4/27/2009 Confucius and the Baby Bok Choy

Today, Claire's parents took us to the outskirts of the city to visit a village.  When we got off the bus we saw a concrete pipe factory and decided to drop in and see what they were doing.  I was surprised they let us in to observe their manufacturing methods.  They shoveled concrete into the cylindrical form that was rotating at a high speed.

The end result being piles of concrete drainage pipes for all the construction projects in China.  As my brother-in-law says, China is one massive construction site.  And that is so true!

We crossed the road to the village.  On our walk to the village we crossed rice paddies and vegetable gardens.  We met two very nice ladies, a mother and her daughter-in-law, harvesting baby bak choy for the market.  

They let us take their pictures.....

And she even insisted that we take a bundle of her baby bak choy....but that was under one condition.......we could not pay her for it.

Once in the village, I was drawn to some of the articles around the homes, like this old pump

.........and this vegetable basket......

..........And this water bucket.

I thought these old bricks were the perfect backdrop for a group portrait.

One thing we noted was that the village had changed so much.  The mud huts that had been replaced by brick homes were now being replaced with multi-story concrete buildings.  Things were getting better for the village residents.  Note the previous residence on the right is being replaced with the new concrete building on the left.

The villagers were wearing better clothes even when doing manual labor.

And some even wore dress shoes when going to the fields to work.

We met this lady on her bike who was surprised that we would want to take her picture.

Next, we visited a temple.  This temple was first erected in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - 907), in honor of Confucius.  Confucius was never worshiped in his time, but later people did worship him. I believe that the worship of Confucius today has largely died out, but his teachings still impact Chinese culture today.  He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, and parental respect. Most of these cultural aspects are still very evident among the Chinese.  These historical buildings were rustic, with interesting design features.

Circular entrances represented perfection.

This building was the sanctuary.

And this item was where people placed their burning incense.

The girls are sitting on the threshold of the sanctuary.

You can see that the doors are rather tall.  I wonder what was going on here 1,000 year ago.

Elizabeth posed by this statue that was so worn that we could not determine what it was.

And Miriam liked crawling on what looked like a frog....or was it a toad?

I liked how certain items looked against the worn red walls.

One courtyard was very nice and inviting, with the sun glistening through the tree leaves.  Elizabeth said she really liked playing here.

Even while we walked around the grounds, the resident custodians played mahjong.....

..........and cards.....Chinese like their playing.

We left there to eat at KFC.  On the way we saw a street-sweeper at work.......

.....and a young skateboarder at play.....

....and a man selling spicy Turkish barbecue.

Once at KFC, I asked for a "hambaobao", even though I knew they did not have one.  We settled for fried chicken.....but let me warn you.....never get the mashed potatoes!

KFC had a little play area, but Rebecca was too tall.

But the other two played with two Chinese girls short enough to get in.

One girl struggled with getting her shoes off.

.

We left there heading for home.  We all enjoyed some ice cream as I spent two yuan getting my shoes shined.  Tomorrow, we take care of that free baby bak choy.