Terraced Rice Field Village

Thursday 6/17/10
Today we got a late start. We arrived at the hotel last night at 2 a.m., so after sleeping in, we left at 10. We drove 2 hours into the mountains to visit the village of a Chinese minority group, the Dong people. We hiked up winding narrow paths to reach the top of the village and to see, through the fog and the mist, breathtaking views of the village’s terraced fields and the surrounding mountains. Flooded with water from recent heavy rains, these fields, carved from the steep hillsides, are the only reason people are able to farm in this area at all. There they grow rice, of course, but also cucumber, sweet potatoes, corn and many other fresh vegetables. Lunch was delicious. My favorite: scrambled eggs and leek stir fry with rice.
On the way back down many of us did some shopping. With the help of Kimberly, one of our guides, Edith and I bought some hand-embroidered skirts with for Mariel and Edith’s granddaughters. Kimberly helped us get a better price. 65 Yuan sounded like a lot, but it’s less than $10.00 for this woman’s beautiful work. I also bought a small purse, to carry TP in. That may sound strange- to carry a TP purse, but in China many public restrooms do not provide TP. YIKES!
Today’s gift idea: Chinese Pizza. Sounds good, right? Our pizza had no cheese, cucumber, tomato, red beans and green onion and sauce that was more like salsa. Actually, it was really good!