in most of Guizhou because it is not a Chinese custom to send them. We said that we had some postcards from Beijing, but needed stamps to send them. He recommended asking at the hotel. As we headed up to our room, I asked the concierge if they sell postage stamps. He was embarrassed that he didn't know enough English to help. He called an English speaking Sheraton call center. "Hi lady!" the woman said to me over the phone. I explained what we were looking for and she translated it into Chinese. The answer came back that the hotel doesn't sell stamps, but there is post office "across the street." We had never seen one, but there are a lot of side streets off the hub where our hotel is, so it was possible. We decided to ask Wang Jun about it in the morning. We went back up to the room, chatted, looked at the day's pictures on the computer, and wrote in the journal. We went to bed at 9:30. Qingyan Ancient Town |
 Approaching Qingyan ancient town  Centenary Memorial Archway of Zhao Lilun  Chilies which we sampled  Qingyan  Temple  Qingyan  Minority woman doing silverwork  Leaving Qingyan  Visiting with Sara and her family  Wang Jun, Sara, and Sara's mom look at our photos  Sara and her mom  Visiting with Sara and her family  Sara and her grandparents waving goodbye  Dinner at Fu Nan Xiao Chi 
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