06Mar Sun -
What are some of the minor luxuries that we as Americans enjoy?
• Do you enjoy having all the water you want from the sink, bathtub, and shower?
• Do you enjoy not having to remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room or leave your home?
• Do you enjoy having electricity any time, all the time, and plenty of it?
• Do you enjoy setting the thermostat to keep the temperature of your home the same all year round? - cooling in the summer and heating in the winter?
• Do enjoy instant hot water and plenty of hot water? On a cold winter’s day do you enjoy a long hot shower or a long hot bath? And you can have one every day!
• Do you enjoy leaving the water running when you shave, brush your teeth, or wash your hands?
• Do you like to use a bath towel one time then toss it in the dirty clothes hamper to be washed?
• Do you like to wear your clothes one time then wash them and dry them?
• Do you enjoy your clothes dryer so you do not need to hang up your clothes to dry on the clothes line?
• What about your car? Do your enjoy hoping in your car any time to drive any where you want; any time you want?
• Do you even think about plumbing pipes, sewer pipes, or electricity wires since they are all hidden and they work most all the time?
• Do you enjoy not having to have a garden to grow food so you will not go hungry?
• Are you glad you do not live like you ancestors on the farm before about 1940?
Americans are very wealthy compared to other peoples of the world. The poor of American are rich and wealthy compared to the poor of any third world country.
EATING TODAY
Chinese eating includes a wide variety of foods. Dinner on Saturday night included duck, a white fish, squid, pork, onions, spinach, bean curd, and two varieties of flat bread plus noodles and vegetables in soup. There was also food that came in a clear block that was from a pig. I am not sure what it was and I did not like it very much. I tasted everything. For lunch the next day, we finished off the duck from the night before, ate Korean sausage served with noodles and green vegetables in a soup.
A young Chinese boy (Grandson & Nephew) of 6 years of age had a plastic model of a futuristic warrior that came in box in many pieces. I helped him put the model together using the direction written in Chinese. I had to follow the pictures since I could not read the written instructions. Later we played Chinese checkers; the name Americans call this game. I am not sure what the Chinese call this game.
I am told it costs about $150 a month for all expenses to live in the Farmhouse. The house is paid for and the Chinese do seem to know the concept of Taxes. The Chinese government owns several profitable businesses including Mobile Phone Communications Company, several banks, transportation companies, and utility companies plus others. I am guessing that these companies, not been sold off by the government, create revenue for the Chinese government to operate and provide services to their citizens. Therefore, taxes on individuals are not needed. Maybe the government collects additional fees from businesses. Individuals do not appear to pay income tax, sales tax, or property tax.
Grocery/Department Store
After the visiting the farmhouse, we walked to an American style grocery store combined with department store in a building 4 stories high. I would call this a “packaged” store because all the food except the produce was in a packaged like an American grocery store. There was a bakery, a deli, and a butcher all behind a counter. It was clean and not meat was stored on the floor. The 2nd floor contained house wares that included large flat screen TVs, air cooling systems, refrigerators, along with clothes washer and dryer combinations. The 3rd and 4th floors were for men’s and women’s clothing.
Antu Apartment
The entrance to the apartment where I am staying is located on an unpaved alleyway off a side street to the major street. It is in a building where the ground floor houses an Internet Bar with many booths with Internet computers. The cost is 3 Yuan per hour or about fifty cents per hour. Internet service for a home or apartment is 60 Yuan per month or $10 USD.
The apartment building is built with nearly 2 feet thick walls; two layers of vertical bricks covered with concrete on the outside and inside. Thick brick walls covered with concrete is a common building technique in Ant U. Water pipes are located inside the brick walls. For about 3 hours each night from 7pm to 10pm the water inside the pipes are heated to provide heat to the tenants of the apartment building during the winter months. This is the only heating system unless a portable electric heater is purchased. Electricity is expensive so supplemental heat was seldom used.
There is no individually controlled heating system and no central air-conditioning system.
Angry Host
The raised platform in the farmhouse is covered by yellow vinyl sheeting. This same vinyl sheeting is used for floor covering in the apartment where I am staying. The sheeting is not completely glued down and the seams in the floor show. There is no carpeting or rugs. The flooring is easily torn and marked. No outside shoes are allowed on the floor. This morning, I started to pull my suitcase with wheels along the floor. Immediately the host started yelling at me. My suitcase may make a mark or worse rip the floor covering. The floor covering cost 2,000 Yuan to replace or about $120 USD. Fortunately, no damage was done.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
05 MAR Sat – A Day at The Farm House
05Mar Sat - The farmer I visited in Antu owns the farmhouse and the small plot of about ¼ acres that it sits on. Land ownership is a sign of wealth but the farmer thinks she is poor.
