CuanDiXia Village

This past weekend we took a trip to the countryside. We went to a village in the mountains about 3 hours outside of Beijing that was constructed ~500 years ago in the Ming dynasty and was an important stop on the trade routes from provinces north of Beijing to the capital. The houses are all traditional style, with four rooms surrounding an open-air courtyard.



Look closely--you can see his split pants. (Chinese babies don't wear diapers, they just wear pants w/ no crotch, and get potty trained really early).


PICKLED LIZARD!!!








So we were hanging out on this mountain top by a temple over looking the village, and a local Chinese guy started talking to us.
"Where are you from?"
"The US."
"Hmm...the US. People in the US eat lots of beef."
"Yes...."
"People in China eat lots of pork."
"Yes, we know."
"Pigs are stupid. The reason Chinese people are stupid is because we eat too much pork!" He said this accusatorily, as if 1) we had somehow suggested that we thought Chinese people were stupid and as if 2) the reason they had to eat so much pork was because we were hording the world's entire supply of beef or something. On purpose.
So then, next:
"Why does your President Bush want to go to war so much? Why do you people just like conflict? We Chinese are very peaceful people. We have a saying, we will not kill on purpose or for food, but if a wild animal comes onto our land, we will kill it." Basically, attack only if threatened.
We didn't even try to argue that point....
And THEN, the crowning jewel:
"Do you know, America doesn't actually belong to you."
"Oh....? To whom does it belong, then."
"Well because you know, the real people of America are the American Indians. You people came from Europe and killed them all. And actually, the American Indians came from Asia, so actually America belongs to Asia."
Ok, OBVIOUSLY no point even attempting to defend ourselves against those very well thought out and well informed points, but they do raise some obvious counterpoints: 1) N. America was populated from Asia about 30,000 years ago 2) Europeans and other immigrants did do terrible things to the indigenous peoples in the area, no denying it, but have you HEARD of Tibet? 3) I personally did not kill any American Indians, and you personally did not walk across the land bridge in the Bering Sea; therefore, please don't act as though this is a personal vendetta.
So then, after that, this guy challenged our classmate Ben to an arm-wrestling match. Clearly, this was to prove the superiority of his race and country. It was a fight to the death. Observe his extremely serious expression while Ben appears to be having fun.



A Cultural-Revolution era slogan that still remains on the wall of a house. It reads, "Use Mao Zedong thought to arm our minds!!"