Our most recent adventure..

We went with the Kleins to go river rafting and to see the Tulou buildings at Yunshuiyao. It was a pretty fun day.

I don't have any pictures from going down the river. I don't have a water proof camera. But this was our third time rafting. It was fun. They put you in a two person rubber raft and you sit facing each other. You put on an old orange life jacket and a bright yellow helmet. Then they give you a bamboo pole and send you down the river. It was so much fun. That's why we did it three times.

Then we had a yummy lunch at a hotel in the local town and then we headed out to the Yun shui yao Tulou buildings. This is the third location we been to. It was different from the other two. We had a good time.

And now, pictures:

 Our guide - Selena. She put this whole day together. The rafting was in her home town.

 Driving past the banana farms.

 

The tea farms and the mountains.

 The water wheel on the river.

 An amazing old tree. It's a variety of ficus.

 A rivulet. Very picturesque.

 On the step stones to cross the river. We got there during the last hour of daylight.

 It was a beautiful evening.

 The tea trees right in the middle of the buildings.

 The round building is called a "tulou" building. It literally means earth building.

The entrance.

 

Inside. There was a small Buddhist shrine in the middle.

 This one was four stories tall.

 The rice. When it turns yellow it is ready to harvest.

 Working in the garden.

It really was a great day.  We had lots of fun. We are trying to make the most of our remaining time. My next blog post will be about our trip to Fuzhou.

Zhang Zhou Temple

I don't actually know the name of the temple, but it is the town of Zhang Zhou. We stopped there on our way home from the Tulou buildings. The sun was setting so my pictures aren't all that I hoped, but I did get some good ones.

 This tree is called a ficus macrocopa. It sends down roots from its branches into the ground thus growing into a huge tree. The monks have facilitated some of the roots of this tree.

It was a nice end to our day.

My flea bitten adventure into the wild...

Or as everyone else called it, a trip to another set of Tulou Earth Buildings. This time we went out to the Dadi cluster. It was a beautiful drive to a very large round building. Here are some photos from along the way. 

Our journey had some amazing sights like:

.

 Carrying a bike on a motorcycle.

 Small trucks full of pigs.

 Amazing tea farms.

 Rows and rows of neatly planted and trimmed tea bushes.

 Farmers drying their tea leaves.

 People transporting the tea leaves.

 Nicely dressed people transporting the tea leaves.

And then we arrived. This little woman here kept telling Selena something in the local language so I had no idea what she was saying. She kept pointing to me and then touching her face. Selena told me she kept saying my skin was beautiful. I guess that inability to hold a tan is pretty in China.

 She let us take her picture. Don't mind me, look at the cute little Chinese woman. She was collecting plastic bottles to turn in for money. All the old ladies are doing it.

Here it is. The Big daddy. It has a diameter of about 75 meters.

 Inside.

This is the highest floor. It has this "hidden passage" all along the outside.

Then we headed over the other Tulou near it. On the way we were warned of danger.

 I think. Translation?

And then this was apparently the danger.

 

This is one of the tea "fields" where they are currently harvesting. 

We all know how safe it is to combine water and electricity and they have taken it to heart here.

This is where, when I sat down because I was so blasted tired, and I was bitten repeatedly by fleas. I saw the little black buggers and I think I can now count over 40 bites. They are worse than mosquito bites. I have scratched the top off many of them and they hurt more! Thank goodness for prescription itch cream. I hate fleas.

The paving stones were kind of cool. 

Then we went for lunch. At 2 pm. After most of the restaurants had closed. Selena and the driver found us a little restaurant in the local city and we asked if they would still cook lunch.

 So up the stairs we went to an amazing lunch of 8 or so dishes of traditional Chinese food, many of which I liked.

 I grabbed a picture of the kitchen on our way out. They whipped up those dishes so fast.

Then we one more place to see before the sun set.

 Check back tomorrow....