We saw a man standing under the red flag. We immediately knew he was Mr. Wu, the owner of the little hostel we were going to stay this evening. He welcomed us into his house, a large but a little old building but with a large courtyard, now sheltered due to the rain under sheets of plastic.
Our room was on the third floor, with four beds inside with no facility other than a dim light. And the only restroom and shower were on the first floor. We had a little quick rest, sipped the chrysanthemum tea Mr. Wu kindly made for us, and then we decided to go out to explore the small village and the legendary peach tree in the rain.
There were only about 50 families in the small village called Xiatai, some of which have been turned into inns and hostels in names of ' photographer's home'. According to Mr. Wu, every year they have two busy seasons, one during this season, the other being in late fall when all the trees change colors. The air flowed with mixed smell of grass, flowers and animal compost. On many walls we noticed t here were slogans from Mao's times.
The legendary peach flower tree was behind the hostel, up on the terrace. H. explained this tree had appeared so many times in photos and movies about this valley. Fortunately, our legendary tree was in full blossom and we took many pictures there with big farmer's hat we borrowed from Wu. The colors were striking, with pink in front again green and yellow in the background.
About 4 pm we were already back, sitting in the courtyard,munching and playing cards while curiously asking about dinner and watching groups of trekkers exploded in, excited although they were soaked wet, between games and debates by H. and ZZ over different game rules.
Since it was raining and no other entertainment ( no tv, no internet, no marjoon) to do, the only thing left for us was to wait for dinner time. Around 7, dinner started when all of us, 5 tables in total, were hungry enough. Dinner included, salted pork, beancurd, tomato soup, fish and chick soup ( at extra expense, not included in 45 yuan set.) My friends liked the meats, for good texture. In their words, they were from very sporty pigs and chickens. ( They decided to take back Hangzhou next day from the local market before we leaved, because the owner declined shyly our offer to purchase from him directly.)
Early bedtime but long night. Some adult topic from girls and from next sound-free room). ZZ collected some nudity pictures of Edison Chen and his friends ( big big news early this year) on her cell phone but only censored to show some healthy albums for me to browse.
Night fell, wind and rain singing all night long.
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