Wednesday Hiking

A beautiful, sunny, warm (65 degrees) day and an opportunity to get outside of the city and the fog. The name of this village is Jie Shi. I believe is was built near to the 1900's.

This is a village about 2.5 hours outside of Beijing. These are the folks who greeted us at the entrance to the village. They were very interesting and friendly. Leslie is discussing how to get a hold of the headman to let him know we had arrived. She had made contact ahead of time. Her plan was to take a look at this village, hike over the mountains to another village and then back. We hiked over to another village, through two villages for a total of 5 miles. It took us about 6 hours, needless to say, we didn't hike back.
The headman arrived. He told us that a party secretary from the local county had visited and perhaps they will fix up this village for folk art tourism. He told us there were about 40 plus courtyard homes worth saving with 20 some with the four original buildings. That is fabulous.
Here the group is discussing the route over the mountains to the village of Yan He Cheng. I hear lots of "no way". They were concerned about us getting lost even though there was a trail. They said it has happened before. Leslie agreed to a guide and to the route to take. They commented on her plan to go over the mountain and down and then back again. They said it would be too far and it was very steep on the other side.
The headman took us to a courtyard home. This woman was sitting and stripping leaves from elm and we believe willow branches to eat. She will boil them. They looked nice and tender. We were all hungry at this point but decided it was too much work to climb the trees to gather more leaves.

The headman is 53 years old. He has been headman of the village for 3 years. The term of office is almost at the end and he hopes to be re-elected for another 3 years. He told us that he had left the village and took a job in town. He returned after a year. He said that he worked long hours for little pay and likes this village. He told us about the courtyard we were standing in and showed us the high officials courtyard home as well.

We saw a tree that is more than 1000 years old and stories of the local spirits written on the walls around the tree. They tell of a faily that sat on the branches of the tree. There was a grinding stone near the tree. We were treated to fresh walnuts a specialty of the town and how they provided income for theirselves many years ago.

This is our guide. I have no idea how old he was but he was a hearty chap. He is standing outside of a walled garden plot.

He carried a bottle of liquid to drink and a small hatchet. We were happy to have the walking sticks he made for us, especially on the way down.

We are leaving the village of Jie Shi behind us now.

We stopped for lunch on the outskirts of a small village named Shu Zi Ling. I am looking back on it here. The village is left of center..look closely. We are going up.

All of the way to the top.

A beautiful blue sky day and lot of rocks. I thankfully wore pants and borrowed my daughters new hiking boots. Our stury guide treks on.

Just a beautiful tree. The picture does not do it justice.

At a ridge overlooking a beautiful valley. Nice to be at the top of something.

If only for a moment. Here we trek up the next face.

We arrive at the top and spy the village of Dong Ling. It is a long way off but..thankfully downhill.

We take a few moments to decide whether to leave our guide and follow the path ourselves or have him continue on with us. We pay him and leave. I was worried about shoes. Look closely and see the repairs made on his.

As we draw nearer and nearer to the village we wonder if it is abandoned. The we come upon a couple working in their garden. They tell us that the families with children have to go into a nearby town for school. One of our hikers is asking the way onto our final destination.

Their garden is very well organized and notice the fence made out of sticks. Lots of labor.

She is drawing water from the well that is located in the pile of rocks behind her head. The man is bring a harrow over toward us.

We ask how old he is (I didn't ask); he is 81 and shakes very much. He will attach the rope to the harrow and place a rock on the lower end. By dragging this over the dirt, he will smooth the ground out.

A Look back at where we came from..yes, all the way from the top!

An ingenious way to support electical lines.

A short walk down the road and a left down a dirt path and after a time we spy our destination. This village is called Yan He Cheng. It is considerably older than the rest.

In the front is part of the original city wall. We are not sure if it was a garrison village or not. On the other side of the town is the river. You can walk along side it all the way to Beijing. I would opt for that as I believe it is flat.

As I was walking this animal rolled around by my feet. It is two lizards mating.

Finally, after many, many rocks and many more rocks and guessing where the path really was, we turn and look at where we have been. My oh my. Yes, from way up at the top!

Leslie talks to a woman who is carrying dirt for a project in town. She scoops the dirt into the basket that is to her right and carrys it on her back.

Beer break...20cents in US dollars. 1.8yuan. Boy was it good! I don't even remember if it was cold or not. It didn't matter.

A walk through this village. This is a place where a donkey is attached to the wheel and he walks around the stone dish and grinds the grain. I love the roof inside.

What a day!