Rigsby & Miss Jones, Green Road, Miss World, Harmonize Hainan

January 31^st I meant to put this in yesterday but I forgot. Here’s a question for you, how old are your clothes? Yesterday morning as I was putting on my cords (corduroy trousers for those who don’t know) I idly wondered to myself if I could buy another pair here in China. They are very comfortable. Finding the label I saw that they were sold by Marks & Spencer, more searching showed that they were not made in China but made in Turkey. Ask the boss when I bought them I thought. She said Haikou, well wrong there. The best guess from me is sometime before 2006 in Abu Dhabi, probably bought for a part I was playing but I can’t remember which one and I have no photos. Sixteen years is pretty good though and they still fit me. Should I tell you about my tracksuit? That was bought in 1973 before proceeding to Catterick for an upgrading course. The last time I wore that was in another show in 2000, Lucky Sods. What’s your oldest apparel?

We hared off out this morning to try and get to the magic 200km mark. Having been out yesterday we were almost there. Just to please SWMBO we went the Feicui Park way going over Little Island first where we spotted birds.

Lots of people were about this morning, street markets were back in operation too. Masks were still being worn by the majority of snowbirds and certainly being rapidly put on by those who were not wearing them but spotted me coming towards them!

This couple passed us on their motorbike and sidecar, my shouting was not heard unfortunately. One day I’ll flag them down and maybe get a photo of Huan and myself in their places. They may have put the bike on the train to come down, but more than likely they drove all the way. The licence plate said it is from Benxi, a little north of Dalian, so over 3,500 kilometres.

Today Huan was able to climb up to the old cave that has been closed off; she took pictures of the signs and locks. The left sign says to beware of snakes, insects and bats, the right sign warns of CCTV and prohibits breaking and entering.

And here is the photographer extraordinaire!

Reaching the bridge we found many mask-less people, enjoying the fresh air and making memories. It seems making memories with photos is not a good way to do it. At our age, I think it is probably the only way to do it!

This is our little friend who wouldn’t come to me at all last time I was up this way. Today she was happy to come and say hello. It looks like she needs feeding up again.

Her friends were still on the farm steps.

We saw a flower this morning that we don’t think we have seen before. Looking at the Wiki page I think I am glad that I didn’t touch it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucuna_pruriens

And yet more, not quite so easy to name, it seems to have several names and is not originally from SE Asia. However, I think this is correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceiba_pentandra

The ‘silk’ or ‘cotton’ is what spreads the seeds. It is not as easy to spin as either normal silk as we know it or normal cotton. In fact it is not even easy to hold.

On our way back towards home we noticed that the bridge that lost most of its lanterns last week has somehow regained them all this week.

To make sure I got enough distance in I popped around the corner to see a couple of pooch pals, while I was there Huan took this. Can you see why?

And guess who I found round the back of our entrance again, two rather grumpy kitties. The more I see them the more I wonder if they have been dumped. They keep coming back to the same place though so they could live very close by.

Did we manage to reach 200km this month? Yes, yesterday’s walk and then today’s longer one put us enough over the line. Here’s the proof.

February 1st Huan had been called by our old tenant in Sanya; she has a friend who perhaps wants to rent our place. That meant a whirlwind trip for us starting today. I thought we should see what Wuzhishan was like before we left.

Remembering our last visit I took no ‘longs’ with me today and in fact I even wore my shorts to drive down there. It really felt good after weeks of having to ‘overdress’. It felt nice to be in my tropical clothes again and wearing sandals.

Of course there was work to be done in Sanya. My first job was to repair the wardrobe door handle. That was easy; I had found some slightly longer screws in my boxes of bits at home. Next was the kitchen sink, it had a slow drip. I tried my best but could find no way into the insides of the valve so decided to change the tap. In the end I couldn’t do that either.

Our trusty handyman from the store across the street was called and a new tap bought from him. Even he had difficulty but he went back to his store and brought a tool I had never seen before. It was a ‘multifunctional sink wrench’ and it is something that will soon be added to my tool box.

