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 The Border and Farming Village |
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The Border and Farming Village |
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| Anne, Darla and Ken on the tour bus. The red symbol is a sticker that we were required to wear identifying us as members of the tour. |
| One of our designated three days in Macau was allocated to a one day tour of The People's Republic of China. This is something that Anne and I had done on our previous trip and thought that Ken and Darla would enjoy. You have to be a bit prepared for this as it is definitely different from your regular travels. First, crossing the border seems to be a madhouse. There are people everywhere and chaos seems to reign. On our first trip everyone's name on the tour was printed on a list and, as you passed through the border, you had to be in the order that your name appeared on the list. I'm happy to say this second trip wasn't that rigorous. However, on the first trip they stamped our passports and on this one they refused to stamp the passport. Who knows? When you pass through the border house and exit the building there will be hordes of people around. Some are unloading goods from cars to take across the border, others are coming through with you and many are just beggars looking for a handout. At the border beggars are predominant, more so than anywhere else. Once on the other side and back on the bus we were met by our Chinese tour guide. She was a young woman in her twenties and had just graduated school. This was her first job and she was very good at it. She was also dedicated. She informed us that each day she had to ride a bus for three hours (each way) from her home to work. Our first stop would be what was explained to us as "a typical and approved farming village of about two thousand people who are proud, self-supporting farmers." Unfortunately, the way they explained it, you were left with the impression that this was a selected village groomed specifically for tourists and not necessarily a typical village. Whether that's true or not I do not know, but it is the impression that their explanation left me with. |
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<< Entering the village we were immediately met by this little old Chinese woman. As you passed by she would put her hands in front of her, as if in prayer, and lower her head somewhat. She then followed you a short distance with an outstretched hand. The streets were clean and orderly with many >> people walking throughout. |
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| Garbage collection the old >> fashioned way. Certainly not a modern collection method but, from the looks of the village, a very effective method. Compared to Egypt this is advanced. In Egypt garbage was collected by donkey carts. |
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Along the front edge of the village we ran into this snake vendor with his live wares in cages. As we approached he went inside one of the cages to extract a snake for our viewing pleasure. Snake is very popular in China and is even considered by some to be a delicacy. While I have tried buffalo and alligator I'm not quite ready for snake. That would take some doing. |
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During our tour of the village we ran into this group of young children. Anne and I reached into our bag, pulled out our stash of balloons and handed them out. As you can see by the expressions on their faces they were delighted. Carrying several bags of balloons a few thousand miles is certainly worth the reward you get by watching the children. Perhaps when they grow up they will remember the friendly Americans who gave them balloons once upon a time and relations between our countries and the people of our worlds will be better. Speaking of friendly relations. As you have probably gathered from the pages of our web albums Anne and I are animal lovers. When an animal appears, especially dogs and cats, we are drawn to it. Perhaps it's because we are missing our dog and three cats who are home anxiously awaiting our return. On several occasions during our trip to Hong Kong, Macau and China we saw dogs running free and wanted to pet them. Unfortunately, without exception, they were not friendly at all and when approached they growled. I wonder why? |
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