Chaohu China

 Chaohu Farm: April 5th 2008...the Rapeseed is in full flower and the fields from Hefei to Chaohu were golden with the flowers.It was very beautiful.Here is King as we walk through the fields of Flowers on Saturday at Chaohu
I have just returned from the most wonderful weekend, staying on a farm, in the small Rural village at Chaohu, where I stayed with King and his family in a beautiful white brick home in the middle of picturesque rice fields with Rapeseed in full golden flower. Here I enjoyed the most generous hospitality and friendship, and experienced real Rural China for the first time.
His father is a school teacher and his mother works the farm which produces a crop of Rapeseed, some wheat and rice. Rapeseed  is used to make vegetable oil, and they also produce  all the vegetables needed by the family, as well as eggs, chickens and ducks. Their farm is one of many small farms in a small Community where the people work together as a community and share the fields and community life. I also visited a Chicken farm and saw how the chickens are grown for commercial sale in large quantities in warmed huts where they simply eat and grow ready for the market.
The neighbours came to meet me, and it was wonderful sharing their lives and smiles, for this weekend.
This was a special weekend, as it was Qingming, a Public Holiday for cleaning the tombs of the Ancestors. The tombs were decorated with shining streams of colored tinsel after the family visited it with Prayer Paper, symbolic money and fireworks to scare away bad spirits. The most meaningful part was the paying of respect to the ancestor with a small prayer. The tombs were all visible because of the decoration.
King's Mother is a quality cook, and the meals were fantastic. I saw the duck being defeathered and cleaned, and then enjoyed it in a delectable dish alongside chicken, pork, waterlily, mushroom, broadbeans, bok choi, fresh fish, salted fish and salted duck, preserved eggs, even shrimps in a tangy sauce. Every meal was a gourmet delight, and accompanied by beer in tiny glasses, friendly toasts and much good spirits.
On Saturday we went to climb the mountain. Somehow we wandered across fields passing geese, and ducks, and one barking dog, an ox ploughing the rice field, and beekeepers collecting the honey from the hives. We climbed straight up the mountain following a very small track that led us past women picking wild tea on the slopes, and boys walking up rock faces. It was a very hard climb to the top to see Tiger Mountain and the scenery down below in every direction. I was scared because of the slippery track and the prickly thorn bushes we had to find our way through.
Then came the hardest part, winding our way back through the unknown on almost vertical slopes until we eventually came to the lake, after four hours of walking...straight up and then straight down a mountain.
It was quite a relief to see tombs of ancestors as that meant the village was not far away, and as we crossed the lake in the gathering evening light, we saw the hives and the Honey factory where we purchased some of the sweetest, most delectable and pure, golden honey, direct from the bees you can say, as the workers were draining the honey from the wax laden hivs, as we waited. 
The whole walk was very beautiful, and we enjoyed the experience. As we started back, the rain came, and so did King's father with a huge black umbrella, and we made it back home without getting too soaked.
The morning was spent walking over the fields listening to bird songs, watching the tadpoles and the tiny green frogs, and walking through fields of golden rapeseed in full tonings of gold with small pods forming below the flowers. The paths were rich in wildflowers...tiny violets, small wild orchids, small white daisies, buttercup, pink clover flowers, and purple lilac like creepers that poured out of the earth. The rice fields were rich with seed for the chickens, as it is ploughing and preparing time now in Spring. The vegetables were green and healthy, and there was spinach, potatoes, celery, and wheat growing green and rich. We even saw a snake, and King caught it and held it for us to view before sending it into the water to swim away smoothly out of sight. There were Magpies, and sparrows, and holes where the weasels lived. It was such a glorious adventure following King as he showed us his home. The ponds were spindly with new reeds budding in the mud, and the peach trees shed pink blossom on the waters of the small streams that ran through the homes and was the base for washing and cleaning.
There is a small rocky, fast river crossing the property and we saw large, smooth, wash stones, where the villagers wash their clothes and rinse them in the clear running water. It is a very beautiful life, but there is also a lot of hard work. Workers were constantly on the fields, with spades and hoes, and digging forks preparing the soil for the next planting. Everyone was very friendly and were very happy to stop for a smile and a short chat, and pose for a photograph.
I came back with over 500 photos, over 30 videos of birds and music and outdoor sounds, and some Local music played on the Chinese one stringed violin by Kings Father, as we played Snap and Memory with cards after dinner.
Coming back was another adventure, as the train had no seats because of the Holiday, and we could not get on the bus as it was too full. We took a three wheeler to the bus station, then back to the second bus station, and a bus to Sanghe, and took the fourth bus from there back to Hefei. It was a very bumpy trip and quite rough in places, but we did arrive here safely.
It was a wonderful weekend, and I really enjoyed the Experience and the Outing.
Thank you King and Mary for this wonderful weekend. I especially liked waking up to the birds singing in the trees, and looking out of the window at the sun rising over the rice fields, and reflected in the water, and I loved the walk up the mountains and the walk through the beautiful fields of golden Flowers with wildflowers on every side.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ladymaggic/ChaohuChina5April#