Dalu Village

We visited the ancient Dalu Village, a few hours away through rice fields and wandering water buffalo and pigs.

Dalu was built in the 16th Century, Qing Dynasty, as the ancestral home of the Lao Clan. It has good feng shui - including water in front, 300 year old banyan trees in the back, and perfectly laid out rooms. 

The Village is known for couplets on either side of all the doors, renewed each new year.

Grandmother and grandson. It's not unusual for grandparents to raise their grandchildren while the parents go out to work.

The bat (in brown) is a popular symbol on buildings, as the word for bat and the word for good luck have the same sound, fu.

 Local worker taking a break with his home-made water pipe.

 The Village Clinic (Does the satellite dish indicate telemedicine?).

We had lunch at a local farm house. The wood chip-fired stove had a huge wok, and the cook producted an incredible meal ...

 ... green bean soup, corn and pork, bitter melon, pumpkin, pumpkin flower soup, eggs/greens, picked cucumbers, and fresh duck and chicken).

 We dined el fresca and then took pictures with our gracious hosts.

Dessert was freshly picked lychees.

Port and Nanning

The week highlights were a visit to the Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port and the provincial capital, Nanning.

The coastal area of Guangxi is slated as China's southwest import/export port.

Complete with model and speeches, the port will focus on vehicle import/export, imported wine/spirits, crude oil storage and trade, nonferrous metals, seafood, and agricultural products.

An agreement was signed between the Port Authority and the University; we were present as the foreign guests. After pictures and gift exchange, we were treated to a celebratory dinner.

We headed off to the provincial capital of Nanning for the weekend to meet up with our Amity colleagues.

Lena (Swedish) and Connie (American) have taught in China 15+ years and are moving from the south to the north of China this summer.

 We checked out the Science and Technology Museum, complete with robotic band.

And of course Daniel celebrated the WC of Man.

On Campus

We're over half way through the semester and realized we hadn't shown you the campus - so here it is.

 Statue on campus of Chinese educator with English teachers.

 Campus map -- 10,000 students.

Various traditional exercises are always in practice - this one with swords. They compete with the ever popular table tennis and basketball.

 Ceramics Department teacher Mr. Wang and his newest customers.

 High humidity + no A/C = streams of mold in various shades of green.

 Geography students practicing their craft.

Getting ready to enter the world of work!

May Day

Labor Day, May 1st ("5.1" on the sign), is a big holiday here so we visited the scenic part of our province of Guangxi.

 Guilin takes its place among the aristocracy of China's top sights with its ...

... greenery and Osmanthus trees. Seven Stars Park was opened to sightseers as far back as the Sui dynasty.

 One of the highlights is the Dark Dragon Cave, ...

... full of stalagmites and stalactites colored by floodlights -- see the rabbit?

A highlight was the boat trip down the Li River amidst the karst limestone mountains ...

 ... so famous that it's on the currency.

 We passed up the bamboo rafts in favor of a larger boat.

 Yangshuo is swamped with tourists, from an artist sketching the scenery ...

 ... to West Street (imagine Bourbon Street without the raunch and hurricanes).

So lots of flavor for a great get-away.

Be it ever so humble

From the south of China we get a very different view of the world; here are some pictures of our place.

Since the campus is on the edge of the city and we live on the edge of the campus, this rural view awaits us each day, to the sounds of crowing roosters. We've been watching this rice field get ready for planting.

One floor down we can see our neighbor's balcony, which like ours is the spot to dry clothes.

This is as posh as a candlelight dinner can get. The towels behind the man of the house indicate the location of the WC.

 The furnished three bedroom apartment is about 1000 sq. ft.

 And fresh flowers give it a homey touch.

This is the only room in the apartment with A/C; the rest of the place is cooled with fans and cross ventilation. 

 This is where we do our teacher work; the door to the right leads to the balcony.

Don't you just love to see a man at work in the kitchen?

And we celebrate the end each week with a martini. We do have an extra bedroom, so you're all invited to visit our home sweet home, China version.

Easter in Qinzhou

We've had such a wonderful Easter celebration here that we had to add a few extra pictures.

Like many cities in China, Qinzhou has a Catholic Church and a Christian (Protestant) Church. The local Catholic Church had their Easter banners out.

The service we attended at our local Christian Church ended with a lengthy program of music and dancing.

All in attendance were given two hard boiled eggs and two steamed buns to enjoy while the Easter performance was in session -- lunch in the pew.

This little cutie became Daniel's  playmate during the service.

Easter Eggs

We've just finished a mega egg decorating project for Easter.

It started in the market, where we became very popular with the egg sellers during our daily trips.

Then home to boil over 200 duck eggs (the chicken eggs are brown here, so we opted for duck, although some of them had a bluish tinge.

All of our students took part in decorating their egg with wax crayons and then dipping them in the colors.

Each student then explained the symbols on their egg.

These girls, all from the same village and living in the same dormitory, wrote "SAY I LOVE YOU."

And Richard was quite pleased with his birds and dolphins.

They haven't stopped talking about their eggs - Happy Easter!