[UPDATE: Added some photos in the ‘Longji Terraces to…’ section]

The first night in ages that I have slept without my ear plugs – this place is very peaceful – the beer didn’t hurt either. We got a late start and strolled around the collection of tiny villages in the area for a really relaxed morning. I managed to get a hair cut in a shack on the side of the road but turned down the straight razor (phew). It’s sad to see that many of the old wooden buildings are being replaced with concrete monsters (even if they are clad in wood) but I guess that is progress. Luca mentioned that the Chinese don’t understand the difference between ‘restoring and rebuilding’ and this is obvious almost everywhere.

We crossed a few more ‘wind and rain’ styled bridges and passed old drum towers without bumping into any tourists. The local community also appears to be very small and are all involved in either building houses or farming rice. Another favorite past time is to solicit donations for ‘maintainance’ on the bridges. For a small fee you can have your name carved onto wood or stone plaques at the old bridges – the trend has spread like bora to most of the bridges in the area. V did a quick estimate – it seems from the lists of donations that they should have plenty of funds for restoration. Possibly the labour costs here are higher than in Norway – you never know.

We spent the hotter part of the day relaxing on our balcony enjoying the peace. V is ploughing through her book on Mao (and finding it hard going at times due to the shocking nature of the story) and I have been typing posts (as you can tell). Just relaxing… and thinking… We are both having such a wonderful time.

To stress the point. This is a great little spot. They have put in enough to satisfy western travellers and without a chair lift and neon lights on the bridge the domestic tourists stay away. It’s full of charm (although the concrete is encroching) without the pushy hawkers – the villagers just go about their lives barely affected by the few tourists.

When it cools down we’ll take a walk up to a view point and later I’ll upload posts on the WiFi connection at Yangs Guesthouse. Tomorrow we are moving again – 5 hours by bus to another small village.

[Pictures: Me and my drum, View of Ma’an village in Chenyang]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi