Cycling around the countryside of Yiwu

When I get the chance  , I like to take a bike out for a quick ride. Yiwu is an interesting place in that you only need to cycle for 10 km before you are out in the rural areas. Usually , I head to the 7-1 or 8-1 village (七一村或者八一村) before heading out through a few tunnels in the mountains and into some real mountainous areas. I these areas , the people are fairly scarce on the ground and the fields are usually full of all the fruits that I cannot name (as I tend to forget nearly all fruity names and just call everything a peach or a plum.)
                                                    
                                                                The plums in question. 
                                                        At least, that is what I think they are.

Apart from the nice woman that sold me the plums , I shared most of the land with chickens .Man , I had forgotten how noisy they can be at times.
                                                         

I never knew that chickens perched themselves on trees

Flowers out in bloom, 

        The amount of colour in the countryside is something else over here.

Apart from the chickens and some people selling fruit, one can see other people working away in the fields. Today it was 28 degrees Celsius so these are some hardy souls.

The amount of effort that goes into tending the land is something else here.

Farmer tending to his vegetable patch.

As for me, being of a lazy disposition I went to look for a place to rest away from the suns rays. Over here there seems to be quite a few places to grab the shade.  actually saw a makeshift bed beside a quiet road as well as many open 3 walled places with murals splashed on the walls.

Nice for a quick 40 winks .

Looks like some family are getting some advice

When flying around the countryside, one will spot areas where one can just rest ones feet and drink some (usually hot) water.

Build a few meters up from the village to give the seated person a nice view of the area.

Of course, the casual observer will also see many animals floating around the area. When no being scared shitless of dogs trying to make their next dinner my shins, I try to look for ducks and this time I was not disappointed.

Swimming towards freedom (or food. I have not worked that one out yet.)

So what do I do when the legs get a bit tired? I try to find a stream and refresh the legs before the next part of the ride.

Nothing like listening to the sound of flowing water and putting the feet in the middle of the flow of water.

No wonder the fields are so green. It seems to have a plentiful supply of the H2O stuff.

Not a wasted patch of land here.

Apart from looking for the lakes , I just like to take nice natural pictures and at the same time, try to remember where I have been...

I know that 镇安桥 is a restaurant. It's always nice to know where the restaurants are located if one is stuck or wants to sample the local foodstuffs.

Is that the sun or the moon?

Good vista, though

Really no room to plant anything else here.

I guess the villagers head out early in the morning to farm this land and bring it back to the restaurants to do their ting later on in the day.

Eventually, I decide that I better head home but not before heading back though Qi Yi village.

The cook told me that the sausages were preserved (la chang (腊肠)

I thought he said la chang (拉肠) which means pulling a sausage. 

I need to learn my tones and a few more sausage phrases.( BTW reserved sausage with noodles (香肠面) is quite the tasty dish.)

Yiwu - DeShengYan (德胜岩)

         I am prone to the odd spot of laziness. I promised myself to try to write one blog a week for at least 10 weeks! That was 10 weeks ago and this is the....ugh....first one since then. The lesson is never make promises.
        Anyway, I discovered this part of Yiwu about 6 month ago while cycling around the high speed train tracks that lead you from Shanghai all the way into Yiwu and beyond.  The view from the high speed train coming into the city is very cool though as the train flies into the town on a track that is built 10 meters off the ground.
   In order to climb up the mountain to get a birds eye view of the train tracks, one has to first find DeShenYan village. As usual, I depended on Baidu maps (百度地图)  to get to the area. Entering the village is nice as there are quite a few fields there and a nice mosaic on a wall.

Murals seem to be everywhere. Nice though

Time to find the virtuous and superior rock

The note of respect for your folks was noted....

Respect for the older generation

 before I headed off to find some Buddist temples and the top of the mountain.

    Then I was able to park the bike and start the nice walk to the top. On the way I bumped into a celestial being cavity
(仙人洞) a Buddhist hideaway in the mountains. I would imagine it would be be a cool place (literally) to stay in the burning heat of the summer. It's quite the charming, peaceful area though.

A cool place

Buddist monuments are very common in Yiwu

      After a few minutes of quite contemplation, it was time to move on and bask in the glow of my skin turning an odd shade of cherry tomato red.
      How many steps can be built into a mountain? They seem to be everywhere. I should not complain. They are appreciated
when one needs to get to the peak.

Onwards and upwards

      Once the steps met the top of the mountain, I forgot about my lack of fitness. The views here are something else. You can see for miles in quite a few directions.

One can see the high speed railway in the distance

At the top of the mountain, one can see the flowers blooming in Yiwu as well as wishing wells.

Flowers in full bloom (far left)

I wish for more air so I can  breathe easier.

Galloping towards the views down below

 After the customary burning from the sun, it was time to head down again. One last view of the village before cycling home was needed.

