Basket Pick up Huai Rou village Jan 28

A chilly Monday morning. Tom and I had just returned from the ice sculptures at Harbin on Sunday. Nothing seems cold after being there. Leslie said to dress warm but that we would be in and out of the car all day; no hiking.


In October Leslie hiked in this area and found a basketmaker in the village of Huai Rou. If I understand correctly there are 6 communes in this village. This gentleman is the only basketmaker in the village. He is 80 years old. Today we were on our way to pick up this basket order and then scout some other villages for possible hiking routes into the mountains. Leslie always asks the villagers as they know the paths and the mountains.

This sign lets us know that we are outside of Beijing. All of the signs that are incorrect have been changed in the city and the outlying areas in readiness for the Olympics. We traveled north about an hour and a half outside of the city.

Now the adventure begins. It happens right at the begining of the day this trip. We arrive at the entrance to the village and encounter a gate. We are asked to pay 20 Yuan each to enter the village. I know to these 10 ladies, the man in charge, and his deputy we looked like a bunch of louwai (foreigners) with a Chinese driver probably wanting to hike to the great wall from there. One should never assume. This gate was not here in October and on principle we refused to pay. Much discussion ensued including suggesting that the basketmaker carry the 22 baskets outside of the gate himself. Eventually, we decided to let our driver in to retrieve the baskets.

We mulled around awhile and watched a truck go in (after paying), and another car who almost ran through the gate because they were watching us. All was well and good until the tea salesman came through and didn't have to pay to pass. We were newly riled.





We had waited almost an hour and were wondering what was taking him so long to get the baskets loaded on top of the car. No cell phone could get through so we decided to walk through the gate.


Mr. Shiney Shoes followed us. He was the man in charge. He wasn't happy. More discussion ensued. He didn't ever anticipate that the most foreign looking women speak the best Chinese. I wish I could remember what was said. We walked 20 minutes to the basketmakers home. We passed several villagers and asked them the way. It was always "right around the corner", but we finally arrived.

The car was loaded and ready to go. What a sight. What a haul! The baskets were either 25 yuan (about 2 dollars) or 35 yuan ( a little less than 3 dollars).




Leslie has such a way with people. Ever the journalist, she knows what is important and how to ask about it. Here she is asking about the tools he uses to make his baskets. He is showing her the tools and explaining each one. The long one that looks like you would use it to plant bulbs, he made the whole thing himself. He uses it to poke between the sticks to weave. He was a very delightful guy and was interested in the goings ons at the gate. His ten year old grand daughter and his wife hovered around and watched.

This is a basket in progress and the field for planting with piles of sticks for baskets behind him.

This is the more expensive basket. It is used for night soil. I believe dirt is scooped up in it and human waste placed it with more dirt over the top. It is taken out in the morning. It is a cool looking basket. I remember the men who were shopping with me at the Dirt Market (Panjiyuan) when I bought a bunch of rustic wooden bowls and a rice bucket. At the time they all laughed at our driver/shopper extroidinare Shen for carrying the rice bucket. They all thought it was a toilet. Mr. Shen had no idea what we were laughing at, I am sure he knew what he had, he just wondered why I wanted one. I did send one of these to work with Tom to deliver to my friend. Her husband works with Tom and walks to work. He walked home carrying this lovely basket. We as foreigners do try to provide entertainment when we can.

This is the basketmakers corn crib. He had several on the property. Nice weaving.

At the end of our visit and we had declined lunch we went into the basketmakers home to look up the phone number of the party secretary to call and complain about the gate and fees. This is a picture of the phone book, more aptly named phone "list". It consisted of three pages of typed names and numbers. We decided to stop at the village "office" on the way out. We did consider a plan the basketmaker offered and that was to hike out over the mountain. He offered to guide us but in the end we would be seen and sneaking implies that we were wrong.

We stopped at the office and the old party secretary was there. Inquiring after the "new" secretary garnered a look at their watches and the information that it was noon, he was probably drinking now. On the way down the road to the gate we were stopped by a village woman. The story had spread quickly. She told us that we were right. She said we shouldn't pay the fee. We learned that much money was collected the year before last and only a small amount was given to the villagers. This new man in charge bribed the people to vote for him. She called him a "black heart".

At the gate much talking occurred. We knew we had to pay and so scraped together the smallest in change and small bills we could find. One of our members called the newspaper with the story. I am sure she will follow up. The funny thing is ... they charge because there are people who do hike to the wall from this village, but, this part of the wall is off limits now.

And so, now off to the next village:

We saw the pig on the road. We walked up to the village set a ways off the road. A woman was calling the pig. He came and was reluctant to walk past us, all strangers. The woman said the pig was not long for this world. He was cute though.

This is the home of the woman who owns the pig. What is in those baskets on the ledge? It is corn that is ground for the animals.

Much to Leslies delight there were many stone impliments in this village. It backed up to beautiful stone boulders. She has been long looking for a stone cutter.

We encountered this man (love the knitted sweater) and Leslie asked if there was anyone in the village who could cut stone. He looked at her kinda funny and said "we all can".

He told us that a house we were admiring (mostly because there were 4 young men standing by it) was just built to be used as a schoolhouse in a movie. He said it was cheaper to build a new one that use someone's home and possibly encounter problems.

Leslie was looking for a home to enter to talk to the people. This was my favorite home in the village. I wonder if those larger stones in the side are from the great wall or an old city wall.

This is a beautiful door in the village. No one was home or no one lived there because it was closed.

This is the home we did enter. We tried another interesting one but when one very drunk man came right at Raquel, and another followed, we decided against that one. This is the bed in the house. And this is housework, grinding the corn meal and making dumpling racks.

There was a very interesting clay vestle sitting near the bed. It had ashes in it and was keeping the room warm. We thought it was cut from stone but the woman explained it was made of clay and fired. Leslie promptly ordered 10. They use bricks to deliniate the inside and the rectangle size urn has four round squat feet. Cool!

I of course, asked if I could buy the dumpling racks. They are two layers thick and are made of sorgum reeds. They are sewn together with a needle and thread begining in the middle and going in a swirl pattern. I don't know how she keeps the reeds from moving all over the place. The top reeds are perpendicular to the bottom reeds. She was making them for her two sons for new year presents. I paid 20 yuan each (1.5 dollars). She was happy to sell them to me.

Leslie asked her if she will be visiting her sons for New Year. She told us that they will come and take their father to their home. He was there with her but is not quite right. He needs alot of care. She said she will be happy to be alone.

We saw this sight many times along the roads. I think someone once asked how heavy this load is and the answer was a surprising 80 pounds. Hardy people.

The last stop of the day was to a village that had a basketmaker whom Leslie had contracted for baskets with. When she went to collect them, he had sold them all to foreigners. As we were driving by the village she commented on this and I said I thought it would be funny to let him see the car with all the baskets on top (we were an unusual sight). We did a u-turn and found him (it was our second u-turn of the day, the first being to take a picture of the "on drunken driving". Mr. Zhao is amazing). He looked the baskets over and commented on how well they were made. He was happy when Leslie placed another order with him.

One last note. The next day the basketmaker from the first village called Leslie to see how it all went at the gate. His first concern was whether we had gotten hurt.