There is water that runs through a pipe into the farmhouse but no indoor plumbing. About once a day water flows through the pipe and out of a facet into a large ceramic pot that sits on the floor in the kitchen. This water is used for cooking and washing but not for drinking. Drinking water is purchased and delivered from a mountain stream. It is not treated or filtered water.
Electricity is used for the TV, stereo music, and charging mobile phones. There is one light bulb in each room that hangs from the ceiling with exposed plastic covered wiring running across the ceiling and then down the wall with a switch to turn the light on and off. The house was built before electricity was available. The walls are brick and nearly 2 feet thick so running the wires inside the wall would be very difficult. Conduit is not used.
Outside of the house in the front is a stack of straw about 10 feet long, 6 feet high, and 2 feet deep. Also, there is a stack of wood about the same size. The straw is used for kindling to start a fire and the wood for burning. Wood burning fire is used for cooking in the kitchen and heating the two living rooms. In the kitchen is a very large wok about 2 1/2 feet across in diameter. Water from the ceramic pot on the kitchen floor is transferred to the Wok. The water is the Wok is heated as needed for cooking and washing. There is another cooking space above the fire and an electric cooking stove for another Wok for cooking. The back door and front door are opened during cooking to release the smoke from the wood fire.
One of the living areas is heated with wood fire. There is a raised platform of concrete in each of the two living areas. At the end of the raise platform and underneath is a wood fire that provides heat for this room. The raised platform is nearly as large of the room. This platform is used for living, eating, and sleeping. Sometimes it is used as an extension for the kitchen for food preparation. When the food is ready to eat a small round table with short legs is placed on the platform and all the guests and the host sit on the floor around this table to eat.
The walls of the house are very thick, nearly two feet. There are two vertical rows of brick with a space in between. The brick on the inside and outside is covered with a smooth layer of concrete and painted. The windows are covered with plastic sheeting on the inside and the outside. The house felt very well insulated from the freezing cold of the outside. There was a chill in the hallway that was not heated but the heated room was toasty warm.
The toilet is outside. It is Asian style which is very simple to make - simply dig a hole in the ground and place a board on both sides for your feet when squatting. Then squat. When finished take a shovel and cover with a dirt and straw mixture. Periodically someone has to clean out the hole which is not a very pleasant job, I am sure. Fortunately the apartment where I am staying has indoor plumbing and western style toilet seat so I could wait until I was back at the apartment to go.
There is water that runs through a pipe into the farmhouse but no indoor plumbing. About once a day water flows through the pipe and out of a facet into a large ceramic pot that sits on the floor in the kitchen. This water is used for cooking and washing but not for drinking. Drinking water is purchased and delivered from a mountain stream. It is not treated or filtered water.
Electricity is used for the TV, stereo music, and charging mobile phones. There is one light bulb in each room that hangs from the ceiling with exposed plastic covered wiring running across the ceiling and then down the wall with a switch to turn the light on and off. The house was built before electricity was available. The walls are brick and nearly 2 feet thick so running the wires inside the wall would be very difficult. Conduit is not used.
Outside of the house in the front is a stack of straw about 10 feet long, 6 feet high, and 2 feet deep. Also, there is a stack of wood about the same size. The straw is used for kindling to start a fire and the wood for burning. Wood burning fire is used for cooking in the kitchen and heating the two living rooms. In the kitchen is a very large wok about 2 1/2 feet across in diameter. Water from the ceramic pot on the kitchen floor is transferred to the Wok. The water is the Wok is heated as needed for cooking and washing. There is another cooking space above the fire and an electric cooking stove for another Wok for cooking. The back door and front door are opened during cooking to release the smoke from the wood fire.
One of the living areas is heated with wood fire. There is a raised platform of concrete in each of the two living areas. At the end of the raise platform and underneath is a wood fire that provides heat for this room. The raised platform is nearly as large of the room. This platform is used for living, eating, and sleeping. Sometimes it is used as an extension for the kitchen for food preparation. When the food is ready to eat a small round table with short legs is placed on the platform and all the guests and the host sit on the floor around this table to eat.
