After the Qingyan Ancient City, we went to a city park, which is more of a local hangout than a tourist attraction. However, they did have 4 person cycles, so, of course, we had to rent one! Funny though; the section of park that we were in was separated from the other (larger) part by stairs. Uhhh... people with regular bikes were just carrying their bikes up and down the steps, but our little contraption was too cumbersome to move. So, we rode around in a few loops, with Drew's expert steering, then called it a day with the bike. Probably the only real scam of the trip that we succumbed to.
Isn't this awesome? What a bunch of BAs! I hope I'm still playing ping pong, oops, I'm sorry, table tennis, when I'm their age!
I have to honest; the majority of these amazing pics were taken by our friend Luke. While I'd like to say they're mine, everyone who knows me knows I don't have this much artistic ability in my body. So good job Luke! Also at the park, we saw a community center of sorts where other groups of older women were gathered in groups of four around automatic mahjong tables. They were the coolest tables ever. Imagine Grandma Pat, if there was a table that had a built in card shuffler in the center that would shuffle then deal the correct number of cards to each person. It was just like that, except it was for mahjong tiles!
Also at the park, we saw a community center of sorts where other groups of older women were gathered in groups of four around automatic mahjong tables. They were the coolest tables ever. Imagine Grandma Pat, if there was a table that had a built in card shuffler in the center that would shuffle then deal the correct number of cards to each person. It was just like that, except it was for mahjong tiles! We also walked past another street that was filled the locals eating and playing homemade arcade and fair games! Like the balloon pop made from a piece of plywood, balloons, and darts. And the people were having a blast! Their own Sunday afternoon entertainment!
After the park, we cleaned up at the hotel, then went out to dinner for some hot pot. Hot pot is essentially fondue (without the cheese and chocolate courses), and the broth is the same sour and spicy one as was used in our fish soup the other night. This time, we had lots of veggies, tofu, lamb, and beef to put in there. Delicious! And all of this was only $15 per person.
No, Drew is not growing a soul patch; it's just a funny shadow.
After dinner, we went to the Colorful Guiyang Light Show in downtown Guiyang. Apparently this show is so popular with tourists, they put it on every night! Basically it was a show displaying all of the folk songs and dances from the numerous ethnic minority groups that live in this area.
This guy was walking up a staircase of swords. He had just proven how sharp they were by cutting vegetables on them! Ouch. Maybe one half of the swords were sharp, but the half he walked on were dull? I dunno.
We got such good shots because we were sitting in the front row! Look at all the mainland tourists! Not a single other westerner in there. And they gave us plastic clappy hands to cheer with. Very entertaining.
Half way during the show, they asked for 5 male volunteers to come up onstage and race to see who could get dressed in the traditional costumes fastest. I tried to get Drew up there, but he wasn't game. What the volunteers didn't know was that all of the clothes were XXXXL, so they had to find a way to tie the clothes on appropriately so that they wouldn't fall down as they attempted to replicated a traditional dance. The only other non-Chinese person in the audience was a Pakistani family, and the dad actually won the competition. He was quite hysterical, and deserved to win. However, please look at the older Chinese man on the left. Is he not the cutest older Chinese man you have ever seen in your life? I wanted him to win for that reason alone.
Aren't the traditional costumes crazy? So many colors! And the headdresses are made of silver, or aluminum, something shiny but light. And they had all of these tiny silver beads along their forehead so that they ladies always jingled when they moved. Jing jing jing jing........
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