Downhill to Liancheng

So, I was planning on taking an easy path today down to Quxi, which is only about 25km from Laiyuan, so I didn't really get going until 8:30am. However, when I came out of my hotel, there were the same two girls who knocked on my door the night before! I couldn't believe it - they had probably been waiting there for at least an hour for me to come out. Seriously - they were only like 12 years old. When I asked them what they wanted, they said they just wanted to get to know me........ok....... I'm fine with talking to people and stuff, but it was pretty weird how these girls were doing it, and it just didn't seem really appropriate at all. So I just said that I needed to get ready to go and didn't have the time (which was true). I don't know what it was about Laiyuan - in other places I've gone in the countryside, I naturally tend to draw a crowd, but in Laiyuan it was almost scary. I was happy to leave.

So my plan for the day was to stop at a village called Luosheng which was at the foot of a large mountain, and to spend most of the day hiking up the mountain before continuing on to Quxi and making it there that night. The first part of the road was pretty rough, and similar to the road that I had taken from Zhuguan to Laiyuan. However, it started to go downhill, and it turns out there was a turnoff to go to Luosheng that I missed completely, so my plans were laid awry. The turnoff was where the road turned to pavement (going downhill of course). I was probably so focused on the sight of pavement ahead (my bum is sore from bumpy rocks) that I did not see the turnoff to Luosheng (which was not paved). Anways, I only realized how much elevation I had gained when I began my descent down down and down. It was incredibly exciting, and on the pavement, I went super fast. It was so much fun. On the way down, there was a stunning waterfall, that probably fell over 100 feet - I was surprised that it wasn't listed as an attraction anywhere - it was really quite beautiful. I took pictures, so when I'm eventually able to attach my camera I'll update these posts.

This is the large waterfall that was located on the way from Laiyuan to Quxi - the road I was going down actually passes over the top - I didn't even really notice the waterfall until I got lower - it didn't have much waterflow (probably very seasonal), but it had a really long drop.

Anyways, I made it into Quxi before noon, and decided to continue on to Liancheng, the county seat and a much larger city, which was only 24km farther. Here, I continued my downward descent - I really am amazed at how much elevation I had gained in going up the mountains, because most of these 24 km were fairly steep downhill as well - with one portion looking out over a rather steep gorge - it was quite scenice again. This was along the national highway 205, so it was a much larger road and there was quite a bit more traffic to deal with, but it was quite a fun downhill and I made it into Liancheng by 2pm.

That night, I got a phone call from one of the teacher folk I had met in Wan'an - by a random coincidence, he was in Liancheng as well (he works for Longyan City and goes around helping to set up vocational schools in various townships), so I got to have dinner with them here. At this dinner, I accidentally ended up drinking tea - they had a soup that had beef and some other vegetables in it - and a large quantity of leaves - I didn't think of them as tea leaves, until I finished it all and then I looked at the leaves remaining and I thought- "those look a lot like tea leaves".....so I asked, and yes, they were tea leaves. Oh well. To make matters worse, I really liked it - of course, the soup with tea in it is one of the few Chinese soups that I have actually enjoyed. Oh well. Personally, I think it would be okay to not include tea in the word of wisdom - but I'll keep going with the no tea thing as long as Church leaders keep it in there.