The walls of the house are very thick, nearly two feet. There are two vertical rows of brick with a space in between. The brick on the inside and outside is covered with a smooth layer of concrete and painted. The windows are covered with plastic sheeting on the inside and the outside. The house felt very well insulated from the freezing cold of the outside. There was a chill in the hallway that was not heated but the heated room was toasty warm.
The toilet is outside. It is Asian style which is very simple to make - simply dig a hole in the ground and place a board on both sides for your feet when squatting. Then squat. When finished take a shovel and cover with a dirt and straw mixture. Periodically someone has to clean out the hole which is not a very pleasant job, I am sure. Fortunately the apartment where I am staying has indoor plumbing and western style toilet seat so I could wait until I was back at the apartment to go.
04MAR Fri – Eating, Slurping, Spitting
04Mar Fri
Spitting and Slurping
Spitting on the street is ok in China. Mostly men spit but some women also spit. I defy anyone to eat long noodles in soup without slurping so slurping is ok.
Eating
I know I have eaten Ox intestines, pig’s ear, and fish eyes. I think but not sure if I eat a bug or worm like a big grub worm. I found out later it was a silkworm. They are sold in the market and they are delicacies for Korean.
The pigs’ ears come raw and cut up. I put them on the fire in the middle of the table. The food was cooked at the table. There are several Korean restaurants in Ant U that offer dog meat on the menu but I passed. We did not eat at any of these restaurants.
Another lazy day… slept late until 8 am.
We walked around Antu. Because of the cold weather the stores hang very large heavy canvas drapes in the doorways to keep out the cold. The glass walls are fogged over and all the store front signs are in Chinese. From the outside I cannot tell if a store is a food market, bar, restaurant, dry cleaning, hardware store, plumbing, pharmacy, dentist, doctor, massage, yoga, spa, beauty shop, barber shop. The bars have a happy Santa Claus face with Merry Christmas pasted on the outside of their window or glass door. I could not find any one who could tell my why a Santa Claus face. Maybe the message is come inside and be happy.
There are blocks and blocks of these store fronts that remind me of store fronts in American before the 1950’s when large department stores were built. The buildings are 3 – 7 stories high with store fronts on the lower level and apartments or offices on the 2nd and 3rd levels. My grandfather owned a tailoring and dry cleaning business in an older section of Wichita just west of the Downtown. This shopping area contained blocks of store front with
The concept of large super market or department store is not part of the Chinese way for their retail industry. They have large indoor market with many indoor vendors selling about everything.
03MAR 2011 THU Buying Computers in Yanji
03Mar 2011 Thu - We woke early at 5:30 am to catch the train to Yanji again. I wanted to stay in bed where it is warm but I have to get up. The trains leave at 6:20 am and at 6:50. The train station is about a 20 minute walk from the apartment.
Again it is freezing cold. I am wearing boots, long underwear under hiking pants, with three layers on top plus a winter coat, two pairs of gloves, stocking cap and wool scarf wrapped around my face. With all these clothes, I am not too cold. However, I see many other people without hat or gloves.
We buy tickets for the train. The cost is 7 Yuan for each person or about $1.25 USD.
We have two objectives – buy computers and open bank account at Agriculture Bank of China (ABC Bank). My host wants to buy a computer for daughter. I also want to open a bank account at the ABC Bank to begin investing in China and the Chinese Yuan.
On the 40 mile trip, we pass several small farming town with about 20 – 50 homes for the families that work in the rice fields during the growing season. They are poorer than the farmer’s home where I had dinner. Smoke is coming from the chimneys since they are burning wood for heat and cooking. It is very cold. We keep our coats on during the train ride.
ABC Bank
No one can speak English in any ABC Bank in Jilin or so I am told. When I go to Beijing I will check with ABC in Beijing.
02Mar 2011 Wed – Antu Market
02Mar 2011 Wed - Today I slept late. I have been on the go waking early every day until today. Today was a lazy day. In the afternoon, I walked the streets of Ant U but it was very cold. I am wearing long underwear under my pants and three layers on top plus winter coat, gloves, scar wrapped around my face, plus Caterpillar stocking cap.
I stopped at an Internet cafe for a couple of hours to send off several emails about the trip to China. It appears the Chinese government does not allow FaceBook or the Google Blog web sites. I wonder what else they do not allow.
I found a Yoga studio but it is for women only. I do not think Yoga is practiced by men in China. When Yoga was originally started in India only men could practice. Women were not allowed. There is an Indian Yoga guru near Beijing who is teaching the local Yoga teachers.
