China part II

So the second part of our trip in China was to a little town about 4 hours southwest of Shanghai. Here, we met up with Mr. Wu, a 70 year old retired English professor. This was definitely a highlight of this trip. Mr. Wu showed us around his town of Quzhou, and then we spent a day in the village where he grew up about 40km  from Quzhou. Interesting fact, the first American in Quzhou wasn't until 1987! So again, we were starred at a lot. The village was really interesting, as most of the young people have left to find jobs in the cities, and all the older people still farm their land. There is running water and electricity, but that is about it for modern conveniences. Since most of Mr. Wu's family (sisters and brothers) still live in the town, as well as his cousins and uncles, we were able to meet a lot of people. And by meet I mean wave hi and stand there and smile while Mr. Wu explained in Chinese why we were there. After walking around the town, his sister cooked the most delicious meal I have had since being in Asia. As you can see from the picture, there was a lot of food.
Oh and they had a dog. So I naturally asked its name and was then laughed at and told he doesn't have a name. I brushed that off, but wondered why they would have a pet and not name it. During lunch, I figured it out. In China, most meat is cooked with the bone in and fat still on the meat, so you have to pick through it, with lots of difficulty. When I asked what to do with the leftover bones and any other pieces that I needed to discard, he told me to throw them on the ground. The dog was the vacuum cleaner!
After lunch, Mr. Wu and his nephew took us to the three brothers monument where we hiked for about an hour and learned more about the cultural revolution and how it was to live through all the recent changes in China. We then were taking to another town, and hosted to a large dinner (only 4 hours after our large lunch). We ate Chinese style, with the turn table in the center and picking at food and it swiveled by. The food was of course, excellent. I'm convinced that in China, you will ONLY get the best of the best  if you can speak Chinese, so if you ever come here, meet up with some Chinese friends to get the true food experience.

All in all it was an absolutely amazing experience to spend time in such a remote area and be hosted by such a generous man. After our 5.5 hour experience in the train on the way there, we decided to try the fast train back to Shanghai which, thankfully, only took 3.5 hours. Dad spent one night in Shanghai then headed to Singapore to pick up my luggage for me and continued on back to the States. I'm still here in Shanghai, and I'm about to head to the airport to go to the Yunnan Provence for 6 days with Kyle to hike and get some fresh air!  I won't have access to my blog while in the west part of China, but ill update you on Shanghai and the west when I get back.

Ill add more photos on Facebook with better descriptions when I get back to the States, but its too difficult here in China since I can't seem to get constant internet access. Hope you all have a great rest of the week.

Love you and miss you!