Huan then decided it was time to start filling the walls. Before you nag me, she is better at filling than I am. I had thought she would just do a little but she went crazy doing bits here there and everywhere so I left her to it. I went out and did an Onslow for a while.

This was the view of the bedroom area when I returned.

Nothing else could be done before tomorrow so we popped out for dinner and a walk. Here is our dinner, two supposedly different meals but identical apart from the way the chicken is prepared. Unusually Huan’s is the leg and mine is the other. She only had one bone to contend with!

We kept to the building side of the road today and not the river side, just for a change. This year is the year of the rabbit as I’m sure you know, but this fellow needed some more TLC methinks.

Next we found a bar, much like hotel bars you would see in other countries. A photo was taken, of course, but it was far too blurred to share with you. I also forgot the name of the hotel but I know where it is! The name of the bar is easy; it’s called “Hidden Tavern”. No alcohol was consumed because the bar was not yet open. Our walk continued and we found a real betel nut store, not just a small table and chair at the side of the road. Needless to say we did not partake.

Sanya is chock-a-block full of tourists; this was one of the street markets.

Every time we walk past this particular corner we see a crowd of ladies standing here. They always seem to be waiting for someone else but we’ve never been able to work out why.

And so to bed, with a last look behind us at the street decorations. If you’re curious as to what it says, Huan can tell you (I can’t read it unless it’s typed!). It says beautiful Sanya.

February 2^nd I know not why but I had a really terrible night’s sleep, even Huan didn’t sleep too well. However, it didn’t stop her this morning. I was woken before seven by the sounds of someone sanding the wall in the kitchen area. Cue one rather grumpy old man! We found a new place for breakfast, no new breakfast though.

Back to the flat and back to work, both of sanding and then both of us painting. I did remind Huan that she had told me I would not have to do anything this time around. Our prospective new tenant was coming at midday though so I had to; it was all hands on deck.

Once again we had to finish where we were, we couldn’t do any more layers of paint without waiting for what we had done to dry and there was no time for that. What to do? Well, you know us; it was time for another walk.

Huan took too many photos as usual, and I suppose I did too. Here she took one of me.

While I was taking one of an egret; unfortunately the camera was not with us, only phones.

The sky had turned a little bit overcast but the weather was still much warmer than Wuzhishan.

Both before and after the bridge I had spotted signs buried in the undergrowth. I guess they are historical because they say ‘no anchoring’ and they can’t easily be seen from the river anymore.

Just over the bridge we found a way under it to cross the road. I stood there for a while to see if anyone realised who the ‘star’ was. Huan found it amusing that it says ‘Green Road’ when it is quite obviously red. In this case of course green means environmentally friendly.

We ended up where we had been last time we were here, Beauty Crown, maybe we would be able to continue along the river after all.

Part of the ‘Green Road’ can be lit at night time by these LED lamps which are charged through the daytime by both solar and wind power.

Well we could not follow the walk along the river, it went instead in front of the ‘Beauty Crown’, in front of what we later found were all clubs and bars no longer in use.

Right down at the other end Huan found a green man. I think she is saying “Oh look dear, can you remember when you used to have one of them?”

The ‘Green Road’ can vaguely be seen beyond the fence so it must have continued along the river in the past. Beyond the fence there are now rather large and expensive villas.

We had to head back the way we had come up but we did it by going all the way round Beauty Crown and found the Evergrande Sales Office where we picked up a brochure. I could not stitch the back side but all the apartments are studios or one bedroom.

Some searching on the web when we got back to Wuzhishan explained why, the whole complex used to be a hotel, a very big one. The website has long gone but you know, nothing on the internet ever disappears. https://web.archive.org/web/20150810231945/http://bmgitree.com/en/ Just check it out for the numbers of bars, restaurants, cinemas etc.

They even held Miss World here, although I do believe the 6^th is a misprint.

