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Freda and I had a visit from Luo Xiao Mei recently. She was one of the girls' homework tutors, and now a good friend. She'd come all the way from Yutang in Mojiang County just to see us (and buy some new trainers for her brother!). As you can see she didn't come empty-handed. Clockwise from top left: a huge xiang yan fruit (as yet untasted); jar of yancai pickle; some enormous plump aubergines; huge cucumbers; salted duck eggs. And it was all grown or produced by her farmer parents. They're busy at the moment twisting and hanging the harvested tobacco leaves in their tobacco tower for drying. Later Xiao Mei and Freda had a great time shopping.

Meanwhile, Lesley and Edie are having fun in the countryside. Their internet connection expired at the end of July but should be reconnected soon. Mammoth cleaning sessions are followed by idyllic walks in the shadow of the Great Wall. Freda and I hope to join them soon...

 
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Looking South across He Xi Cun, from the Gubeikou section of the Great Wall of China.
I've failed to find a programme on this laptop with which I can scribble on the photo, so I shall try to describe where we are. Draw a verticle line about a quarter of the way from left to right. Move up the line from the bottom of the photo and our house is where the line first hits the village i.e. we are on the northern edge of He Xi Cun. Between the Gubeikou Great Wall and the village on this side is the railway line (between Beijing and Inner Mongolia) and between the village and the mountains to the east is a large river, the Chao He.

The village of He Xi is 120km northeast of Beijing (right on the border of Beijing Municipality and Hebei Province) at 215m altitude (so not much higher than BJ) and the Gubeikou hills rise to about 500m maximum. The Gubeikou Great Wall stretches north and west of the village while to the east, across the river and National Route 101, are the Jinshanling and Simatai sections of the Great Wall. There's supposed to be a great walk between these latter two sections, where it's also possible to camp apparently. This part of the Wall is supposed to be much less of a circus than Badaling, the only section we've previously visited.
 
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You wouldn't be mad for mistaking this for the bathroom, but it is infact the kitchen, although Edie could probably bathe in this solid fuel wok (one of 3 in the room). Yanhui and Hunter stayed until 4 pm this afternoon, helping us shift stuff and clean a few rooms in the farmhouse. As a result, Edie and I have now moved in. There's still a lot of work to do but we have somewhere to sleep and, if I dare to light the gas stove, cook. As Yanhui and Hunter drove off this afternoon I had a sudden pang of isolation and aloneness. It's what I imagined I would feel arriving as a VSO volunteer 5 years ago but didn't, because Simao is so developed and we had several English-speaking contacts. Not this time. Our ears are slowly tuning in to the northern accent but it's still a bit of a culture shock in other ways - food, daily routine, physical size of the locals (people are tiny in Simao). After 5 years in Yunnan, we are definitely southerners.

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Sweeping the yard.
The door on the left [back] is our loo and the one behind me is a store room, where we're putting everything that's been left behind by the owners that we don't think should be chucked out. Up on the right is a large lounge with two small bedrooms off it. This will be the activities centre, once we are set up. The kitchen and our living area are off to the left. More photos to follow tomorrow, should we still have internet connection.
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Edie and Yanhui on a walk down to the river. Every household has a patch of land to grow crops, and we accompanied No 4 Aunt to the fields this evening to pick some tomatoes, leeks and cucumber to last us a couple of days. The Gubeikou section of the Great Wall runs along the ridges in the background. The small knobbles on the horizon [one above Edie's head, for instance] are towers on the wall. From here we can take the wall south-west to Beijing or North-East to Jinshanling and Simatai [about 8 hrs walk from here, by Wall].
 
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After a morning of packing and playing, Edie and I left for the VSO office. Granny Li and Bai Ling waved us off from the bedroom window and both girls looked a little down-hearted to part. Hongyan and her family have been so welcoming and granny, in particular, has coped well with the interuption to their daily routine. The apartment is usually quiet during the day with everyone at work and school, but with us two around there was always something new and attention-grabbing going on. I'm sure she will breath a sigh of relief tomorrow morning. 