The view from the bottom of DeShengYan

The view from the ground of both railway lines was nice. The construction of both lines is something else.

One can see the fast train as well as the normal train here

                  I usually try to grab something to eat before heading home and this time was no different.
                                     
                                            Green peppers with onions and rice.....Nice

DeShengYan is a cool place and well worth the visit as long as one has the energy to climb up and then down the many steps (which seem to be everywhere in Yiwu.)

Memories of Chengdu

      I think the electric cooker has gotten the better of me at this stage. I tried to boil some Tangyuan (汤圆) but the 电磁炉 has an E7 problem. Damn…..So close to eating some sesame seed balls.  Ah well, I guess that will have to wait until I can get the problem sorted out.

Mmmmmmm Tangyuan...a tasty treat 

(Once I get the electric cooker thingy sorted  )

 Anyway , back to the pictures….

  A few weeks ago , I took the high speed train from Yiwu up to Shanghai , grabbed a quick snack to eat

Chicken Baozi 

I have not seen much of this snack in Yiwu but this 小吃 really hits the spot on a cold day.

and then headed out to the airport and boarded a plane to Chengdu. The airplane food was a bit on the spicy side. This was a good thing as I was flying out to the spicy capital of the old Shu country (Chengdu).

On arrival I decided to have a quick look around so I wandered through the shops before heading to such places as Jinli, KuanZhaiXiangzi and RenMinGongYuan.

In English this is known as Dog sh1t candy.

I think I will give that once a miss.

      Anyway, I strolled on down  to Kuan Zhai Xiangzi (宽窄巷子) and saw guys cleaning out people’s ear using tuning forks or guys (in the generic sense of the word) painting self portraits.

Cleaning out the ears is par for the course on KuanZhaiXiangZi

 KuanZhai Xiangzi consists of two streets kuan(the wide street) and Zhai(the narrow street). People tend to flock to these streets and one can eat all the local delicacies that have been there for many generations. (Actually, on my first visit , I was able to observe everything so I will share the photos from the first visit here.) While I was there , I did notice a guy smoking from a traditional pipe (something which I have not noticed to much in China. I guess some traditions are naturally dying out. )

Watching the day go by.

(Note the guy beside him is trying to drum up business (The cleaning ears business))

One can also see other things such as people drawing portraits (sometimes using a driving license as a guidance)

Staring the sketching process

The finished article

or people making  silhouettes out of paper from passers by.  

One needs a steady hand for this art

Within these streets , it is nice to see those old traditions. One can also observe two holes in the wall. It was said that many years ago (when people used horses as a form of transports, these holes were used as a kind of parking spot. The horse owner could use the rope on the horse to tie up the horse while he / she browsed around the place.)

Now , all I need is a horse with a rope and I can test these holes out.

Apart from KuanZhaiXiangZi , one can view many parks such as Renmingong yuan (Peoples park) and HuanHuaGongYuan. These are cool places to go as one can observe local people going through the motions (Line dancing , singing , Dancing with swords).

Moving in unison with swords 

While visiting one of the parks [BaiHuaTan (百花潭)] , I was able to observe a collection of 盆景 (Bonzai). I never knew there was such a variation of Penjing/Bonzai trees. Nice, though.

I never knew there was such a variety of Penjing盆景 / Bonzai trees

Where art and nature collide

I am not sure if the following picture occurred in the same park but I have a sneeking suspicion that I took it in another park off a road called qintai road (琴台路). [This road is a must if you want to walk down an old school road in Chengdu.]

A tranquil site

The original "good fortune" chairs

I visited a place called 锦里 Jinli. If one pays a visit there, one should have a look at the stage where people act (I am not sure if you can see any plays there anymore.) Again , food plays a huge part in creating the atmosphere of the area. One can actually watch a person creating a butterfly (or indeed anything) being created from a sugar like substance. Then , you can eat that art afterwards (a cruel but tasty conclusion to the art of making the butterfly!)

Tasty butterflies

One can even practice their grinding skills in this place. To be honest , I was a bit ring rusty when it came to putting my shoulder to the wheel..

Give me strength so I can start the grinding process!

To be honest ,I like walking around random streets observing the local art (Not just in Chengdu but throughout China) and when one does this , one can see some interesting drawings in random places.

Less and less people cycle here these days.

It is my favourite mode of transport.

Soaking in the atmosphere

At the end of the day it is always nice to sit down in front a local restaurant and eat a meal so that’s what I did.The atmosphere in these places is always jovial (well, up until the virus thing took control.) Hopefully , things will return to normal as soon as possible.

Some lamb , soup , meat fluff , pigs blood , and pickled veg. (泡菜)

But which is nicer …home cooked food or restaurant food?

