So after my failed attempt at trying to spend a few days in Singapore - for some reason the airline website wasn't happy with me - I expected a pretty low-key weekend. Turns out this wasn't the case!
John, who works at another school in Foshan, invited Tom and I along to join him on an outing with the parent of one of his pupils. All I knew was that we had to meet at 2pm, on Saturday at John's school and the parent would be taking us somewhere, which would include hiking and hot springs so naturally we needed a swimming costume. Therefore that is all I packed. It turns out I was unprepared for her proposed itinerary...
After we were picked up it turned out we were being whisked away to this lovely lady's hometown called Lixi, which is about 140km from where we are in Foshan. In China, 140km (about 2 hours drive) is no distance at all so we all still thought this was some afternoon jaunt to the countryside. It wasn't until we got there and our hostess took us to check into a hotel after asking us what we wanted to do for the next four days that we realised that we were not going to be chauffeured home that evening. It was after some confusion that we had to explain that we only had the clothes we were wearing so would therefore only be able to stay one night.
After checking into our rather large hotel room, complete with electric mahjong table, we were taking along the road to the family home of our hostess. In China, people are very welcoming friendly and hospitable to their guests whether they are new or old friends, something we definitely experienced in Lixi. The whole family were at the house, due to it being the new year, and despite all the other guests we were given various fruits to eat and tea to drink as soon as we arrived. I definitely felt spoilt, but also slightly guilty that I might have been encroaching on precious family time, family is a precious thing after all.
After being plied with homegrown mini oranges (something that is seen in abundance in China at this time of year) we, along with the rest of the family gathered around the table for a lovely family feast. Amoungst the various dishes on offer was slow reared chicken which is apparently a specialty in the Lixi area due to it being reared for about 6 months rather than a matter of weeks. The only downside to this, which our hosts pointed out first, was was that this chicken rearing approach makes the meat very tasty it also makes it very tough to bite - I was cursing not having sharper teeth. I should probably add at this point that in China you don't get served butcher style-cuts of Chicken breast/wing, instead meat is prepared using a VERY sharp cleaver style knife which cuts straight through the meat and bones and the whole lot are cooked. While this adds to the flavour of the dish it makes eating pretty hard work (for me anyway) because I still don't seem to have the hang of trying to separate the meat from the bone using only my teeth and chopsticks (which in my opinion need a more vice-like grip on them). Thankfully, it seems here on the mainland there are no rules when it comes to eating so using your fingers is allowed, as well as spitting out the bones on the table when you've finally gnawed all the meat off them!
After dinner we set out for an evening of fireworks (you can buy some impressively dangerous looking ones from many a stall in Lixi) and cycling around the town. Tom, John and I's bicycle of choice was a 3 person tandem (not sure what the proper name of this would be). In hindsight not the easiest choice, to say this contraption was hard to steer would, I think, be an understatement - but once we had the power/steering ratio down we we unstoppable, until we veered towards an obstacle or crossed a dark bridge. After setting off some fireworks and sparklers on a very dark road bridge (and just about succumbing a passing motorcyclist to smoke induced blindness) we peddled merrily off home, had some milk tea and retreated to our hotel; beer was required to try to sort out the events of the day, and to work out if we'd missed any subliminal messaging prior to out departure about this proposed 4 day itinerary...
As our stay had been cut from the proposed 4 days to 2, it also meant that the itinerary had to be cut. I'm not entirely sure what was planned for us but instead of spending Sunday hiking we headed for the local hot-spring baths. I really enjoyed the naturally heated baths, some of which were very hot, as it was set outdoors in beautiful rural surroundings - not something I get to see on Foshan! The baths were very busy though with lots of families home for the holiday enjoying the natural remedies of the baths (I'm just glad the water is changed every day!)
The tranquil view from the hot springs
After our relaxing morning we had a lunch of fish and goose, along with some local plum wine, on board an old blue boat - definitely a quirky venue for Sunday lunch.
Lunch!
Our afternoon was spent visiting the local temple. This temple is one of the nicest I've seen due to its lovely buildings and pretty surrounding scenery. This temple has to be accessed by ferry because the original town of Lixi, which this temple sat next to, was flooded to form a reservoir. All that is left now of the town is the beautiful old bridge and the old schools. After spending the afternoon playing football on the accompanying beach area with some friends of our host family, which we promptly halted after us almost annihilating some of the (much!) younger players with our dodgy football skills it was time to head home.
Due to the fact that the 3 of us were leaving Lixi sooner than anticipated, we had to down our travelling standards and take the bus home. Mind you, I quite like bus journeys in China you see all manner of things on the journey - trucks full of cages of rabbits and dogs (fate unknown), seemingly endless road tunnels, scrapyards piled high with old cars and lorries and, strange blue statues on hillsides...
It was also quite and interesting weekend because Eva, who whisked us away on this adventure, wasn't shy to share her opinions on things. It was quite nice to get an honest opinion on the inner workings of China from a Chinese parent. Her opinions of both the school system and the one child policy were pretty scathing which was unexpectedly open of her but definitely refreshing to hear an adult confirm what the pupils all say.
G x
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