28.01.09 Skiing in China

We woke up at seven and headed to Yanfeng's wife's relatives to go skiing. There were two cars full of us when we headed for the skiing resort that was about an hours drive away. And when I say full, I really mean full. There about eight people in the other car that was small like my car and six of us in the other.

We drove through some small villages and around the mountains. The mountains looked great, of course, and the villages very rugged. There were cows, mules, pigs and sheep around and most of the time they were not tied. So, the animals would walk around freely and we almost hit one cow, because it ran on the road suddenly. Another thing we saw on the roads was cars with only one wheel in the front. The cars were either small ones like the moped car in Finland, or pickups. They might be good cars, but they do look funny :)

When we drove through a small town, the garbage and littering was seen clearly again. There were piles of garbage on the streets. It almost seems that people just through their garbage bag on the street at a certain place and maybe at some time someone will clean it. At least in restaurants or public places, some times even at homes, it's ok to drop the ashes from your cigarette to the floor and dump the rest of it there also when you are finished. And, for example, a candy wrapper can be just tossed on the floor or road and someone will probably come and clean it.

At the skiing resort, there were three slopes, a flat one, a less flat one and a big one. There were a lot of people new to skiing and one thing is for sure, I would never take my own skis there because, just like other queues in China, they don't exist. So when going to the lift, people queue, in a way, meaning that they try to push people around them and get past people. So basically, all the skis are on top of each other...

After skiing, we stopped at a small town for late lunch. We went to this small place, that looked a little suspicious at first. The place was only one tiny room and probably a kitchen in the back. In front of the door, a guy was baking noodles and there was a coal (or at least so it seamed) heated stove right in front of the door. We ate noodles in soup and the lunch was prepared right in front of our eyes at the door. Although the first look might have scared some people away, the food was very good.