July 7, A day in Zhao Xing

This day was not full of activity.  We woke late and spent a long morning hanging around the room, relaxing.  Finally we emerged and went to breakfast-noodle soup.  Then we walked around the town a bit and went back to the hotel for a rest--we shouldn't get too tired doing not very much, should we??​

Finally we decided to head out on an adventure.  We would walk to a village of Tang An which was said to be 3 kilometers through the rice terraces.  Laina decided to stay in the room, so it was just Jorg, Min and I.  ​

We set off beyond the town of Zhao Xing and began to walk off into the hills through the rice terraces.  We had the whole valley to ourselves, it seemed.  It took us about 2 hours to hike to the Village of Tong An and we only came across 2 farmers and another traveler.  A Chinese woman who was going the other direction, but was afraid to hike by herself so she walked along with us back from where she came from.  Just as we were entering the town, we came across another group of Chinese travelers going back to Zhao Xing.  The woman hooked up with them and went on her way.  ​

In the village they had a drum tower in which a bunch of the men were hanging out and gabbing.  It didn't seem that women were invited to sit under the drum tower, so Jorg went to go look around it, but Min and I wandered down the street.  There wasn't much going on in the village, some ladies selling things, a few shops open, a restaurant for travelers, but most people were just sitting around chatting.  We walked through, took a few photos and then waited for a shuttle to take us down the hill to another bus which would take us back to Zhao Xing.​

At the bottom of the hill there was a group of women, all in traditional dress that were gathered in a pagoda like structure, singing songs for a camera crew.  WE were able to listen to their songs while we waited for our other bus.​

While waiting for the bus, a man approached Jorg and told him that we needed to pay 5 Yuan to ride the bus down from the village.  The man pointed at the sign which did say that the bus was 5 yuan each way.  Jorg told the man that he wouldn't give him any money, because he wasn't wearing any official clothes, only a t-shirt.  The man then muttered under his breath, something about getting money from the Lau Wai, and fetched his official button up shirt with a badge and stripes on the sleeve from the pagoda.  After the man had on his official shirt, he went to Jorg again and told him to pay for his ride down.  Then, Jorg relented and gave him the money.​

Once we were back to Zhao Xing, we picked up Laina, went to dinner and then went to bed.​