Jim came back! He is visiting for a few days. He couldn’t stay away from Kaiping, couldn’t keep away from us.
This morning we finally went to the Chikan farmer’s market! Wah! Finally! I had wanted to go since the beginning of July! And now Tony is finally confident enough in his newly-learned bicycling for us all to go together. He practiced a lot all by himself at Mao’s Granaries during these hot afternoons. And we’re so lucky once again, with Jim as our guide.
Jim, Tony, Shionyi, and I set off at 7:35-ish, and we arrived at Chikan exactly at 8:00! But it took about 25 minutes to find the breakfast place. Once we arrived at the markets, it was so crowded that we had to wind our way through so many people. When Grandpa Deng later asked us how many people were at the markets, Jim replied that it wasn’t even the most people that he’s ever seen at the markets. He’s seen the Chikan farmer’s market even more crowded than today. He said that it can get so crowded that you can’t even walk through the streets! Which is why we had to pay attention to pickpockets. Grandpa Deng said that it’s busy these couple of days for farmers, because everyone is taking advantage of the sun to cut their grains, so if people go early to the market and take care of their business and get home to farm.
We had breakfast at the place a block down from the old church I talked about last time Jim took Sonia and me here. This plate was 2 yuan.
“You won’t have this anymore once Citic (中信) comes along!” Jim reminded us.
There are so many people in Chikan… The latter three images were taken in the same spot, with my phone pointing in three different directions.
We visited the old church with the Mao slogans again, because Tony wanted to see it again and Shionyi hasn’t seen it yet. Tony is interested in studying more of the traces of the cultural revolution in this area. He is really passionate about his home country. Though he studies in America, he is still Chinese, after all.
Jim brought our leftovers from the breakfast place for the dogs. He fed one, and the black one stopped barking! The one that didn’t like sweets kept barking at us. Jim is so prepared.
The last time we were here, I didn’t know that this rundown church was the oldest church in Kaiping. Jim says that he heard Rocky say that a pastor still lives at this church, and even farms here, but I don’t believe it. How could a pastor let the holy architectural body look like this?
Anyways, we went back loaded with some new vegetables for the day’s meals. CJ and Nana are tired of bean sprouts and squash.
Along the road, Tony spotted this interesting sign, which says, “Taking care of girls is taking care of the people’s future.” It’s a public service announcement.
Tom0rrow Tony and I are tagging along with Jim as he heads back to Xinhui.
A summer in Guangdong 