The market is not for a queasy stomach or faint of heart. All the food is in open containers or just laying on the tables and counters. There are pigs hears and bulls heads on the floor. Everything that is editable is available.
I stopped at an Internet cafe for a couple of hours to send off several emails about the trip to China. It appears the Chinese government does not allow FaceBook or the Google Blog web sites. I wonder what else they do not allow.
I found a Yoga studio but it is for women only. I do not think Yoga is practiced by men in China. When Yoga was originally started in India only men could practice. Women were not allowed. There is an Indian Yoga guru near Beijing who is teaching the local Yoga teachers.
The market is not for a queasy stomach or faint of heart. All the food is in open containers or just laying on the tables and counters. There are pigs hears and bulls heads on the floor. Everything that is editable is available.
01Mar 2011 TUE – Yanji Chinese Court
01Mar 2011 TUE - Today, we had to wake up at 5:30 am today to catch a 6am bus for Yanji. One of the people in the group had a civil dispute with a person in Korea which required a court appearance in Chinese Court. The details were sketchy but apparently, a person or company in Korean had promised many people jobs in Korea if they paid a fee. Yanbain is on the border of North Korea and there are many people from Korea living in this section of China. After the fee was paid, the jobs were not forthcoming. I think it was a scam. In order to cancel the contract, individuals had to appear in court. There were about 20 people with the same problem in the court today. This court is set up just to hear these cases. There are 20 – 30 per day.
I volunteered to go along so we took a taxi to the bus station and rode the bus for about an hour to Yanji. It is very different for me to depend on public transportation. Few Chinese people have cars in Jilin so there are many public transportation options – taxi, bus, train, hired driver. Yanji is about 40 – 50 kilometers away from Antu. Living in Atlanta or any other place in the US, it is very easy for Americans to hop into their car and drive 40, 50, 60 miles every day to and from work. Automobile ownership gives Americans great freedom not enjoyed by the peoples of most every other country.
I shopped for a telephone SIM Card but they are only good for calling within China. I could not find one that allowed me to call outside of China. To buy a SIM card in the Arabic countries you have to have a local resident ID or a passport. Not everyone can buy a SIM card. I am not sure what is needed since one of my Chinese friends was going to buy it for me. However, since I would always be with the group and could not call US with the SIM card I decided not to buy one.
Instead I used a phone at a phone booth. The phone booth is a small office inside a large market with one phone. You use the phone then pay the attendant cash for the number of minutes of the call. The cost was 2 Yuan for 2 minutes or $0.15 USD per minute.
We took the train from Yanji back to Antu. The train cost was less than the bus. We sat across from a young couple. The boy was from Korea and the girl was from China. After we arrived back at Antu, we shopped at the market for food to cook for dinner and for hot water heater, tea pot, and tea to drink.
I volunteered to go along so we took a taxi to the bus station and rode the bus for about an hour to Yanji. It is very different for me to depend on public transportation. Few Chinese people have cars in Jilin so there are many public transportation options – taxi, bus, train, hired driver. Yanji is about 40 – 50 kilometers away from Antu. Living in Atlanta or any other place in the US, it is very easy for Americans to hop into their car and drive 40, 50, 60 miles every day to and from work. Automobile ownership gives Americans great freedom not enjoyed by the peoples of most every other country.
I shopped for a telephone SIM Card but they are only good for calling within China. I could not find one that allowed me to call outside of China. To buy a SIM card in the Arabic countries you have to have a local resident ID or a passport. Not everyone can buy a SIM card. I am not sure what is needed since one of my Chinese friends was going to buy it for me. However, since I would always be with the group and could not call US with the SIM card I decided not to buy one.
Instead I used a phone at a phone booth. The phone booth is a small office inside a large market with one phone. You use the phone then pay the attendant cash for the number of minutes of the call. The cost was 2 Yuan for 2 minutes or $0.15 USD per minute.
We took the train from Yanji back to Antu. The train cost was less than the bus. We sat across from a young couple. The boy was from Korea and the girl was from China. After we arrived back at Antu, we shopped at the market for food to cook for dinner and for hot water heater, tea pot, and tea to drink.
28Feb 2011 Sun – Arrived Antu, China; Visited Farmhouse
28Feb Sun - Today I finished the train trip to Ant U and visited a local Farmers house and settled in to the Apartment where I stayed.
Waking Up On the Train to Ant U
When the sun came up I saw it outside the train window – Everywhere – Snow.
