The
Weiyanghao Hotel wasn't very busy since winter is the off-season. We
only saw a couple other guests during the five days we stayed there and they
only stayed one or two nights. Mrs. Yuan was more or less solicitous to
us. One day we asked her if we could do some laundry and she offered
to do it for us. We protested but she was firm. She also said that
her husband and partner in the business (whom I called Mr. X) would
be back from Beijing in the evening and she invited us to dinner with the family.
the dinner party . . .
The
dinner was amazing. Apparently Mr. X hadn't come back to Fenghuang alone. There were four related families gathered at the
hotel, one of whom (a bureaucrat from Beijing) spoke excellent
English. He helped me clear up and resolve many of our communication
difficulties. During the course of the wonderful family dinner,
which included a large variety of local dishes laid out on a big round table in the courtyard, Mr. X called the taxi
driver we had previously asked about driving us to Sanjiang and arranged
everything for us.
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| l. to r.--Mrs. Yuan, Mr. X and the Beijing man |
 |
| old woman is the family matriarch |
With
that matter settled the meal was thoroughly relaxing, oiled by a
delicious slightly sweet homemade Chinese liquor with 50% alcohol content and
very friendly and open company. The family were warm and outgoing and
made us feel at home and well fed in the most unpretentious and
natural way. The evening turned out to be one of the highlights of
our trip to China.
a traditional Miao costume . . .
After
a couple hours we went back to our room to get our coats to go out
and see the night lights of the town. When we came back down everyone
was still hanging around the lobby area or in the courtyard sitting
around the dinner table talking quietly. The women were trying on a
traditional Miao (the dominant ethnic minority in Fenghuang) women's
costume and they invited Akiko to try it on as well. Everyone got a
big kick out of it with the men (including me) goofing around and putting on
the decorated headdress.
Fenghuang by night . . .
 |
| old women in traditional Miao dress |
In winter, the
night is the most animated time in Fenghuang. The crowds were much
larger than in the day time. The dreary cloudy sky was obscured; the lighted buildings and music of the clubs and bars make of Fenghuang a
veritable fairyland. It was a mind-blowing high (aided, no doubt, by
the 50% alcohol content liquor flowing through the bloodstream)--a kind of alternate reality.
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| Rainbow Bridge justifying its name |
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| a crescent moon, Venus and the crenelated old town wall |
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