Our day in the mountains

Today we headed out into the rural area outside of Lanzhou. This is the mountainous region seen as we flew to Lanzhou in the plane (we posted pictures on April 16th of it). It took us about an hour to get there and the road were very bumpy and narrow. In areas the road had cliffs on each side that if our vehicle went off the road, we would have all been dead. Pretty scary. The mountains are a reddish brown and sandy in appearance. We again saw the holes carved into the side of the mountains that people live in along with the mud and straw huts and homes.
We arrived to the small village. Frank took us there because he said it was very similar to the village Max lived in in the northern part of Gansu province. He also said the pear and peach trees were in bloom and it is very beautiful. He was right. You could see many small trees with white and dark pink blossoms in neat rows and the villagers tending them.

Our facilitator and friend Frank.

Buddist temple with prayer flags outside.

Pictures taken from inside our vehicle.

The streets of Shang Cha

Villagers gathered together visiting.

The outside area where we ate.

Tina taking a walk amoung the pear blossoms.

Our little man.

Hangin' out

Tina, Aiyana and Steve Miles

This tea was absolutely fantastic! It had dates, a nut that contains a raisin like fruit, other types of fruits and a huge piece of rock sugar. It may look somewhat strange but it tasted delicious.

Our travel mate Steve Miles climbs up into the "Honeymoon tree house" to have a look around. Frank looks on below.

This man asked to have his picture taken with the famous "Dan the red man" dan gets many looks from people. The Chinese believe red is very lucky. Behind them is the tree cabin.

Playing peek-a-boo with mommy.

Clapping his hands. He does this when he's happy (usually food is involved ;)

Max getting ready to eat. Man this kid has an appetite! The running joke is about Max eating so much he shuts the restaurants down.

Pictured here is our facilitator Frank, Dan holding Max man and myself standing in front of the water wheel.

A new construction project in the heart of the village.

Some children on their way home from school. They seemed to like us taking their picture.

Our facilitator Frank looking to see if anyone is home here. This is the typical style of home in this village.

The outside of the home we visited. They have a door but they use the curtain to help airfow I'm guessing.

A large light fixture in the livingroom. The two smaller light fixtures appear to be hand painted

Frank our facilitator, took us for a walk around the village. As we were walking I saw this man splitting wood for his home using what appeared to be a very large screw. I waved to him and he waved back. Frank began to speak with him (in Chinese) and the man invited us into his home. He said he built it two years ago. This home was very nice. He had a bathrrom, kitchen, large livingroom, a couple of bedrooms and an enclosed porch! This was the nicest home in the village that we had seen. He was friendly and offered us all a cigerette (I guess a hospitable thing to do there). Frank continued to speak with him and we had our picture taken with him. People here are very warm. This type of thing is not uncommon here.

Daddy and Max. Max is such a cute pie.

A little village girl unsure what to make of us. I love the picture. If you click on it you will see it better.

Chinese characters carved in raised relief just outside the village area.

Here are some pictures of the sights.