Cuandixia

On Sunday I had a date with my friend Lara, my former roommate from Grenoble, to go to a little Ming village named Cuandixia.  We also went with some friends of hers named Serena, Kitty, Mai, and Audrey who are all studying English in Beijing.  As everything here, it took forever to reach; I left my apartment at 5:30 am and we arrived at 9:30!  The bus ride, however, was enjoyable with stunning mountain scenery and a comfy seat.  

We spent about 6 hours in Cuandixia, and really that was enough time, as there was nothing much to do besides walk around and poke our noses into courtyards.  It was very beautiful, relaxing day however and was a peak into the past with ancient housing and temples, fields and wells, and agricultural equipment.

During our time there, we hiked up a little hill to an ancient temple that had older Buddha statues than I have ever seen.  I thought at first they were meant to represent an Emperor, as the style was so different than the average Buddha, but apparently they are just an older line of Buddhas.  (Oops on taking the picture then, I wasn't trying to be disrespectful).  

There are 76 courtyards in the village, and pretty much every house was built around an inner stone courtyard.  Most of the houses advertised themselves as inns, definitely the tourists' affect on the environs.  It felt a bit weird literally walking into people's houses to have a look, but that's what all the other tourists were doing and no one seemed to mind.  We also hiked up the mountain across the road from the village and had a fantastic view of the valley with the surrounding mountains.  Overall it was a very fun, if long, day!