Wan Nian Qiao BBQ

On the 28th of October, all of the English department had a staff outing to Wan Nian Qiao, the 10,000 year-old bridge, to have a BBQ.

We rode out there in the back of a truck with everyone piled in - almost all the teachers and about 6 of their kids. It was very cool. I've never ridden in a truck before so was loving it. It didn't half make you aware of the potholes though, sat on those metal wheel arches...




We didn't end up going to the actual bridge, which we had seen on an earlier bike trip with some students, but went to a place called the 'people's village'. This is some kind of open-air recreational resource centre with fishing stands over the river, a boat which you can ride and several small retirement houses which are in the process of being built.

There was also a small cave leading to a tunnel which we could head down and access another fishing spot from. It was pretty interesting.









We all walked up the hillside to a small clearing behind some of the new retirement houses and gathered rocks and wood to make three small campfires. There was a convenient 'table' to set out all the food on and soon we were BBQing away. There were chicken legs, salted meat, cauliflower, tofu, sweetcorn and sweet potatoes which we all began cooking with varying degrees of success...












Burning things is always good fun, so we had a great time. It was nice to spend some quality time with all of the teachers. Normally we only see a few of them in the English Office at any one time, and while we've eaten and drunk with them and sung karaoke, those times have rarely been as enjoyable.

What was great about this trip was that there was no beer!!!




So we ate ( a little), didn't drink, were blinded by smoke, but were merry.












Here our good friend Seven and Mr Yang are tucking in to their nicely done chicken legs.

In addition to the meat, they brought along some cakes, bread and salad dressing. The salad dressing must have been on our behalf. It may have had something to do with the BBQ that we had in Yangshuo, but somewhere along the line our teachers had been informed that westerners like to BBQ and that they must have salad dressing with it. I remember them mentioning it when we were driving to Lanshan for the first time, and we stopped off in Guilin to buy some, but I'd forgotten all about it until this little jar
cropped up at the BBQ.

It's funny what bizarre little cultural traits these people latch on to, most often completely without any reason or justification. The whole world believes that Brits stop what they're doing at 4pm and have tea and scones. Can I ask any Brit if they've ever witnessed this? I certainly haven't. But anyway, salad dressing...

You could tell that this was here purely for our benefit by the way they smeared it over uncooked chicken like a marinade before taking it to the BBQ and ate it on top of cake and bread as if they'd done it all their lives. We couldn't bring ourselves to tell them how wrong they were. It was kinda sweet in a very innocent way.




Having digital cameras (or cameras full-stop) we are often called upon to take many many many photos. Sometimes it's as though they are inviting our cameras out to various occasions with Anthony and I tagging along purely as button-pressing accessories. I don't feel bad about that though. It means I've got a hell of a lot of excellent photos now.

This is a great group shot of all of us. I can't name names. I still don't know some of them (Chinese names are hard!!), but all of the teachers I work most closely with are here, plus a few extra who've become good friends. They're a good
bunch. They look after us well.

After the photo opportunities had passed and all the food had been eaten, we went for a ride on a little boat.

The area through which the river flows is very pretty and this was another highlight to the day, even though most of the time we were occupied taking photos with absolutely everyone.

In the end there were probably one and a half times as many people on board as there were seats, which was a little worrying, especially as
the boat tended to lean from side to side quite severely when going round corners.

The kids had all been kitted out with life-jackets. None of the adults were wearing any. So it just demonstrates how they see us in their eyes when Anthony and I were also asked to wear them.

We are often treated like children here and it's a struggle to make ourselves be seen as competent adults. This was a perfect example. While I appreciate that their hearts are in the right place, it is a little insulting not to be taken for the responsible, capable, experienced adults that we
are.

I mean, seriously... I've been swimming regularly and seriously ever since I can remember. If that boat went down, it would be me pulling them out of that water.

Anyway, needless to say, we didn't wear the life-jackets...












There was a little re-enactment of Titanic with Anthony and Seven, though I think Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were a little better matched height-wise...
















This was our truck! I rode the whole way back stood up behind the cab, feeling the wind in my hair and the bugs on my face. It was great.

A few minutes down the way we stopped to pick up Mr Sui's moped, which had broken down on the way over earlier on. We hauled it onto the back on the truck and had the slightly odd situation where Mr Sui, his son, and Mr Yang were riding on the moped, on the back on the truck. Whatever. It made a great photo.

We stopped along the way for dinner, but it was a
very rushed affair as they all had to be back for a
meeting very soon. It meant that we ate, but again didn't drink any beer!! We each had a pepsi and were the happiest guys alive.

To top it all off, that same weekend we got paid and survived another day without drinking (much) beer. It was bliss.