Visiting villages

Cart in the street, Zhaoxing
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Following on from our visit to Basha we took yet another bus to Luoxiang. The bus driver indicated that Zhaoxing was along the road. We were told it would be about an hour and a half walk with our backpacks, so off we trundled.

We'd been walking for about half an hour when we saw a motorbike with a flat trailer attached, we stopped the guys and hopped in getting a lift to the village. It's hard to describe just how lovely this village is, but I'll give it a go.

Imagine a wooden village built along a river, the streets are paved with smooth pebbles arranged in patterns

Village in the distance
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Imagine a wooden village built along a river, the streets are paved with smooth pebbles arranged in patterns. Several small streams and canals are bridged with wooden covered "rain and wind bridges."  There are four wooden pagoda like drum towers, used for ceremonies and to sound out the time.  Farmers dressed in traditional costume come back from the outlying fields with their bamboo poles bending under the weight of heavy woven baskets of produce. Kids play at the side of the street and it's not uncommon to see a cow and calf, chicken or white horse all wander down the street. Women sit under umbrellas, patiently waiting to sell various fruits and food.

Butterfly en route
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We've decided to stay here another day or two, so we could explore the surrounding villages also. The following day we got up and went to a restaurant for some breakfast. I wanted a break from fried rice so ordered a fruit salad, when it arrived it was coated in mayonnaise. I couldn't eat that, so sent it back. Anyhow having had three biscuits we set off on an eight kilometre walk (uphill) to the next scenic village called Tang An. We were pretty tired when we got there but it was a sight for sore eyes. To approach the village from the road we climbed up stone slabs set alongside the rice terraces, then walked along the paddy fields to their rain and wind bridge. The village doesn't get many tourist because they all came to have a look at us, one of the old guys even tried on Cathal's sunglasses. He thought they were no good!  The villagers had built little channels to carry the water from the mountain down past each house.

Paddy fields, some of them are covered with red algae
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In the centre the women were chafing wheat and the men were playing a strange card game. Every so often someone would come down the hill with some manner of animal or bundles of wood and have a drink at their stone well. It was lovely and after half an hour we climbed up to the top of the hill intending to make our way back through the rice fields - two Paddies in a rice field as it were!

The walk took just over two hours and was very scenic. We saw gorgeous butterflies, one snake, various mayflies and dragonflies, fish in the paddy fields (no I don't know how they got their either) and a dung beetle. We were like two kids on a nature trip!  When we got back we had a very well deserved cold beer. Bliss.