It seems that the Miss World pageant, (you can’t call it a competition anymore), was held here six times and that the whole complex was built for the first one they hosted in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Beauty_Theatre The last one was as recent as 2015 so what went wrong after that? It would seem that the Evergrande crisis must have had far reaching consequences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergrande_Group

It would appear that the diminutive (she’s not really) Huan is growing!

As you can see, she is a very helpful young lady.

I found more rabbits in need of TLC, the one on the left seems to have eaten too many shrooms!

On the way back home we spotted this sign, which for a change I am showing you not for any mistakes, but because it is a good tourist sign. The Chinese can read it, obviously, the Russians can read the bottom lines and the English speaking world can read the middle lines.

Back at the apartment it wasn’t too long before the prospective tenant(s) arrived. In fact they were not prospective at all, but definitely wanted the place. They were two young ladies, one of whom was doing the renting, perhaps working together because they had come in their lunch break. Once Huan had sorted everything out, remember that she is the Minister of Finance; it was time for lunch, very near where the car was parked.

I’m not quite sure what they are trying to tell us on their signage though. As long as the diners make it I suppose all is fine. (You'll need to click and enlarge.)

Driving back to Wuzhishan, up the mountain roads because I was too tired to risk the highway, my leg felt itchy. I put my left hand down to check and found crusty dried blood. Huan took a picture when we got home. This was caused by her filling tools rubbing my leg while I carried everything to the car. How come I didn’t feel it?

After taking everything home and unpacking it was time to go out for another little walk and to have some dinner. However, I forgot to take pictures of our dinner so you can have a happy Huan instead, before we went to eat.

February 3^rd It was good to sleep in our own bed last night, even though I don’t like the mattress very much. Huan was up before me, as she usually is, I managed to rot away in there until half past nine. No worries, we had no plans for today. Last night I had uploaded all the photos on to the computer so this morning I finished the last two days Blog posts. The rest of the day was spent just browsing, catching up with my email, FB, YT and Yoyo Chinese etc.

February 4^th Last night SWMBO had a little chat with me about not having walked anywhere yesterday and implying that I must walk today. What she didn’t know was that I had already planned to do just that. I also planned to use the phone alarm to be sure. When the alarm went off this morning I heard “So you don’t want to get up then?” Madam is obviously unaware of the snooze facility. After two ten minute snoozes I was up and raring to go. We didn’t have to argue about where we would go today, it’s Saturday, thus market day.

On the way I thought I would take a photo of a child’s seat on a motorbike for you,

And it’s not only babies who ride in style.

You can see that a lot of people are still wearing masks, as we were in fact, but apart from that the market is very much back to normal.

Here is somebody else travelling style although not looking too happy about it.

This next one I had to take a photo of after asking Huan what it really meant. The Google translation is even better! The top line is fine, 公园里, Gōngyuán lǐ, In the park. The next line is more amusing阿陀岭公园里的大人物理想秘境, Ā tuó lǐng gōngyuán lǐ de dàrénwù lǐxiǎng mìjìng, The ideal secret place for big shots in Atuoling Park. We think it may be the place we found on 28^th June last year, so secret that nobody was there!

I think we will leave at that for this morning; we are off to Mauna again this afternoon. Hainan Touch is doing a show tomorrow and this evening we have a rehearsal. Huan told me that it will be live TV, not recorded, it should be fun.

We arrived in Mauna and Huan immediately tried to find a new husband!

Wuzhishan (the mountain) was looking quite creepy today. (PS Excuse the photo quality but some dummy who shall be named, moi, left the camera on the dining room table!)

This view shows what Huan would have seen when she was performing here and I was in the audience underneath the banners. There were no tents at that time. At one stage Huan would have ‘promenaded’ the other side of where the lady in blue is in this photo. She would still have had no chance of picking me out in the audience though.

Here’s another view of the stage area, this time from stage left. As you can see it is a very big area and the ladies had to cover a lot of it. If you look closely you can spot Huan on her way to try and find out where I am and what I’m up to.

A few extra inhabitants have appeared since our last visit, some you may recognise.

