The road to the Dazu Caves
Driving towards the Dazu Caves our driver pulled over at a bend in the road to snap a few photos of a possibly rare crane. Not having much of a clue about flora and fauna I wandered off to look at the tumbledown house on a small rise overlooking the paddyfields.
Needs more than just a coat of paint
Whilst I tried to figure out whether it was derelict a small dog bounded over and half-heartedly barked a couple of times before nuzzling my hand. This caught the attention of the home-owner, who came out of the toilet, buckling his belt. Without washing his hands he came over and put his palm on my shoulder before breaking into a big smile.
“Hello”
“Hello, where are you from?” – It’s a struggle to make out his thick accent.
“Britain, but I live in Beijing” He raises his eyebrows at this. Ducks wander over.
“What are you doing here?”
“My friends are taking photos”
“What of?
“I can’t say”. I don’t know the word for crane. It doesn’t occur to just say a bird.
The others appear and he speaks to them instead
“He says you’re not very good at Chinese.”
I accept that’s true, but judging from the pained look on my Chinese friends faces neither is he.
Still, it’s a refreshing change from the people that fawn over any foreigner who can say “Hello” and “Yes”.
He offers us a tangerine, just picked from his orchard. It’s sweet, juicy and delicious, so we offer to buy a few.
Weighing tangerines
He weighs out a huge pile of tangerines using an ancient balance. 6jin (5lb) of tangerines comes to eight yuan ($1.30, or less than £1). This is incredibly cheap, but I’m not sure we’re going to get through that many.
It must have been heavy
Oranges are not the only fruit
An elderly woman appears, carrying a large wicker basket full of grapefruit slung over her shoulder. She slowly makes her way down the slippery path towards the road. The old man watches this, waits until she’s all the way at the bottom then calls for her to come and sell us the grapefruit. She turns and struggles back up the hill.
I don’t particularly like grapefruit and we’re already in possession of far too many tangerines, but now feel obliged to buy a few. She tells me they’re 20rmb each. This is the opposite of incredibly cheap.
I buy one and give it to the driver. Unexpectedly he whips out a knife and attacks the green fruit, offering me a large slice. I now have to eat it – it’s not as bitter as a yellow grapefruit, but it’s still a struggle to look enthused.
Expensive grapefruit
“Do you want some shi zi?” I have no clue. Nobody knows how to translate this and our phones are out of reception. It’s getting chilly, so I vaguely hope it’s a hot drink.
He points at a yellow plant. “That’s a shi zi”. I vaguely remember seeing them in shops before, but hadn’t bought one. The elderly woman sets off down the hill again and the others follow her to look at a newly arrived bird.
I’d never tried these before
He hands me a shi zi. I don’t know how to eat it. I can see it’s a fruit, but I’m wary about just taking a bite in case the skin is inedible. Also, it’s covered in mud, grit and his unwashed hands.
“I don’t know how to eat it”. He has better things to do than teach foreigners how to eat fruit, so smiles and we part ways.
Later I look it up and find it’s a persimmon. I forget to ask the others, so I still don’t know how to eat it.
We had this experience with the persimmons this fall as well. We had never seen one before and didn’t know the Chinese name, so we looked it up, too. I have heard the word persimmon my whole life but didn’t realize that’s what they looked like! We were hesitant to eat them as well, so we took them home and then sliced them open. Did not eat the skin. My husband ate it, actually, I wasn’t brave enough! I’m not a big fan of grapefruit, either, but here in China I have found I absolutely love their grapefruit-looking fruit (I forget the name) that is large and yellow and does not taste as sour as grapefruit nor as sweet as an orange. It’s like the perfect combination of the two. I love buying fruit from the side of the road here in China, I just like to take it home and clean it first 🙂
Pingback: @RanchodoSol
Pingback: Lisa Niver Rajna (@wesaidgotravel)
Pingback: Ashley Metcalfe (@SyrinxZA)
Pingback: Wendy & Sherry (@Kiboomu)
Pingback: simon falvo (@1step2theleft)
Pingback: @LifebyCynthia
Pingback: Weekly News Digest – 24th to 30th December 2012 « China Heritage Watch
It’s funny, in southern France you see a fair amount of persimmon trees and the trees produce so much (either that, or the owners fail to take the time to pick them) that you see the leaves fall and just a tree of orange (until they all fall, too).
Discovering the local food is one of the best parts of travel. Have you had the official “Sichuan tea”? We accidentally ordered the “tourist tea” which you had to pay for, as opposed to the free tea. At first we were annoyed but it was totally worth it. It was served from a pot with a spout almost a meter long. The server stood a mile away from our table and shot the tea perfectly into our tiny cups. It was so much fun that by the end of the meal we were “accidentally” spilling our tea so he’d have to fill it again.
It’s good stuff. That tea (or the show at least) is really popular with local and domestic tourists at the temple fairs.