Farmer House stay in Hu County

Sunday, Father's Day

Yesterday we got to do something out of the typical tourist realm.   We left Xi'an, or not really as the cities seem to go on forever even though you might drive through farmlands in the middle. I think it is more like city proper vs. the larger city limits.   Xi'an is 9 million people in the larger limits.   

We arrived in Hu County (maybe still in city limits??) and were introduced to our hostesses.   Mrs. Han took us back to her home.  It is a newer development (25 years or so ago) that was built to get the farmers out of the old 300 year old village in order to improve the living conditions.   It is a nice house with sparse furnishings.   We had three bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom with a western toilet : ) Box springs with a little pad on top for the beds. 

We sat in the living room playing with their kitten and trying to converse a little with her 20 year old daughter.   Between our minimal Chinese,  her slighly less minimal English and google translate, we were able to talk about a few things.   We also looked at her mom's nice garden.   I think her dad is actually a driver, not a farmer.   

After watching a little chinese tv, we sat down to dinner but they did not join us. It was very good and more manageable in size than the restaurant dinners.   We are eating well!!! 

After dinner we went to the village square for the nightly village gathering. Kids played on the playground, boys played basketball and women danced for exercise - Chinese line dancing!  We all joined in these various ways.   The b-ball game was pretty scrappy.  We did the chicken dance (yes, they know that even in Hu County!) and the dancing happened in the middle of the b-ball court while two games went on around us.   It just seemed to work for all and nobody cared that they were mixed together.   

She made us breakfast in the morning, we went to an artist's studio and bought more paintings and then took a walk to the old village.   I will need to post more pictures on this once we get home!  What a contrast to the gazillion high rises everywhere! 10 families still live there.   

We are now in Chengdu (14 mil) and will go see the pandas tomorrow. 

Marnie