June 29: Qing West Tombs, the Lake, etc.

Lucy is determined to show us as much of the area as possible in the few short days we have.  We were up and in the van by 8:00 this morning.  Lucy said we would have a quick breakfast on the road. We stopped at a little restaurant to buy some take out food.  What we got were small biscuit-like rolls filled with wonderfully seasoned meat and vegetables.  They were really good.  Lucy told us they were donkey meat, which of course turned off Lily, but they were really good.

We drove through the countryside for about two hours to a really nice, huge reservoir.  Lucy said that foreigners almost never come here, and we were the only non-Chinese.  We took a boat ride across the lake, and stopped at a little landing.  We then climbed a very steep path to an old Buddhist shrine.  Apparently, Buddhist monks lived there at one time, and the local people would climb the hill to make offerings.  On the way down, one of the people made the comment that we must be gods, because only Chinese people and gods walked this path.

After the boat ride, Lucy arranged for us to have lunch in the small farming village near the lake.  We walked up a hill to a family's home, and sat on their patio while they prepared the food.  And we watched the whole process.  One of the women walked down the hill, and came back a few minutes with a large fish in a plastic bag, still struggling for breath.  A man walked by holding a chicken by the legs, and we were soon watching him pluck the feathers off. our lunch.  The whole family took part in preparing our meal, which was very inexpensive - about 300 RMBY, or $50.00. We had chicken, fish stew, rice, fried rice, vegetables, and some flat bread.  We were unable to eat it all, so they just poured the leftovers into a plastic bag, which Lucy brought home.
After lunch, we visited the Qing west tombs, which are just as lovely, but not as frequently visited as the Ming tombs.  There, we were the only white people.  Several times people would stop and just look at Miriam.

We came home and ate leftover Chinese.  Lucy took Chris and me out for a walk after dinner.  We experienced the Chinese custom of going out - every night.  Chinese people meet up in town squares, on the sidewalks, wherever.  Someone brings a boom box, and they all dance.  Sometimes there are games and stuff for kids to do, but mostly people just walk around the streets, do a little shopping and dance.  I'm not kidding, every night hundreds of people meet on the street and just dance.  I'm hoping someone else got pictures of this.  It was really fun!

Donkey "McMuffin"

The view of the lake from the Buddhist shrine.

Traffic was stopped until the goats cleared the way.

Another long day in the van.