Tales from Putian

I don't think that I will be trying any more "sandwiches" mostly because of the Hamburger incident. I imagine a chicken sandwich would have lots of parts that would not normally be on a Western chicken sandwich. I will say one thing for the Chinese, they do not waste anything. Most of the time I have trouble eating the meats because they have bones in them which I can't seem to get out. My hosts, so far, and Goodman all have elaborate eating techniques that allow them to chew the meat off of the bones and eat it, while being able to spit out the bones. I just end up with a mass of chewy globby stuff that I have to spit out, and then I feel like an idiot. So, for meat eating, I try to eat around the bones, which might make me look a little strange to these people, but I have become adept enough at using the chopsticks that they don't seem to give it a second thought.

So far Fuzhou province has been much more rural a place, though the accommodations are by far the nicest I have had so far, and the internet is the least finicky. After we landed I was excited, though, because the roads leading to and from the airport had farmers walking along them with giant oxen and they were wearing traditional Chinese hats and carrying two buckets from a staff that hangs about their shoulders. I saw many such farmers and lots of land being cultivated for crops and tended by the local people. And the architecture here is more traditional. Lots of pagoda style buildings, shrines, and even traditional remnants in the new building that are being built, such as the roof posts that comes out and sweeps back up for decoration. My only concern so far is that I haven't had a lot of a chance to explore and take pictures, and since we do not have a car of our own, we are at the mercy of our hosts to drive us around. I will try and take some pictures of the local scenery, but from a car, through a dirty window, and with a slow response digital camera, I might not have much to show you!

Here, however, is something interesting.