🥦Mizuo´s Travel Blog🥦 No.6 - 2/3: Visiting a local village in Qingyuan, China, 2017

---

Our journey in Qingyuan continued

The entrance of an old village in the suburb of Qingyuan 

In total, I remember that we stayed more than one week in this region and we visited a couple of Yao villages and also a few Han villages. (Too bad that I cannot read the Chinese characters in the picture....something RED.....old village residential area. Please let me know if anyone can read the name of the village! I want to check the exact location.)

It is just outside of the village 

So, we decided to enter the village. 

Some grandpas and grandmas were sitting outside and enjoying some free time on a sunny day in the village. It is one of the gates to the village.

This is what the inside of the village looked like. It was beautiful 😀

This village also has a wall which is surrounded the village like many other Han villages. But, the wall was not as noticeable as it was like the first Han village we visited. The part of the wall was removed or many collapsed for some reason, and they did not rebuild it. Well, when time goes by, the meaning of the wall was gradually lost its meaning. I believe that it lost the importance to protect the village since they do not have to do it any longer. 

From right next to the village entrance, there is a vast field where village people work and cultivate rice and many different kinds of veggies. 

This sign shows that this road is a part of a historical route which people use for many years. 

Inside the village was like a maze. 😉 It is pretty cool, isn't it?

It seems that people do not live in this old village any longer since many people prefer to live in a modern kind of so-called "apartment" instead of living in this old part of the village. Well, I hope the government will preserve this beautiful part of the village for the next generation. 😊🙏

It was interesting to hear that my aunty said to me that this village looked a lot like a village where they, my aunt, my uncle, and my mother grew up in a small village in Japan. We share many similarities between Japan and China. She was looking around and recalling her memories. 

Guan Yu, the guardian deity of safety and prosperity.

Han Chinese love him so much!

Well, we found something!

Well, I did not expect this kind of this would happen. 

To tell the truth, as I wrote from the beginning of my blog for this trip to Qingyuan, I was just a tourist from Japan joining this field trip my friends asked me to join. But, for my friends and their students, it was a part of field trip study to research something new in this region. And, luckily, they found something interesting just outside of this local restaurant. HAHA! It was very surprising how we found this piece of stone, which was used as a base of the restaurant, but it was actually written and carved some documents.

Putting some chalk power so that we can read what is written on the piece of stone. 

When my mother, aunt, and uncle were exploring in the village, my friends and their students asked many village people if they saw any old stone relics or old Chinese characters they cannot read, or something. And then, one of them explained that they found some old stones which they thought meaningless so that they used as a base of the restaurant. 

So, we put some chalk power on the old stone relic which was carved some documents. 

Well, I really felt that my friends and their students were like "Indiana Jones" trying to figure out some puzzles and read what was written on the stone. 😄👍

They took pictures and printed what was written on the stone, then they decided to take it back to the University of Macao where they research. Actually, they found out that it was a historical document about this region. It was not about their field of study which is about Yao's lifestyle and acculturation to Han Chinese, but I am glad that they found something interesting. 

Outside of the village

As you can see that some of the buildings were built recently. 

Some village people decide to build a modern style building in the village so that the village has already started losing some traditional lifestyle. It was a bit sad to see how the village is changing, and at the same time, I hope that the government will support them to preserve this beautiful village. 

This is a communal water place where they get fresh water, and also wash veggies and dishes. The water place was divided into four sections so that the water cleans continuously. It is a smart idea how they keep their hygiene and health. 

The clean water comes from the biggest pool, then goes to four small pools. The each of four pools is connected, but the quality (cleanness) of water is different. 

It was so beautiful! 

What a beautiful village it is! 

It was such an amazing experience I had with them. I am so glad that my friends asked me to join their field trip study. I learned that there were many small old villages in China, especially inland China where most of the tourists will not visit. Without help from my friends, I could not have had such a wonderful experience like this. It is almost impossible (or, I would say that it is very challenging) to visit this village without anybody who speaks Han Chinese and some local languages. Also, I felt so lucky that they drove us around and showed us many beautiful places. Through this trip, I also learn that living in peace needs to have much understanding of each other and also many compromises in some points. Visiting both the beautiful villages of Yao and Han made me realize that there is no superior culture that is above one another. I hope that Yao and Han people will live peacefully like it was when we visited there in 2017. 😉🙏🙌