Sep, 14th, 2022, Sunny
After Lunch, Qiao and I went to Dongnan Village (东南村) again. We wanted to continued the path which she discovered but were intterrupted last time. We chatted along the way, enjoyed ourselves with the warm sunshine and the occasional gusts of wind.
Shortly we arrived the "Under the Tree" Inn, which looked super modern and fancy from outside but rather peaceful and secluded from inside. This was also because Dongnan Village located on the edge of Shaxi Town, slightly away from the crowd.
Right next to the hotel, there lies a few old tress which were about 530 years old. Under the trees, there sat an decent old lady. Unlike other ladies who were usually covered with dirt and dust due to heavy farm work, this retired old lady dressed in clean traditional Bai clothes. We both assumed that she came from a decent family.
We tried to make conversations but unfortunately she spoke only Bai dialect, which neither of us had any knowledge about. She kept talking while we struggled to pretend to be engaged. I did not understand a word of what she said but she must be talking about something personal, as I noticed that some glistening tears started to form in her eyes.
I thought in the end, the granny finally realized that we did not understand her as her exciment faded and the awkward silence cropped up. Luckily we had the little boy, he was a great ice breaker who helped smooth the very moment of embarrassment.
We decided to leave when I could not bear the awkward silence anymore. We said goodbye to granny and continued to explore the villages around. We did not walk far, the granny also left for the same direction. We were kindly invited by the granny to her house, had a short nice conversation with a middle-aged lady, from whom we finally got to find out some basic information about the old lady. The ladies bigheartedly gave us some walnus which they spred around the courtyard to dry under the sun. We thanked the ladies, did not want to bother them for long, we proceeded with our journey towards the corn fields.
While walking along the lanes inside Dongnan Village, I spotted a tower on top of a hill over the river. It did not seem to be far so I encouraged Qiao for a half day hike to that tower. The mother knew her little boy well, it was better for her to take Chuichui back for a siesta. I agreed and thus moved my way alone towards the tower.
I crossed the bridge, walked along the river bank, thinking it would not take more than an hour the reach the tower since it looked so big already in the near distant. However, an old grandpa told me that the feldweg would be rather difficult for me, he suggested that I shall take a detour inside the village and follow nicely-paved cement pavement. I took his advice, returned to the main road, bought a bottle of water, another old man told me the tower was right by the highway that a construction team was building. I would not miss it.
I passed the double tunnels, kept walking along the main road a bit further but it did not seem to be the right direction since this way would lead to the "small sheep farm" (小羊场). The feldweg on the right side would be the correct direction yet I could not spot any divergent paths that join the distant feldweg.
I retunrned closer to the tunnels, looked around, and found a dirt road where I could walk up the tunnels. Ah, I see! This was the highway that they talked about. The tower was right by the highway.
I first encountered the stairs which seemed to have been abandoned due to the construction of the highway. Then I asked one of the workers neraby, he said that I could either walk to the tower from here or from the other side a bit futher down. I thanked him and then kept going.
About 50m away, I found these weird looking narrow stairs, which apparently served as replacement for the stairs that I saw earlier. I thought to go up from the other side thus I did not stop here but continued my way a bit further down.
The thought-to-be "entrance" was a steep slope. While climbing up the hills, I met a "strong-minded" self-proclaimed Bai ethnic who declined both a lift and small talks. She said she grew up in the city and came back to spend her retired life in her hometown. I felt myself unwelcomed. I said goodbye to her and then continue to climb up.
On top of the tower, I met 2 guys who I believed to be working for the same highway construction project. They were picking fungi for dinner. I warned them to be careful as I saw some of their fungi were likely not edible. Well, they did not seem to care about MY advice.
When I indulged myself in the magnificent picturesque landscapes, the lady who I met earlier caught up and reached the tower. She asked me to help her to take some photos and I did. Of course she was not satisfied and started to take selfies.
I knew I was not going to get along well with this lady. After sending my friends some photos, I started to head back. I first attempted to get down from the side where there was a seemly abandoned house. However, the crazy weeds had grown insanely high and the footpaths were almost fully coverd. For fear that there might be a dog in the only one house, I decided to make a safe move and walk down from where I came up.
Back to the narrow stairs, with much luck, I met that lady again. I waited for her to climb down and then I climbed up to see where this way actually led to. People "dug" a hole of the fences to make their way to the abandoned temple, which I mistakened it as a house.
I was content with my expedition to the tower. The landlady later told me that there would be a good spot for fungi picking. I already foresee more adventures would come soon!
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