Last night on the train, I shared an open compartment of 6 beds – 2 bunk beds three high. The beds were small with just enough room for me. I shared the compartment with three young men in their twenties, an older gentleman in his 60s or 70s, and a woman in her 40s. In the next compartment there were 6 men ranging in age from 20s to 50s. In the compartment on the other side there was a young family with husband wife and 3 year old son plus another women and another man. The car contained beds for 66 people.
There is no privacy. All the while sleeping, I felt and heard the stopping and starting of the train as passengers were dropped off and pick up at stations along the way. The sounds of the train blended in with the snoring and occasional farting of the passengers. The bed felt like sleeping on a piece of plywood. The padding which I would not call a mattress was very thin. To save space I assume.
I awoke at 1am and lay in bed sleeping off and on. Then I awoke at 4am and climbed out of bed. Getting in and out of bed on the ladder at the end was an adventure in itself. Fortunately, I still have flexible and strength to pull myself up and into bed. There was no lower bunk available when I bought my ticket. The lower bunk has more head room, costs more but fills up faster. The top bunk on the third level has less head room, is more difficult to climb in and out of, costs less, and fills up last. I was lucky to get a middle bunk.
There are 11 compartments for 6 people each or 66 people in each car. It reminds me of the scene from Battle Star Galactica where the fighter pilots visited the refuge space ships - many people living a small space. My bed was about 15 square feet and I shared common area of about 20 sq feet with 6 others. I paid more for this extra space. The lower cost cars included only a chair and about 5 or 6 sq feet per person for 24 hours.
At 4am for about an hour I practiced Yoga and meditation in the slender aisle way between the end of the bed and the wall of the train car. I found out later that my Yoga practice woke up the older gentleman in the lower bunk and he was wondering what I was doing. I thought the yoga practice was quieter than the snoring and train noises. But maybe he was the one doing the snoring.
After Yoga, I meditated for about 30 minutes then climbed back to bed for a 2 hour nap. When I say climbed I mean climbed. I had to climb the ladder to get back into my bunk bet. The small chair I am sitting in as I type this diary has no back so I do have to practice sitting up straight and support my spine with my back muscles.
We have a sack full of food – instant noodles, bananas, oranges, chestnuts, and round bread that we bought at street vendors in Beijing. Many of the restaurants and food vendors prepare and cook their food outside even in the winter. I really like the small round bread. It is like Hard Tack prepared for backpacking but softer and tastier. The size of this round bread is somewhat smaller than the palm of my hand.
The sun came up about 6 am. The first town where the train stopped after sunup is Jilinxi. Several passengers disembarked at Jilinxi. Now we have a little more room. But the chair where is seat is as hard as ever and no back for the chair has arrived.
The Farm House
All and all I have had four very good days in China living life. I am living life as local middle class not like rich Chinese citizens. I am not living as an American tourist. In fact, except at the Dentist who caters to Ex Pats, I have seen no Americans or Europeans.
Waking Up On the Train to Ant U
When the sun came up I saw it outside the train window – Everywhere – Snow.
Last night on the train, I shared an open compartment of 6 beds – 2 bunk beds three high. The beds were small with just enough room for me. I shared the compartment with three young men in their twenties, an older gentleman in his 60s or 70s, and a woman in her 40s. In the next compartment there were 6 men ranging in age from 20s to 50s. In the compartment on the other side there was a young family with husband wife and 3 year old son plus another women and another man. The car contained beds for 66 people.
There is no privacy. All the while sleeping, I felt and heard the stopping and starting of the train as passengers were dropped off and pick up at stations along the way. The sounds of the train blended in with the snoring and occasional farting of the passengers. The bed felt like sleeping on a piece of plywood. The padding which I would not call a mattress was very thin. To save space I assume.
I awoke at 1am and lay in bed sleeping off and on. Then I awoke at 4am and climbed out of bed. Getting in and out of bed on the ladder at the end was an adventure in itself. Fortunately, I still have flexible and strength to pull myself up and into bed. There was no lower bunk available when I bought my ticket. The lower bunk has more head room, costs more but fills up faster. The top bunk on the third level has less head room, is more difficult to climb in and out of, costs less, and fills up last. I was lucky to get a middle bunk.
There are 11 compartments for 6 people each or 66 people in each car. It reminds me of the scene from Battle Star Galactica where the fighter pilots visited the refuge space ships - many people living a small space. My bed was about 15 square feet and I shared common area of about 20 sq feet with 6 others. I paid more for this extra space. The lower cost cars included only a chair and about 5 or 6 sq feet per person for 24 hours.
