through the looking glass

only the 20 minute walk is actually 6km, something I didn’t find out until we were 3km into it. hu has strange notions about distance and seemed honestly surprised when I told him the walk from my school to town, that takes a leisurely half an hour, is 3km, only now we’re carrying really big bags through mud. but the countryside was beautiful and when a mototaxi passed we resisted the urge to take it and enjoyed the walk past two small towns and a brick firing oven built into the side of a hill, through farms, and over and around the hills. the sun set, but just when we were wondering if we’d ever get there we caught sight of lights in the distance. I was convinced at this point that it was impossible for us to see a town for the first time during the day.

we passed on the first hotel but stayed at the second, and it seems we weren’t the only ones who did so, as for the first time all trip we met other foreigners. a french student from beijing and her mother and an american student from nanjing all arrived earlier that day; during dinner a little later three brits sat at a nearby table (and did their best to pretend I wasn’t there ; ) for the first time as well there was not a single other chinese tourist. another night walk after the second best meal all trip (spicy pork with green onions, baicai with tofu), past more men weaving bamboo orange crates and I came to the realization that this place was a couple paved roads and a garbage collector away from being the next dali. later the hotel owner agreed, and he too wasn’t sure how to feel about that.