Our extended winter finally came to an end last week, just in time for the Qing Ming Jie holiday. While the name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of spring, it is most commonly known as “Tomb Sweeping Day,” a time for visiting ancestral graves and showing respect for dead relatives.
We took the opportunity to catch the bus and ride up the mountain to a nearby park. Unfortunately, several thousand other people were also riding up to visit family tombs on the mountainside:
We probably could’ve walked up the mountain faster than the bus ride. You’re never alone in China, but on this day, the park was busier than usual:
Even though the park was quite crowded, we were able to find a quiet spot for a game of “Scrabble” (our first in China):
The availability of such a solitary spot is due to a significant cultural difference. While Americans are glad to find a bit of privacy, Chinese people are more comfortable doing everything in a group. They would probably feel too lonely to sit so far away from the crowd.
After Susan won the “Scrabble” game by 2 points (ouch), we walked up to the Flying Tigers Memorial. This monument was erected in 1996 by the Chinese as a tribute to the Americans who flew “over the hump” and helped to defend China against the Japanese invasion:
We had a pleasant afternoon – at least until we stopped to use the restroom on our way out of the park. One of the positives about Chinese toilets is that you don’t need to wipe the seat:
Unfortunately, after using facility similar to this one (but a bit less sanitary), the camera slipped out of the jacket pocket and landed right in the squat pot. It was disgusting, but we wiped it off, wrapped it up, and gave it a thorough scrubbing when we got back home. It still works (mostly).
On Tuesday (the actual Qingming day), we invited a group of students to go hiking with us. It’s always interesting to spend time talking with our students, and we even had a visitor from Kazakhstan this time:
On the mountain top, we stopped at the Miao Gao temple for lunch – a bargain at $11 for our group of 18 people:
Nooo! not the new camera in the squatty potty 🙁
Congrats, mom, on the scrabble win!
I certainly hope you have a waterproof and shockproof camera (the only small cameras I buy anymore). Never thought about how beneficial it could be to have the option of thoroughly cleaning a contaminated camera.
I would have loved to be part of that Scrabble game. Yay, Susan!
Oh, the thought of having to grab a camera out of the public squat pot……….how disgusting! I’m sure Mark will use that in one of his lessons someday! It looked like you were playing a mini version of Scrabble……go Susan!
Is that the travel scrabble outta the camper? Speaking of which, looks like we’ll be taking our nieces camping again this summer. Callaway with bicycles!