… waking up in a blanket of warmth that is not your blanket
yep, it’s starting to feel like summer
開門七件事 (aka “The Seven Necessities”)
- 柴 - firewood
- 米 - grain (rice)
- 油 - oil
- 鹽 - salt
- 醬 - sauce (soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili sauce)
- 醋 - vinegar
- 茶 - tea
They all seem pretty necessary to me!
No wonder why I love Chinese food and life in China so much (beyond being able to learn about my family history and the history of our people that is). This is great … ‘cept I don’t actually like rice … but all food tends to have oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. Haha. Yum. AND TEA! Can’t forget about the tea!
(Stems from the Chinese saying “firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are the seven necessities to being a day”)
What Maisie Knew (2012)
Alexander Skarsgard. Must watch.
(This is actually meant to be good too haha)
Zhang Family Temple, Taxia Village, Nanjing, Fujian (April 20th, 2013)
Most famlies in China have an ancestral temple which is where the family originated from, where many return for pilgrimages (especially once successful) and where people go to pray to their ancestors. At this particular temple (and actually most of the villages in the Nanjing area), there are totems outside of the temples to commemorate important individuals from their families. They are usually topped with a paint brush or a lion, the former for intellectuals and the latter for warriors.
Apparently the Tsai family temple is in Yupu Village, Shishi, Fujian and there is a family-tree book there with my name in it!! I would love to see it, but I told my dad that I would wait until I could take him there for his 60th birthday (he’s never been).
Hakka Tulou III: “Four Dish, One Soup Cluster”, Nanjing, Fujian (April 19th - 20th, 2013)
The infamous “Four Dish, One Soup” cluster of mud houses (said to look like four circular dishes and one pot of soup).
Many people (including myself) ask “but don’t these mud houses ever fall down”? The answer, yes. This photo set also includes a photo of a mud house that fell down (and was never restored). You can also see that the walls often do crack (heck, they are 500-800 years old!) but with regular reparations, the houses tend to withstand the elements thanks to their ingenius design. We are actually in the DRY because the awnings are so big that they protect the walls from the elements.
A lot of the villagers living inside these popular heavy-trafficTulous also make gorgeous oil paintings!
Hakka Tulou II, Nanjing, Fujian (April 19th, - 20th, 3013)
The 700 year old Hakka Tulou (mud house).
All the villages in this area are built along the river. The Hakka Tulous are humongous buildings made of rammed earth, logs (for the roofs) and tiling shingles. Most of them are MASSIVE in size. They used to hold entire villages with each family owning one tall section (usually reaching up to 4 floors). Each family would have a ground floor (usually the kitchen) a second floor (for storage), and one or two upper floors used as living and sleeping space.
As family sizes grew, those with more money would build new buildings outside of the original mud houses (which now surround the traditional mud houses) so they could live in privacy. Many families still live in the mud houses which tourists are allowed to visit. The government pays the villagers with the money that is received through the tourist dollars.Tea is a commodity often sold by the inhabitants of these mud houses (along with souveniers).
The sheer size of these buildings is astounding and amazing.
Hakka Tulou I, Nanjing, Fujian (April 19th - 20th, 2013)
Our hotel. It was an old abandoned deteriorating Hakka Tulou (mud house) which was then purcahsed, restored, and converted into a hotel for our staying pleasure.
Taiwanese Food Street!!!!!, Xiamen, Fujian (April 18th, 2013)
Cheap oysters and mussels galore, black stinky tofu, shaved ice with fruits, fresh squid, Taiwanese sausage and last but not least … “Big Sausage Wrapping Small Sausage” (SAUSAGE INCEPTION!!)
