Day 3: Weishan / Weibaoshan

Another "Shushu" (uncle) picked us up in the morning. As we could barely understand his local dialect, we did not exactly know where he would bring us...

We followed him and found ourselves back in 'Old Town' Weishan. This is truly one of the highlights of our trip. Old Town Weishan is well preserved and surrounded by ancient gates on either side of the main street.

We stopped at a small restaurant where a lot of people where already lining up. Shushu explained that this is the best noodle soup shop in town.

The noodles where freshly made in front of us and the soup was indeed one of the best we have eaten so far - 'hen hao chi'!!!

Weishan feels special... It brought us back to a time, we really enjoyed, but never knew. We are certain that in a few years time, swarms of tourists will discover this place.

Weishan is a city with a rich history reaching back 1300 years. The Drum Tower Gongshenlou, once a gate in the medieval wall, is the second largest in China.

Weishan is home to the minority cultures of Bai, Hui and Yi. We enjoyed the early morning hours when the town was waking up gradually.

Shushu spotted another Weishan delicacy: preserved fruits. The pears were very strong in taste, full of wine vinegar flavors.

In the afternoon, we went to Weibaoshan, a Daoist enclave with 20 temples spread throughout the forested hills. It's a mystic place with great views of Weishan and its surrounding villages...

Weibaoshan is 2509 meters above sea level and its peaks are covered by many rare trees as well as the tallest camellia tree in China.

After an exhausting walk to the peak of the mountain, we drove back to Weishan to have lunch. After Didi finally managed to park the car in a 12m wide parking space, Ayi (our host mother) was determined to eat at a small streetcafe that served Hui (Muslim) food.

The noodles are served cold with tons of chilly on top. After we had our first few bites, we asked for water to cool our tongues. Instead of water, Ayi brought back a huge bowl of vinegar which - according to her - was a great way of refreshing... yami yami!

After lunch Didi pointed to a man near the road that was selling fried potatos and said: This is Weishan's McDonalds... all of us started laughing!

Afterwards, we drove to Didi's parents which are school teachers in the village. They live in a traditional courtyard style house (the shelter on the right hand side of the entrance is the toilet).

Drinking water comes from a fountain in the courtyard. There was no electricity and the kitchen was a wood stove.

When the women prepared the food, Shushu drove with us to the local school.

The kids stay overnight in small and overcrowded rooms.

Lyn and Didi in the foot steps of 'Yao Ming'...

Back at the family's house, we continued with 'Chi chi He he' which means 'Wining and Dining'. Its a tradition during Chinese New Year where you visit your family and friends. This takes a number of days... multiple times a day!

It was just 2 hours after we had our lunch and our stomachs were still full... but the family was so hospitable and we soon found ourselves sitting around the table in the middle of the courtyard.

The food was interesting, and what looked like worms turned out to be crunchy veggies. Of course, Maotai, the most famous liquor in China could not be missing. With 56% alcohol, another drinking session started... this time already at 3pm in the afternoon.

Day 2: Chinese New Year Celebration in Weishan

The next morning, the family woke us up at seven in the morning. It was a rough night, since it was very cold and we had no heater in the room. We had further challenges with the bathroom - There was no warm water in the morning. Now we understand, what they were trying to explain us yesterday and why everybody was taking a shower in the afternoon: The warm water is produced through solar panels and there is apparently no warm water in the morning, nor in the evening - We will definitely remember it for the next time.- Ai (the mother of the family) was so kind to prepare some breakfast for us -spicy noodle soup with fried egg. Wow, this is another dimension of "spicy". We rather take some "duzi tong" (Stomach ache) medicine afterwards.

- It is time to leave - We are going by car, Shu Shu is proud of his American Chevron. However, I assume, the cars here are built for Chinese heights - Bastian at least cannot sit straight in the car and that for four hours!

- Did we mention that during the whole ride, they left the windows wide open? While Shu Shu is wearing gloves, we are totally freezing with a temperature of less than 5 degrees outside.

- The more we drive, the more rural the area and the people are getting.Lots of animals, stunning scenery, people on horsewagon, minority tribes, etc. Thinking of the restrooms in those huts, we have the feeling that we will very soon be looking forward to our "quality hole" in Kunming.



- We are stopping somewhere in the mountains at a hut that belongs to a friend of Shu Shu. People here are living very simple, as you can see on the picture above, which shows the living room. There is no electricity and the kitchen only has a simple fireplace. - Nevertheless, the family is very friendly and we are well treated with some local food for lunch.

- Bastian definitely seems to be a bit more sceptical about the food :O)

- A picture with Ai, our host mother.

- After lunch, we moved on to Shu Shu's parents place, a typical houtong about five kilometres away from Weishan.

- Since most of these homes do not have any living room or kitchen, the courtyard is the center of the action, where the family cooks, eats and gathers around...

... or simply plays majong. We were lucky that we learned how to play the game before we left for China. This way, we were easily integrated into the family. More and more people joined throughout the day, after a while we were over 20 people sitting in the courtyard.

- At some point in time, we needed a break. So we went for a short walk with the youngsters of the family, who were able to speak a little bit of English.

- The neighbourhood area

- The houses are not constructed in a way that we are used from the Western part of the world.

Garbage dump just infront of the people's homes.

- As soon as we came back from our walk, Ai was calling us and said that we will go for dinner with some of their friends and families. We were actually feeling a bit uncomfortable, since we were surrounded by so many foreigners, who were not speaking English at all.

- But as it turned out, soon the language barrier was not a problem anymore, as the people were actually drinking (Mau Tai liquor consisting of 58% alcohol) more than they were eating - typical during the Chinese New Year festivities. Every five minutes, a different person stood up and said "gan bei", which basically meant we had to ex a glass full of liquor.

- Well, you can imagine, where the story ends. After less than an hour with a half full stomach, everybody was totally wasted - and it was not 8pm yet. Unbelievable! I wanted to take a picture of this excessive drinking, but was told not to do so, as a police officer was sitting with us at a table.

- To get sober again, the family suggested to take a walk in the Old Town of Weishan. Though, we could not see a lot, we felt that this place is somehow special and decided to come back the next day. We stopped at one stand, where Chinese-horoscope formed candies were made.