Village Life

We made a trip inland into the Poon Yue region, to the ancestral village of a friend's family in order to visit their family homes. The houses in the village ranged in style, being a strange amalgamation of aesthetics - from decrepit wooden gates and doors, to the nouveau riche, stainless steel balconies.

The facade of one of their houses, labeled "modernized" by our guide, was covered in tiles. We learned that the patterned roofs were distinctly regional. The Town Hall opened with an impressive, enormous wooden door, and housed family trees that listed each generation of males born to those originally from the village. My friend, who had not been born in the country much less the village, was listed thanks to his grandmother's phoning in his birth.

Friends in the village gifted us with homegrown nectarines, which tasted incredibly fresh and were the sweetest I've ever had. The village square, which sprawled like any Main Street, small farmers sold their homegrown crops daily. A restaurant down the road was relatively clean with decent, if unoriginal, offerings; however, the bathrooms...or should I say, outhouses...considered relatively modern by the locals, comprised of small stalls lined up like Porta-Potties, and had tiled floors with holes in the ground to answer all of nature's calls. Needless to say, these required some aim...as well as prescience to BYOTP. Also learned that a local restaurant worker typically makes $700 every month.

We visited an unexceptional Guangzhou mall, and walked through street bazaars that sold fresh bamboo and coconut drinks, textiles, and household goods.