Rice Fields, Ice Cream and Muddy Rides
July 3 – a quiet day in Xizhou
It is not often that our accommodation is the highlight of our visit to a destination, but The Linden Centre is no ordinary accommodation. The owners are a fascinating couple who have created a unique environment. Brian grew up in an uneducated family in Chicago and when he was 22 was awarded a scholarship to study in Beijing in 1984. He was selected because of all the applicants his background was the most proletarian. His fate was twisted even more when out jogging, he was offered a job as a star in a Chinese movie about a foreign exchange student. Shortly thereafter he found himself working for CBS as a cameraman and translator. In the 33 years since, he has spent more time in China than anywhere else and has felt a deep sense of gratitude to the country and a strong desire to protect its cultural heritage.
He and his wife Jeanee, who is from San Francisco and knows the founders of Ohlone, ran a successful Asian art gallery before in the deciding in 2003 to embark on an ambitious project to buy and run a boutique hotel in an rural town near Dali. Their dedication to sustainable tourism hasn’t gone unnoticed in China as a few years ago, Brian was selected as one 10 most influential foreigners in China and now has several sustainable tourism projects underway. Here’s an article in The Atlantic from 2009 about their vision.
For us, result is degree of comfort that makes leaving the hotel grounds challenging. We managed to stroll most of the small town, checking out the daily market and peaking into small shops. (By the way, you know a town is pretty, when every few minutes you see brides and grooms posing in their colorful costumes for wedding pictures.) At the market, we bought a pineapple and watermelon after Tyler’s least effective negotiation in China. (How much? 26 yuan. You take 15? 26. 20? 26. 25? 26. Ok). Around 1pm, we were hungry and ducked into a small noodle shop that was popular with local students. Using our clever translation app, we ordered a veggie soup, braised beef, and fried rice. As always, yum!
After Tom walked the fruit back to the hotel, Sue decided to head back for a nap. Tom and kids continued to stroll the town in the steady rain as the stream of Chinese day trippers continued to pour into this picturesque town. They enjoyed some locally made ice cream and some wonderfully named fake shoe stores. Our favorite being the phonetically spelled Niubalunsi (New Balance with a non-silent ‘e’). We also ordered a cake for Sue’s upcoming birthday and while the cake was prepared Tom and Tyler got their hair cut.
There was some miscommunication about trimming Tom’s beard and before he knew it he had only half a beard. Oh, well it will grow back. Price for a haircut? $3.00. Cake in hand, we made the 5 minute walk past the rice fields to our hotel for our 5pm baba making class, sometimes called Yunnan pizza. The thick doughy pizza was fun and easy to make. Thicker than American pizza, the toppings are folded into the dough rather than sprinkled on top. Another variation is that they make sweet versions as well as savory and the brown sugar and plum sauce ones were delicious.
After enjoying our pizzas, we decided to borrow the hotel’s bikes and make the 20 minute ride to the nearby lake. Around 7pm, map in hand, we set off. The first set of turns were easy enough to follow, but after about 5 minutes the directions got harder to follow. 10 minutes into the ride we were off course. Following Tom’s iPhone map we twisted and turned through back alleys and through increasing large puddles. Somehow, we managed to make it to the lake’s edge as the sun was dipping behind the mountains only to learn that the park was closed.
Not wanting to ride in complete darkness, we turned around and set off home. We tried to follow the same route back and somehow missed a turn and found ourselves in a severely rutted road between two rice fields. Behind us a car came bouncing along and passed us. If they can make it, so can we and to the chants of “keep pedaling!” We managed to power through the ‘up to the pedals’ deep puddles with no disasters. Laughing the laugh of those who have narrowly avoided catastrophe, we arrived back at our hotel around 8:45.
We all took turns showering, with Tom getting the task of washing the clothes in the large metal tub. Of course, Sue had brought along a small ziplock bag of detergent which we have been using to do laundry along the way.
The kids were disappointed that we had gone to the lake rather than watch a family movie together, but they were placated after promising to download Kung Fu Panda 3 and watch it the next day. By 10:30pm, all was quiet in out comfortable two room suite.