Thursday was Tomb Sweeping day in China. Click here to learn more about Tomb Sweeping Day. It is a national holiday and so I didn't have to work and the kids were out of school. So we load up the car with Alauna, Marissa, Brannon, Trevon, Declan and myself and headed to Gaochun. It is a small city about 75 km south of Nanjing. With normal traffic and no road construction it should take about 1.5 hours to get there. With holiday traffic and road construction it takes about three hours to get there. Luckily we have water bottles in the car and I brought a few snacks so even though it was long it was bearable. Coming home, however, was even worse. There were a couple of times that traffic stopped completely people got out of their cars. One guy (man, not a child) had to go to the bathroom so he got out of his car and walked over to the guard rail. It was about 2.5 feet tall and he looked at it and looked around at the hundreds of cars and decided it was too much effort to climb over the guard rail so he took care of business right there on the guard rail. As common place as this is it still catches me off guard a bit. We took a lot of pictures and will tell the adventure through the pictures.
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| These yellow fields are blanketing China right now. They are rapeseed flower and they make Canola Oil out of these. They are all over China and absolutely beautiful right now. I always wondered where Canola Oil came from. It took moving to China to figure that out. |
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| More Canola Oil fields. |
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| I snapped this pic from driving from the car, but this picture is one of the reasons I love travelling through China. There are so many layers to it. It's easy to see the trees, but if you look through the trees you see the farmhouse and patches of yellow. Then in the distance you can see the pagoda. China is never as it first appears. You really have to look through many layers to get the full picture. |
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| Gaochun if famous for a few different things. One is Old Street. It is an ancient street that is filled with all kinds of vendors. You can buy food, clothing, art, toys, and just about anything else. This street dates back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1300 ad) |
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| Old Street Family Picture. |
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| When we arrived this guy started taking pictures of us. This is pretty common in China. He started talking to us and asked us if we came from Nanjing. He said he was also from Nanjing and just wanted to take some pictures of us. He told us to just act natural and he would just follow us for a bit. It was a bit weird having him follow-us. He gave me his business card so he can share some photos with us. We did not see another foreigner in Gaochun that day and we had a ton of people taking pictures of us all day long. |
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| I mentioned you could buy food on Old Street. Here is a sampling. On the left is a dried whole carp. I'm surprised I haven't seen more of these sold on the banks of Utah lake. There are also dried chicken wings, and dried chicken feet. |
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| Lots of toys for sale. Declan was have fun with them. |
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| This is the drain into the sewer. They are all throughout the street. I imagine this technology is 500+ years old. |
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| Pork for sale. This place was actually very clean. Whole pig butchered and for sale on the table. Again, I'm not sure how everyone that eats this doesn't get sick. |
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| More dried food. That is a dried pig leg sticking out. |
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| Dried fish. I saw someone eating these with a little batter on them and fried. They had a bit of hot sauce on the top. I guess if it's spicy enough anything is good. |
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| This is a restaurant. The food is in cages and bins on the floor. There is a pheasant on the top cage on the left and a goose on the bottom cage. The white bins are full of fish and other water animals and vegetables. You pick out what you want and they cook it up fresh for you. |
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| Another restaurant. The concept is not bad, just picking your food off the floor seems a bit different. |
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| Dried pig faces. On the left you can see a good shot of the whole pig face. I have eaten this before. No need to eat again. |
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| GaoChun is famous for their hairy crabs. They live in the lakes around Gaochun and every fall they have a Hairy Crab Festival. Here is a neighborhood of houseboats. |
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| People washing their clothes in the water and on the steps. |
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| Washing clothes. |
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| She had a load of clothes to wash. She would dip them in the water and then ring them out. She would then rub them around and then fold them up with this beating board. She was whacking them hard and you could hear the thumping echoing across the water. Whenever I see things like this I always tell my kids that "this is real life". I'm glad they are able to see that people live all different kinds of lives and hopefully they are grateful for the life they have. We are very blessed. |
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| A small store. In reality a table with some drinks and a few buns for sell on it. |
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| The owner came out and talked to us. I didn't ask how old she was but I imagine close to 80. When we took a picture she told us to send one to her. She pointed up to the address on the building. She has probably never heard of email and in reality has no need for it. What a great and simple life. |
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| Main Gate of Old Street. This is at the end of the day. Declan was warn out and sound asleep. |
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| A small house in the neighborhood off Old Street. |
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| This was one of the bathrooms. Many of the houses don't have their own bathrooms so there are a lot of community bathrooms. They had a tile trough to pee in. This was the squatter. I walked in and there are guys in their squatting. No door, no shame. One old guy looked up at me and gave me a head nod and small wave. It was only awkward for me. |
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| This well is 500 years old. There is still water in in. |
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| When you look in it you can see your reflection. This picture looks a bit haunted. |
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| Family by the well. If you notice, Trevon has a snake around his neck. It is a wooden King Cobra that he bought that day. He carried it around and treated it like it was real. It was so funny to watch him with it. |
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| The kids saw this "Harry Potter scar" on the ground wanted me to take a picture. |
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| Inside of the well. |
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| Enjoying the afternoon. |
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| Back alley. |
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| The kids were in this store looking at some toys. All of a sudden I hear the owner getting pretty excited I look down and Trevon is about to step on some vegetables he has drying on the floor. He hurried and grabbed the vegetables and I snapped a pic. Again, one of those things they are not going to experience in Highland, Utah. |
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| Cars stopped on the freeway. |
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| This old guy lives next to the freeway. There is a gap in the fence and he came down to check out cars stopped. There was a pretty worn path so I think it's a ritual for him to walk down to the freeway and watch the cars go by while smoking. |
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| He was happy to pose for us. |
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| The cause of our many delays. |
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| The endless journey home. |
Boyd