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After my VSO exit interview - finally leaving - Edie and I left Beijing with Yanhui and her husband, Hunter, to whom Edie presented a portrait before leaving. Hunter is a police detective, hence the blue shirt in the picture. We took about 3 hours to drive to the village of He Xi Cun (West River Village), about 120 km North-East of the capital. We arrived at night so haven't been able to see anything of the surrounding area. What I do know is that the air is fresher, there's hardly any traffic and there are about a hundred varieties of beatle on the washroom wall. After dinner and a few glasses of cold beer we collapsed into bed, looking forward to a weekend of exploration ahead.

 
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Bai Ling stayed off nursery today so I've had my hands full with two little ones to entertain. Edie and I had a walk in the park (Bai Ling opted to stay at home) before returning home for a craft activity - making puppets. This kept them going for the rest of the morning. Unfortunately we had already discarded Edie's recent lollipop stick so we used chopsticks on which to mount each puppet. Little do they know that this afternoon they will have the task of preparing a puppet show for the rest of the household. That's right, I aim to have them flopping in to bed nice and early tonight!

 
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It might look like a cool, overcast day, but don't be deceived. The UV rays are going crazy and the sun creates a glare that makes shades or a hat essential. Edie and I managed an hour an a half in the park (most of that spent in the trees) before retreating to the house, wet with sweat. She couldn't even be tempted by a boat trip, which was just as well because I didn't have the energy for rowing. There's not much else to report from balmy Beijing. While the rest of the household had a sensible siesta, Edie and I practised reading and writing, followed by some papercraft activities. Old habits die hard.

 
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Hongyan's 3rd floor apartment
Edie and I have been made very welcome in Hongyan's home and I can slowly feel my stress levels going down. This morning I left Edie in the company of Bai Ling, looked after by Hongyan's parents. I went out for a 'working lunch' with Yanhui and Hongyan, to discuss arrangements for 'the yard' as our next (home)base is called. I returned to spend the afternoon in Bai Ling's bedroom, playing games with the girls and escaping the Beijing heat. We have three more days of city living before heading out to the countryside, where we know there will be water, electricity and a bed.....though the latter is not certain. What is certain is that we will be surrounded by mountains and within walking distance of forests and a river. What more could we want?

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Bai Ling and Edie making Ello creations on the bed. Bai Ling is a couple of years younger than Edie but already has some English, due to her mum slowly introducing it in daily life. While we played cards Bai Ling spoke English, Edie spoke Chinese and I bumbled along somewhere in between. Very amusing.
 
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Lao Yang is halfway through a 20-day stint at a summer holiday military training Boot-camp. They had very hard beds and the only thing the parents are aloud to bring is milk, fruit, and chocolate! Lao Yang is wearing an armband because he is the dormitory monitor. There are alwas two guards at the bottom of the stairs which is very embarrassing because they salute when you walk into the building. Looks pretty boring if you ask me! 

 
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Fang Fang is a Chinese-American girl who has visited us here in Simao every year since 2008. She was adopted from an orphanage in Kunming by a Californian couple and has spent the last few summer holidays returning here to visit Yunnan and get in touch with her roots. She visited us for a couple of nights recently and we went to some favourite restaurants to satisfy her kao erkuai cravings. Then she left -here she is at the airport. It was great to see her here in Simao for one last time.

 
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The girls polish off lunch leftovers
We're still waiting for Freda's new passport to arrive from Hong Kong (it's only been 12 days so far). Meanwhile Freda and I are in limbo in Simao, packing boxes and visiting the dump. Freda's been spending a lot of time hanging around with a posse of girls including Lilli (left) and a new addition, Tang Meng Ting (right) who's visiting family from Lancang. TMT has a small dog...

Freda and I spent the morning shopping and preparing lunch for Lao Yang's mum, granny, aunt and two cousins. It was quite a stressful experience (for me anyway), but they had fed us the night before so it was nice to return the favour. Lao Yang couldn't come because he was eating gruel and polishing his gun at the Boot-camp.

And we had a small earthquake today. I wonder if this will be the last one we experience here? Very small M3.0 and local, epicentre only 20km away near Ninger.