At 4am for about an hour I practiced Yoga and meditation in the slender aisle way between the end of the bed and the wall of the train car. I found out later that my Yoga practice woke up the older gentleman in the lower bunk and he was wondering what I was doing. I thought the yoga practice was quieter than the snoring and train noises. But maybe he was the one doing the snoring.
After Yoga, I meditated for about 30 minutes then climbed back to bed for a 2 hour nap. When I say climbed I mean climbed. I had to climb the ladder to get back into my bunk bet. The small chair I am sitting in as I type this diary has no back so I do have to practice sitting up straight and support my spine with my back muscles.
We have a sack full of food – instant noodles, bananas, oranges, chestnuts, and round bread that we bought at street vendors in Beijing. Many of the restaurants and food vendors prepare and cook their food outside even in the winter. I really like the small round bread. It is like Hard Tack prepared for backpacking but softer and tastier. The size of this round bread is somewhat smaller than the palm of my hand.
The sun came up about 6 am. The first town where the train stopped after sunup is Jilinxi. Several passengers disembarked at Jilinxi. Now we have a little more room. But the chair where is seat is as hard as ever and no back for the chair has arrived.The train arrived in the city Antu, our final destination, about 1PM. I have arranged to stay in a small apartment in this Chinese mountain town. At left is a picture of the Antu train station.
Living in Antu, China
The Apartment
The apartment has a living room, kitchen, toilet, and two bedrooms. It has running water and electricity but no air-conditioning and heating system. There is a shower in the bathroom but no walls around the shower so the entire bathroom becomes the shower. The bathroom has a western style toilet. The bathroom arrangement is very similar to the bathrooms I experienced in India. The apartment heating is similar to a room in a house I rented when I worked for the railroad in Durand, KS. In the middle of the winter in the 1970’s there was no heat, lots of extra heavy blankets, and flannel sheets.
Tonight for dinner I was invited to a local farmer’s house. We shopped at the food market to buy food for dinner. The food market is a very large building with many vendors, much like a large indoor flea market. Even in the midst of winter there were many choices of fresh fruits and vegetables, many types of noodles and bread, everything editable from a cow, pig, bird, or fish including pigs hoofs and fish eyes. There were package goods and bakers making fresh breads and noodles. There were white and brown chicken eggs, blue ducks eggs, and a small spotted egg but no one knew the English name of the bird that laid them.
The farm house where we ate was just on the outskirts of town and walking distance of about 1 kilometer from the apartment. However, we took a taxi because of all the food, The Taxi cost was 5 Yuan or about $0.80 USD.
The farmer’s house was a very old house with no running water indoors. It had one light bulb in each room with exposed wiring. The house is probably very similar to the farm houses in US many years ago before indoor plumbing and electricity. The heating system was very unusual. There were two rooms that were used as a combination living room, dining room, and bed room. Between the two rooms was a hall way that led to the kitchen on the left and another work room on the right. The kitchen included an indoor manual pump for water. Heating was provided by burning wood. Ant U is a mountain town so it is very cold with lots of snow this time of year.
The husband of the house had died last November. The hosts for dinner was the mother, a daughter, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren – on girl 14 and one boy 6 years old. The husbands had taken jobs in the other cities and one as far away as Singapore. Each of the two living/sleeping rooms was primarily a raised platform made of concrete covered with vinyl. After you walked into the room, you took off your outside shoes and put on your indoor shoes. Then you sat on or stepped onto the platform with socks only. Underneath the platform was a smoldering wood fire that heated the rooms. The wood burning stove heated the kitchen.
For dinner, the vegetables were washed and put into bowls in the Kitchen along with the meat and noodles. I offered to help but my offer was vehemently refused. In the living room with a TV and bed, a small short round table was set up. We sat on the floor of the raised platform around the table while the food and a Crock pot like appliance with water inside was plugged in and placed on the table. When the water was hot enough the food was placed in the water for cooking. Also, seasoning was placed in the water. Basically we prepared beef, vegetable, noodle soup with Chinese seasoning at the table for dinner. Also, included was cooked duck and rice wine. All of it was very delicious. Only two people, the 14 year old granddaughter and the daughter, could speak limited English. But I enjoyed every minute.
The houses are very well insulated with thick concrete walls. The cold from outside is not felt on the inside. Only a little heat is needed to take off the chill but it still cool inside. Everyone wears at coat or heavy sweater inside the house and inside the market.
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