This is part six in an ongoing travelogue. The author is a recent college grad, journeying through China for the first time. Experience the sights, smells, people and places of China through her writings.

From the Road: Off the Map Excursions (part 2 of 2)
September 13 , 2004

So, we finished our hotpot lunch and decided it was time to explore. It is such an awesome feeling to be in an off-the-map place where few (if any) tourists visit. Even if we were just wandering around a typical Chinese town, there was still a great degree of adventure to the whole escapade. Thinking of how long it took us to get here, and knowing how much farther we could have gone, I began to re-evaluate my concept of "the ends of the earth." That is where He commanded us to go, and I keep realizing just how far away it is!

As we wandered around the town, we tried a few local specialties, including a candy that tasted just like a Butterfinger candy bar. Who would have thought? It didn't take long before we were on the edge of the town looking into endless rice fields. My companions and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said, "Why not?" Off we went into the fields!

There is a certain art to walking through rice fields. Picture in your mind a Chinese rice field. Remember those small rows of ground that run in between the water-filled rice-covered areas? Yeah, that is where we had to walk. If I stumbled off the 10-inch wide perch, I would have been face first in the crops. Thankfully there was no mud this time of year, but the thought of falling off the path was intimidating. We passed so many people as we walked around…old ladies, old men, traditionally dressed folks, and young people wearing very modern clothes, children going to school, farmers heading back out to their fields. What seemed to me to be "middle of nowhere" rice fields were like community sidewalks in their lives.

We walked for probably 30 minutes, passing many school children along they way. During their 2 hour lunch break, they all go home to their families. That’s a long walk! We eventually came up on a little village of a Chinese minority. They were very hospitable, immediately inviting us into their homes for a meal. Of course, we had already eaten, so we declined. But, they seemed perfectly content for us to just wander around their village.

Because the children in the village were so precious, we wanted to take a picture with them. Unfortunately that was easier said than done. They had never seen a digital camera before, so when we tried to take their picture or pose with them, they ran away squealing like we were playing a game of hide-and-go-seek. Eventually we conquered that language barrier and got them to pose with us.

Deciding we didn't want to overstay our welcome, we said goodbye to the friendly residents and began to walk back to the town. Before we took too many steps, we heard people yelling at us to wait. I turned and started laughing when I saw what was to become another "first" in travel through China. A man was standing there on top of his ox cart, wanting to give us a ride back. Never people to turn down an opportunity to ride on an ox cart, we climbed on board behind the little Chinese man, as the people watching doubled over in laughter.

How on earth do you ride comfortably on an ox cart, you ask? You don't. Let's just say it's not made to transport people, but we managed. We started standing up, the front person hanging onto the driver, the rest of us hanging onto each other in a line. No one on earth has good enough balance to manage riding like that over the 4-foot wide, pot-holed dirt path we were taking. So, we managed to squat down in the cart for what was the longest and most uncomfortable ride of my life.

When we arrived back to the town, we asked to be let off, but our driver wanted to make sure all the residents saw him driving the foreigners around in his ox cart. So, he drove the long way around town back to main street where he let us off. Three hours later, my legs still hadn't recovered, but it was an adventure worth taking.

By this point, we called it a day and began the long journey back to town. Who said life in China was boring?

Until next time....