Trips

Sat., 10/4/14 – Xi’an to Donghan Village and Home Stay
            This morning our first stop was at a state owned lacquer furniture store.  The furniture is made from rosewood, sandalwood, mahogany, or oak from the mountains in the south of this province.   They use tongue-and-groove or mortise-and-tenon and no nails.  The lacquer they use is natural sap from lacquer trees called “shung” lacquer.  The sap oxidizes quickly from clear to milky or red to black.  The furniture is coated with 30 to 600 layers of lacquer painted on with brushes made of human hair.  The finish, when dried, will be sun, heat, water, and acid-proof.  Some of the screens, desks, and cabinets were beautiful and stylish.  This furniture was all very expensive.

More crazy wiring	Lacquer panel
Lacquer panel	Applying the lacquer
Next we went to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.  It was a Buddhist temple built in 707 CE (Tang Dynasty).  The Buddha statues were taken and all of the monks left during Mao’s Cultural Revolution.  We looked at the head monk’s bed.  It was made of bricks with a hollow underneath where heat could be blown in during winter (nice touch).  His pillow was either a jade or porcelain block.  (The beds in our hotels have not been much softer!)  This room is now a museum.	Entrance to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda area
Small Wild Goose Pagoda	Another intriguing sign
Head monk's bed and pillow	A man inside drew our names in Chinese characters on silk (or rice) paper.
Gale	Marge
Bell	Koi pond
Today is Mary’s 65th birthday.  We had a cake with a Chinese birthday candle. The top opens up when the candles are lit - fun!         On the way to our village in Huxian County for our over-night stay in a farmer’s house, we stopped at a street market to buy some fruit because our farmers’ families don’t eat or serve fruit.  We bought some bananas and mandarin oranges to eat after dinner and at breakfast.
"Exploding" birthday cake	Market
Flower vendor	Mushrooms
We arrived at our farm village and met our hostesses.  Marge, Donna, and I were assigned to “Juan.”  She is 59-years-old, retired, and speaks absolutely no English.  To say we had a difficult time conversing is an understatement.  Our lady showed us a photo of her family – two married sons each with a son.          This village was built beginning in 1992 as the farmers moved out of their decrepit adobe buildings in the old housing area and into new two-story “modern” houses.	Drying corn in the street
Gale at the door of our hostess' house	Living room
Three-wheel truck	We walked west into the old village on the mud roads.  Some people still live there in buildings that are falling down and have no sewer or running water.  It was very sad to see.         Each farmer and person in his house is allotted 3500 square meters of farmland and they grow corn and winter wheat.  Some farmers are trying to grow grapes or watermelon.  The style of farming is called “farmer’s responsibility” and is subsidized by the government in a complicated system.  This village does have some large machinery to plant and harvest but it is such a meager existence that most men, and even the women, usually have a second job in a factory.
Old men playing a game	"Old" village
Old Buddhist temple	Corn fields
Husking corn by hand	Nice vegetable garden
	Local transportation
More corn hung up to dry	After seeing the old village, we walked back to our host house for dinner.  We were supposed to help cook by making noodles, kneading and rolling the pancakes, etc., but our hostess really didn’t want help and at one point the three of us were “invited” to go watch TV (all in Chinese, of course).          When dinner finally happened it was very good.  We then had to go to the village square to dance with the village women.
Noodles drying	Juan fixing dinner
Veggies for dinner	Gale making noodles, Juan supervising
Gale making noodles	Juan finishing the project
Don't know what it is called but it was good
Finished dish	Daughter-in-law helping out with the cooking
On the table!
Tues, 10/5 - Donghan Village to Chengdu             Breakfast was also painful.  We each had a boiled egg (a good start), fried bread of a sort, a tortilla thing with some kind of filling and a rice porridge called Congee that we had to drink from a bowl.  The plates of celery and cucumbers were too much food.  We enjoyed our bananas.             At 8:30 we walked to visit a Farmer's Painting Studio in the village.  A farmer-artist demonstrated his skills at free-hand painting.  Most of the paintings are farm scenes in bright colors, like harvesting persimmons or herding sheep.  Several were very attractive.
Farmer's Painting Studio	Mary and Gale on the exercise equipment which is found in many towns
Farmer-artist	One of his paintings

        We had a nice buffet lunch at the Xi’an Airport and flew to Chengdu.  The plane was delayed an hour so it was late getting into Chengdu.  So much for another of OAT’s “afternoon at leisure!”

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