The following home cooked food did taste nice (I ate this at the time when all the restaurants were closed anyway. Due to the virus , the only shops open were vegetable shops (which sold meat) as well as convenience stores.)

rice , cabbage , peanuts , egg , and onion + beef strips + green pepper mixed

Due to the virus , I could not really go outside so I learned a couple of  things….well , I write a couple of things, here is one of them.

If you take out the inside of an orange and make some small holes in the outside of the still round peel , the peel can serve as a nice lamp!

Top down view 

The actual orange itself was eaten 

Nothing gets wasted :-)

Night time view

Anyway , back to my tangyuan balls, I finally cooked them after the electric stove started and stopped umpteen times. They are more like tangyuan gloop at this stage , though.

hmmmm,  not really balls anymore

I will try again when the E7 problem has been fixed….Now , where is the food ordering app…….

Quarantine in Yiwu (义乌) 【Zhejiang province 浙江省】

       I have plenty of time to write these days! A virus appeared on the scene about a month and a half ago and people were not sure how serious it was.When I started my travels for the Spring holiday festival , it did not appear too serious so everyone just went about their business as per usual. But gradually word filtered out about of the seriousness of the situation and people started to buy masks to protect themselves from this ugly fiend!
       Anyway , I spent a week in Chengdu followed by another one in Leishan and then back to Chengdu before heading back to the east coast. On my return to Yiwu , I took a plane to Shanghai , then a metro and finally another high speed train back to Yiwu.
      Many years ago , I worked in a Fab plant in Intel and I had to wear masks but I was allowed out of the clean room every 4 hours to breathe.Not so much luck in this situation!  Unfortunately , I had to wear masks all the way from Chengdu to Yiwu so this is was a 'trying' occasion!
       So, I am now back in my dorm room at the school that I work at. Government rules stipulate that  have to quarantine for 14 days before I can head out to the big bad world again ,which (SOMETIMES) is a blessing as the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse over here. So , I have to spray down the place with alcohol to keep the pesky virus at bay.

   All surfaces need to washed down with this Italian beauty or else the virus might rear its head


        I also have to take note of my temperature twice a day (using an underarm thermometer.) It took me AGES to be able to see the mercury in the thermometer but FINALLY I can read it. I never knew that using an underarm thermometer reading might underestimate ones temperature by up to 1 degree! Some things you do learn through experience!

This is an old school underarm thermometer. Please use with your glasses (ideally). Otherwise , the mercury might be a tad difficult to spot.

Aha , I see the light (or in this case the mercury line)

         When I got back to my dorm (which is inside the school grounds )  , the security guard put a couple of signs indicating that I am quarantined on the door. He also put a nice good fortune sign there (which is generously sponsored by a local bank. (Note to self:  Banks truly do know their customers.))

The red picture (福) means good fortune or luck.

Here's hoping.

So what did I have to eat in this place?
 Well, initially I had some leftover biscuits with peanut butter (i.e: Not a big tradition here in China) but I needed to figure out how to order stuff from outside the building.

The ALWAYS reliable 早餐饼干 (breakfast biscuits).

Even in an emergency , they are a treat with peanut butter.

One of the Chinese teachers mentioned eleme (饿了么) (a Chinese food app that I could order from) so I have tried a few of the delicacies to be found nearby.

Here is one of the dishes that I bought that in NO WAY describes the fact that I am missing Irish food. *cough*

红烧土豆片 and 酸辣白菜..... Otherwise known as  spud slices (braised in soy sauce) and sour and spicy cabaist...I mean cabbage

           It can be quite interesting just browsing through the app. just to see the various things that can be bought online. I wonder how many people order the ducks head?

Ducks head , anyone? ......anyone?

Pig's blood and tofu 

(To be honest , that does look a bit tasty.)

           but the good thing about the app is the fact that it tells you where the motorcyclist is located in real time!

The map with the guy on the bike is quite handy!

           Anyway , the fun in using the app in the current climate lies in the fact that I have to tell the motorcyclist (when he has reached the school) to hand over the food to the guard and then tell him  to tell the guard to deliver the food to my dorm room. The motorcyclists always end up in a state of confusion about what to do next!
I need to brush up on the Chinese language!
           So the guard brings it to my door and leaves it on the chair which is conveniently placed outside the door (such that no bugs can crawl into the grub). It feels a bit like a cuisine covert operation!

I like to call it..... "The magical food chair"

Anyway , that's where I am at the moment. I have to stay indoors for 14 days so the boredom might set in. To combat this  , I have cleared the length of the apartment of clutter and I can walk (pedestrian free) from one end of the apartment to the other to my hearts content. Failing this excitement , I might post a few more posts of the beauty of China in the coming weeks.
Now, how do I turn on an electric stove.....hmmmm

There is an on button somewhere. but it doesn't work.....d'argh!

Wait.... what's this plug for?

d'oh!