The day was special for several reasons. The village people open their homes and village once a year to 200-odd curious westerners. They are poor, weathered, communal, dignified, friendly, real, humorous and hospitable. The deal is great - they get paid for putting on food, going about their normal celebrations and to organise the day, and in return get some income, get paid to make loads of spring festival food for the visitors and their own families, meet big-nosed westerners and get to see professional entertainment themselves in the afternoon. As a brief overview, we were greeted mid morning when we arrived by thunderous firecrackers - of course - then two local villages doing their traditional spring festival dances - local people in their own little main road, went to eat lunch with a local family, and then were treated to entertainment in a big courtyard in the afternoon - a magician, a puppet show and general entertainment which felt like the kind of thing that could have gone from place to place in China in the last thousand years.
Like Beijing street vendors sell toffee fruit on sticks; haw fruit, strawberries, grapes, water chestnuts and other things I couldn't identify.
We ate dumplings for lunch in Mr Liu's home. They made us the traditional Spring Festival dumplings, like delicious oversized ravioli, different kinds filled either with herbs and garlic, minced pork, 
or cabbage ginger and peanuts. Here is Mrs Liu, cooking the dumplings.
Randomly, the other special thing that happened was that we met a couple during the day from New York, who we hooked up with that evening before they flew out today to Holland and then London. He's a marketing executive, she's an executive coach. We will be friends, and will see them when they are back in town next.
Like Beijing street vendors sell toffee fruit on sticks; haw fruit, strawberries, grapes, water chestnuts and other things I couldn't identify.
We had lunch with Mr Liu and his family. He makes paper funeral models for a living and makes a maximum of 
RMB1200 a month (about NZ$300). The models take a week to make and look like the biggest pinatas you have ever seen. They are sold to be burned at someone's funeral for good luck in their next life. The model pictured is in his family courtyard and will be used for an old woman who had died the morning we visited the village. Traditionally an additional model is made for women who have died - a cow. It is believed that through various celestial ways, a funeral cow will mean that a woman works less hard in her next life.
RMB1200 a month (about NZ$300). The models take a week to make and look like the biggest pinatas you have ever seen. They are sold to be burned at someone's funeral for good luck in their next life. The model pictured is in his family courtyard and will be used for an old woman who had died the morning we visited the village. Traditionally an additional model is made for women who have died - a cow. It is believed that through various celestial ways, a funeral cow will mean that a woman works less hard in her next life.
We ate dumplings for lunch in Mr Liu's home. They made us the traditional Spring Festival dumplings, like delicious oversized ravioli, different kinds filled either with herbs and garlic, minced pork, or cabbage ginger and peanuts. Here is Mrs Liu, cooking the dumplings.Randomly, the other special thing that happened was that we met a couple during the day from New York, who we hooked up with that evening before they flew out today to Holland and then London. He's a marketing executive, she's an executive coach. We will be friends, and will see them when they are back in town next.
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