Let’s get a closer view of Huan and also me with a few fans.

The rehearsal was not like a dress rehearsal, more like a technical rehearsal. It all went off well enough and we headed off to the hotel. On the way we passed through a field where they were preparing for another show to be held this evening.

After dinner, which you can’t see because my photo was absolutely rubbish, Huan went back to the room and I stayed for a chat with Bill, whose job I can’t quite remember. Huan took a few photos of our room, a little nicer than our previous one.

February 5th Another alarm day, I could quite easily have slept a little longer after my evening with Bill. No worries, we got up without using the ‘snooze’ and before going down to breakfast made sure we had some photos of our balcony view this time.

The weather was not too hot today, the stage was all prepared…

Introductions over and waiting for the off, here I am with Henry and Lara seated, the young presenters of the show, and standing, the also young, Yú fēi ěr, the director.

The first performance today came from an ‘a capella’ group who were absolutely amazing. Huan and I have seen a fair amount of live music in China but this was the first time either of us had seen a group like this. My photo was garbage so this is a screen shot of the actual show.

Topics for today’s show included these tasty treats. They are glutinous rice balls filled with sesame paste, the Li version of beef jerky, traditional three coloured rice, Wuzhishan black tea and on the other table, three different varieties of rice wine.

With every show there’s always a bunch of people who do all the hard work.

Here we have a wide angle view showing the camera crew and the performers, followed by a close up of the latter. I’m just trying to look as if I know what’s going on!

Three more performances by Li people followed and very good they were too. We had the ‘nose flute’, a singer and a singer guitarist. Their names escape me at the moment, but I will add a link to the video when I get it.

And we have two more photos to finish off with, the performers, the hosts and the guest, followed by a group photo including members of the crew. Forgive me for looking like a sack of potatoes, I was dressed well but the chairs were low and difficult.

With special thanks to Hainan Touch and their Harmonize Hainan.

I believe this is the family of the singer/guitarist; at least he was the one who asked for the photo to be taken. I was happy to oblige.

Back at the hotel, something we found a little too late to have fun with, but maybe we’ll correct that mistake at some time in the future.

After a lovely lunch, again courtesy of Hainan Touch, it was time for us to go back home. Due to an abundance of eating yesterday and today, and in my case an abundance of drinking last night, we decided on sandwiches for dinner. That required a quick trip to Baijiahui for some of the makings. Driving out their car park to go home we had to take a photo of this.

February 6^th Two quite weary teddy bears woke up fairly early this morning and jointly decided that a relaxing walk should be the order of the day. Because Huan had to buy the lottery tickets we left via the back gate and then took the road to somewhere. There we discovered that the municipality was back at work and busy planting trees. Here are stages one and two.

And here are three and four.

Whoever is in charge of this knows what they are doing, which types of trees to use, when to plant them and then how to look after them so that they take root and don’t die. They did this in front of our house in late 2020 and the results now are beautiful to look at.

Something else that happens a lot in our little town is digging up roads for various utility pipes. Here you can see where they have excavated the trench and laid a foundation for what will be pipes carrying electricity cables. Doesn’t the sidewall look like a cake.

Further up the road we can see a completed part of the work, all that remains is to resurface the road for vehicle use again. If you look closely you can see a number of plastic pipes, this area may have an underground connection room, I’m not sure yet. Now this of course is not unique, it happens in every urban area in the world. What I have noticed here though is the speed at which this kind of work is done. The workers have all just had a week off but I can guarantee you that it will not be too long before the work is completed.

Now that we are safely ensconced back in our humble abode in our little city in the mountains it is time to wish you all a fond farewell again. Doesn’t time fly? I don’t have the updated link for the weekend’s show but I do have the FB link https://www.facebook.com/watch/HainanTouch/ and the Youtube link https://www.youtube.com/@HainanTouch/videos If you are in a hurry to see the video you can check there, I will include the latest links in next week’s post.

From Huan and I, and from our harmonious home here in Hainan, until the next time, bieeeee!