Day 26 - From one idyllic village to the next

We left Ping'an today (sadly - but it was time to move on) and headed for Sanjiang where we were hoping to go across to Guizhou province. On the way from Susan's down to the bus, Liv left early to get a head start, as we had taken the morning a bit too casually and were potentially running late for the bus - unfortunately the village is a maze of pathways and there are many routes to the bus stop! After taking different pathways, leaving Liv thinking she was super fast keeping ahead of Adam, and Adam getting stressed arriving at the bottom with Liv nowhere in sight!

We made the bus, together, and headed first to Longsheng for our bus to Sanjiang - a city in Guangxi but close to Guizhou province. We wanted to catch a bus straight into Guizhou, but had missed it by a mile - which is bound to happen when you adlib timetables (i.e. never use them - if they ever exist anyway). Instead we ventured to Chengyang, a small but famous Dong village 30 minutes away. Being unable to go straight to Guizhou allowed us a nice break, as the bus ride to Sanjiang was a trecherous and bumpy ride through muddy ruts on the edge of cliff-faces.
In Chengyang we were greeted by the wonderful Mary, of Mary's Guesthouse right across from where the bus stopped. Upon seeing her delightful room we decided to stay there the night, where we paid $7.50 for our double room!

We spent the afternoon exploring Chengyang and checking out the famous Dong Wind and Rain Bridge. Built in 1912 the 78m long bridge took 12 years to complete, and was built without the use of nails. Mary told us over dinner later that night that the bridge was built by the local and neighbouring communities to enable trade over the river - the weathly paid money as their contribution, and the rest paid with either their labour or materials. We avoided the high entry cost to the village across the bridge, by walking a kilometre down the road and crossed with the villagers on the small concrete bridge (which you can see in the photo of Adam diving!). In the village we saw the elegant, but slightly weathered Dong structures, and walked around the outskirts of the village - partly to avoid being caught without a ticket and partly to see more of the less touristy sights. We noticed in the ponds the plant that many stalls had encouraged us to eat - which turned out to be un-blossomed lillies.

On our way home, Adam couldn't resist jumping into the river with the local boys - the hot temperatures after our break in Ping'an were starting to get to us again. He got a lot of stares from the locals, but even more hearty laughs from the kids and adults alike! The boys enjoyed Adam's backflips into the water, but enjoyed even more when Adam mucked up his first dive and flapped his arms wildly letting out a scream at the same time! He was relatively stressed jumping into an uncertain river, but the boys were doing it and Adam wasn't about to be shown up!

Back at Mary's we were treated to 6-dish feast of eggplant, beans, corn and pork, egg, a green vegetable soup, and rice - all for a pittance! We spent the evening chatting to Mary about the village, China, her life and more. We also got to see cool glowing, flying bugs that the kids catch and put in bottles to look at - the closest in NZ is glowworms. Despite the feast, we indulged in an icecream for dessert before heading to bed.

Adlibing the village via the local route.