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Twist Of Smoke Rises From Dazu Homes in the Misty Morning
The Dazu day started being very misty and with a power cut. We were only in Dazu for one night and stayed at the Dazu Guest House, which did not claim to be of five star quality, but it was clean, tidy and comfortable, with excellent food. When I looked through the window in the early morning, the roofs of the Dazu houses with their blue black curved tiles were shrouded with mist, and from two of the chimneys, a rising thin twist of smoke, signalled that the household was cooking breakfast. The whole scene looked very grey and dull but it had its own magical charm. We had already discovered that the lights in our room were not working, but it was still a delightful surprise to find, when we entered the dining room for breakfast, the whole room lit up with candle light. Power cuts in the town were not unusual, as the increasing demand for power exceeded supply, so the guest house staff in Dazu were well prepared.
Rice Harvest Ignored By Chinese Cyclists In Dazu
 The Dazu day quite quickly cleared of mist so by the time breakfast was over, and we walked along the streets, there was plenty of activity going on to attract our attention; the Chinese working day starts very early. The previous afternoon we had seen the rice being gathered up off the Dazu streets, having been laid out to dry in the sun, and more was being spread out for the days baking, totally ignored by cyclists who rode right over the grain. We had witnessed this practice many times before, but whenever we came to a patch of rice, our instinct was to negotiate a way around it.
Mothers' Meeting On Dazu Pavement
While we were walking along the main street, we passed an open fronted barber's in which a
 youngster was having a haircut. My Chinese friend Trung, who had come with me from the UK, had shoulder length hair, something the locals were not accustomed to seeing on a Chinese man, so when
 the barber saw Trung he beckoned to him to come and have his haircut, which Trung politely declined ! Trung's hair might even have been the topic of conversation of a group of women with their children, gathered at the front of one of the street houses, some sitting on chairs on the stone slabbed pavement, but we shall never know, because of the constant handicap of different languages.
If you are interested in the links below, just click them !
Black Dragons On Wall Tops In Shanghai
Buddha Statue In Cave At Longzhou
Vietnamese Woman Sells Mountain Berries In Xui Kou
Homesick Young Boys Returned From Buddhist Temples
A Selection from Robert's Wild Cards
| The start of these personal webpages and the Vietnam pictures, followed a chance meeting with a young man named Hoang in 1979. Hoang was one of the "Boat People" from Vietnam who arrived in the UK. In due course I was given the responsibility of teaching him some English. A few weeks later I met his family and friends, and subsequently their families and friends, and friends and families, of friends and families.... and so it was that the ideas for the personal webpages began. |
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| Browse through the many China pics on the personal webpages and enjoy again a meal of Peking Duck with pancakes at the Qian Men Restaurant in Beijing. See what happens to the floor of a Ming Dynasty Hall after Buddhist Monks have stamped their feet for hundreds of years, as shown in the China pics from the Shaolin temple on the personal webpages of Robert. |
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