Manchuria, Part I

12 September – Dandong, China

Tong and his wife Ooh picked us up in Shenyang; their 15-month old baby would be staying with Tong’s parents for the next few days.  Here is a traditional photo of the family (with Ooh’s brother on the right):

We drove to Hetuala City, a tourist site that was the home of the Manchu emperor who established the Qing Dynasty.  It’s a bit cheesy, with an historic re-enactment of the ascendancy of the emperor.  Once again, we were the only Westerners there, and we got more attention than the performance.  People would jostle each other aside for a chance to stand near us, to surreptitiously touch a sleeve or to pose with us for a photo.  It’s unnerving…. really gives you an appreciation for people who are “different” in some way and what they have to put up with.  Our guide apologized, but said that for some, we were the first foreign people they had ever seen.

In China, only certain hotels will accept foreigners as patrons; apparently, the government imposes reporting requirements on innkeepers to keep track of the non-Chinese guests.  In any event, the on-site hotel was not equipped to accept foreign people; Tong and his wife had to drive to town to pick up the appropriate government official, bring him to the hotel – where he completed the necessary record keeping – and then return him to town.  In the interim, Henry helped one of the other guests “smoke out” a cricket from the hotel steps for her pet collection, while Robbie anticipated sampling some rose rice wine.

The next day, a Sunday, we went to the nearby town of Yongling to check out the local market, and ran into a congregation from the local church.  We visited with the minister and had a very brief performance from the choir:

We were invited to the home of one of the church ladies, and met a number of her fellow villagers, including a couple of shy but excited ‘tweens:

A neighbor of hers is a mushroom farmer – interesting to learn how they are grown, harvested and stored.

On down the road, we stopped to inquire about some trees that were under cultivation (they were a type of Japanese maple), and were taken in by still another enthusiastic and welcoming crowd of folks.  We joined them for some wine and sampled their Sunday dinner.  It was a little intense for our taste…. the first thing Henry found in his bowl was a chicken head!  But they were so kind and happy….

The hotel in Benxi where we were to stay rejected us as foreigners (wah!) – the only hotel in town that would accept us was a huge monster that appeared to have been constructed primarily for communist party officials (and was almost deserted).

Today we passed through a mountainous area – where Henry found some logging activity (!), and we saw a koi cultivation operation and some millet fields:

We stopped for the night here in Dandong, which is a stone’s throw across the river from North Korea (about which there will be more to say in the next posting).  Ooh has left us to return to her baby in Shenyang, so it was just the three of us enjoying Korean barbecue for dinner…. and it was delicious.

Until next time!