Sanjiang

I wish more of the biking was like the picture above, but, alas, it wasn't. The ride from the Rice Terraces to the city of Sanjiang was a beautiful stretch along a river. The first third of it was a beautiful and easy ride, but due to some pretty major road construction, we weren't allowed to ride and so again, we resorted to stashing our bikes in the van and driving to Sanjiang.

Sanjiang isn't really all that exciting a place, however, it is the launching point to visit the Dong minority. China is predominantly Han. It would be like saying the United States is majority Caucasian. I am Han Chinese. The country or China has numerous minority groups that speak their own dialects and cultures. It's just that they all look pretty much Chinese to most people.

Throughout the Dong communities, they have built these covered bridges all without nails.

We got to watch a performance by the Dong. The young boy in the middle was having the time of his life and not jaded by performing.

If you're Chinese you need to learn to squat. You are in this position when eating to watching television to working in the fields.

Wandering through the village, we looked through a window and saw this woman making cloth. She was nice enough to let us come in and watch.

I'm embarrased to say that it took me a while to figure out what each of the moving parts actually did.

Somehow I saw this as indicative of China

This region is known for building drum towers

The towers serve as a social gathering place for the community

Leaving the Dong minority village, we headed back for some time in the town of Sanjiang.

Visiting temples, there are a jar full of sticks on which a fortune is written. This is what I picked and John said it was really good but couldn't explain it. Mom? Dad? Help, please.

Want to known where our lumber products come from? By the way bamboo (or which there are 15 or so different types) grows like a weed here and is really strong!

Here at the chopstick factory, scrap lumber is cut into rectangular prisms of wood. Everyone in China uses disposable chopsticks. John says it's a sanitary thing, but I'm not sure about that.

The prism are run through a machine to shape the sticks into rounded form as well as putting the slit through the middle.

Each set of sticks is visually inspected by hand and visual imperfections as shaved off

Here's where the "Made in China" Pier 1 Import Chairs begin life

The strands in the foreground to become toothpicks and then thin strips in the background to become steamers

Myself and our driver Deng dining on the streets

Many nights we three would retire to my room and play Chinese Chess