Once again, I was surprised to wake up hangover free. We headed out for some breakfast and decided to check out the town next to Nanjiecun. We walked through the tunnel in the city wall, Choayangmen Gate. Inside the tunnels, there were some great sculpted murals on the walls of the tunnels. I enjoyed looking at those and it was another reminder that Nanjiecun is different to the rest of China. Through the other side of the tunnel, the contrast to Nanjiecun was quite stark. While Nanjiecun is quite stark and utilitarian with its red trimmed white building, this street in Linying County was full of traditional looking Chinese architecture and was really pretty. There were quite a few restaurants on the street and we just headed into one for breakfast. I had reganmian (hot dry noodles), which I found out is not only a Wuhan speciality, but Henan also has its own version. The noodles were really good and I really enjoyed them. I was sad that the portion was rather huge as it meant that I had to leave some of them. After breakfast, we decided to take a bit of a walk around Linying County. There wasnt really
too much to see in the part that we were in. We made our way to a shopping area, but there were quite a few empty shops and there werent a lot of people about. It had that kind of forgotten, neglected feel to it that quite a few places in China have in my opinion. Although I could understand why there werent many people about as the weather was absolutely scorching. We were also able to visit the tower at the entrance to the town. I was a little surprised, but on reflection probably shouldnt have been that the shrine inside the tower was dedicated to Chairman Mao. It was great to stand on the tower and see the contrasting views of Nanjiecun and Linying County.
We headed back into Nanjiecun and came to the covered walkway that we had briefly seen the day before. This walkway is in the residential district and I think was built to protect kids from the harsh sun and the rain when they were on their way to and from school. Its a really good idea and I liked that there were quite a few old people sitting around on the seats
in the walkway as it gets people out of their homes and socialising. There were quite a few propaganda posters with quotes from former leaders of China and Soviet leaders. At the end of the walkway, there was smallish building that contained a hairdressers. Since we were in the residential area, we went to visit a family. I was a little apprehensive about this, as it felt really weird to me, that we would just knock on someones door and wait to be invited in to hear about their lives. We headed into one of the apartment blocks and knocked on a door. No one answered, so we decided to head to a higher floor and see if we could find some people who were at home. We also passed some propaganda/informational posters on the walls of the apartment building. We were in luck when we knocked on the door of the next apartment and a couple that were in their late fifties or early sixties invited us in. They didnt seem to be put out at all by us just showing up. I suppose it might happen as to the village and are eager to learn about
what a locals life is like. We were able to find out a bit about their lives. The husband was a delivery driver for one of the firms in the collective and the wife was retired. They were not originally from the village, but had moved here when they were young for better opportunities. It surprises me how many people move here from other places. It seemed like quite close knit place as one of their mother in laws lived in the opposite apartment and their son, his wife, and baby lived in one of the apartments on one of the upper floors. Their daughter however had moved away, to a larger city in the south of China if I remember correctly. I liked their apartment and it was a good size for the family. There was a large picture of Chairman Mao hanging on the wall.
