Chuandixia

May 17, 2011

We had spent some time thinking about what we wanted to do for our weekend between classes. We definitely wanted to get away from Beijing for a bit, so had made a short list of day or overnight trips that sounded fun. We ultimately settled on visiting Chuandixia, an old, charming village about 90 km northwest of Beijing in the mountains. Since the village is tiny, we decided we could see it all in one day rather than doing an overnight, although it was very tempting to stay the night since all lodging there is via home stays in the courtyard homes. In addition to the courtyard homes and beautiful mountain views, Chuandixia is touted for its well-preserved Maoist propaganda.

We learned the best way to get there was to hire a taxi for the day from one of the big transit stations in Beijing. After some back and forth haggling with a couple of guys at the station, we settled on a nice older man who agreed to take us for 300Y roundtrip. He had a friend along to ride in the front seat, so the three of us piled into the back of his little white minibus/van and headed out.



The drive was exciting and terrifying: our driver made record time, especially when we came to the curvy mountain roads. Once we decided to just ignore the fact that we might DIE, it was kind of like a roller coaster ride.

We made one stop at a scenic overlook of a large dam on the way.

As we approached the village, our driver pulled over and motioned for us to get out of the car. We complied, not really knowing where we were or why we were getting out, but whatever… and then our driver drove off without us! He stopped not too far down the road, and we figured out we were supposed to walk this little stretch for some reason. It was very confusing, until we reached the end of our little walk and the driver explained through hand motions and our limited understanding of Mandarin that the place we had just walked through had been carved out by water: it was just something cool and pretty he wanted us to experience.

What is going on?

So we got back in the van and shortly arrived in the village. As it turned out, our driver had family in Chuandixia, so he introduced us to them and then we were off to explore. We hiked a little trail that gave us a skyline view of the village, and then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the courtyards. There was a group of art students visiting the village that day – it was neat to watch them draw, and they were very entertained by our presence. We were a little disappointed in the “well-preserved” Maoist propaganda. There were a few Chinese characters painted on the sides of building, but nothing very flashy or exciting. Several of the homes were open for business – meaning we could sit down and the homeowner would serve us beer and food. We ordered some wonderful food by just saying a combination of things like “noodles”, “vegetables”, and “whatever you recommend.” It was a glorious, relaxing afternoon and we were reluctant to leave.

The village of Chuandixia

Chuandixia and mountains

Chinese art student at work

Courtyard lunch

Please don't put anything from this jar in our food.

Cheap Seats (minus Rob) in China!

When we got back to Beijing that night, we found a place to have the famous Peking Duck for dinner. Perfect Peking Duck involves infusing the skin with just the right mix of marinade and then frying it. It’s world famous, and apparently very difficult to find an excellent version anywhere other than Beijing. I tried it and liked it well enough even though I’m not big on skin or fried stuff in general. Still, it was worth the experience. The evening was a kind of sad, knowing we had to go back to school in the morning and that my time in China was rapidly approaching its end.

Peking Duck