A Sunday Morning Stroll

A typical old Chinese street

I was told that not far from our community, there is a typical old Chinese village.  My lovely neighbour from upstairs, C. (and her young son R.) offered to go for a walk there with me and today was the day.

We decided to go early, setting out at 7:00 and we decided to walk.  As it turned out, this was much better than trying to go by scooter or by bike because it gave us a chance to stop along the way, check out the signs and (for her!) to talk to the locals.  What an eye-opener it was!

A local government building

Recycling station

Nearly every house had some land which was cultivated to the max with eggplant, pumpkins, corn, persimmons, sugar cane and beans.  The people clearly work very hard to cultivate their small holdings.  

A local government building was the conspicuously modern, new structure but as you can see, the houses were quite a bit older.  We walked past a recycling plant, which very much interested my young companion, R.  We had to pry him away from that!

R. with cotton drying on racks

C. and R. - eating sugar cane

Sugar cane growing

At one spot we saw cotton on drying racks and C. tells me that often the seeds and the fibre is still separated by hand.  The people in the village only grow the cotton - they sell it on to be processed further.  The lady gave us sugar cane which we happily chewed on as we walked further.

R. and I

Beautiful garden with water on two sides

As you have seen in my previous posts, there are canals in our compound.  As we walked along, the canals became rivers, with gardens, forest or weeping willows along the banks.  Very picturesque and idyllic.  The road was very narrow, making it quite a mission when two cars met and you certainly had to keep your wits about you as a pedestrian!

Further down though, there were areas of broken brick and rubble which was not so beautiful.  

Man washing clothes

Since the weather was fine, it seemed a prime day for washing clothes.  We saw many people washing or hanging their washing out.  Many houses had pumps outside which are used for washing clothes.  The water is not safe to drink.  Mainly it was women doing the washing, but I did find a man who was doing his share of the chores! (and he was happy for me to take his photo).

Local shop!

This "house" had a satellite dish!

The local shops were interesting and many of these people would not have even been to the supermarket where I shop - a mere few kilometres away.  For many I may have been the first European they had ever seen in the flesh.  What a life they must lead.  Several of the poorer-looking houses had satellite TV dishes outside.  Interesting priorities.  

The ladies public toilet

There was even a public bathroom for those in need.  It was, as I expected, a “squattie pottie”!  The footmarks tell the story really.  

All in all it was a great morning with lots of new sights and experiences.  And that is what I came here for!

xx,

Shanghaisuz