A morning in Jianzizhen

With nothing much to do apart from wait for the courier to deliver my box, I took a walk around town yesterday morning and confirmed by their absence, and the reaction of locals, that not too many people who look like me live in or pass through the town of Jianzizhen. 

According to Baike, China's version Wikipedia, the town has a population of 180,000, covers 15 square km, is located "on the shore of the famous Jiazi Fishing Port...,[and] is the most developed industrial area of ​​Shanwei City" (of which it is an administrative unit). According to data from 2010, fishing accounted for a quarter of Jianzizhen GDP.  I personally did not see any large factories, but as I was on foot I covered only a limited area of the town in 2-3 hours. 

Consulting Baidu Maps, I headed to a nearby temple and stopped to inspect shops selling religious paraphernalia. At one such business, a girl holding a rabbit opened a conversation in English and asked for the requisite photo.  She was home for the weekend visiting family, a first year student at a boarding high school an hour's bus ride from Jianzizhen.  

Funeral

I carried on walking through the town attracting stares and double takes. I waved and smiled when possible.  I came across what seemed like a large funeral procession.  I was later told it was a customary size for town funerals.

To my surprise, I found a shop serving coffee, though it turned out to be one of those places that make tea cocktails. Same with the coffee. It was more like coffee flavored milk.  I found a tobacco retailer who had a lovely display of cigarette packets, but when I raised my camera to take a photo, I was told off by a middle-aged man.  Then I was told off again by what I assume was the wife.  I pleaded for a photo and an old man came out to see what was going on.  He didn't say anything, but indicated I could take a photo.

I came across a couple more temples.  Outside of one, three girls on scooters stopped to make conversation.  Their English wasn't that great, and my Chinese is worse, so we very shortly said goodbye. But not for long. A few blocks later, I ran into them again.  And this time they seemed better prepared. In fact, they asked if I would like to come to their home and have something to eat.  

Well, of course I would. So, off we went, me riding on the back of one of their scooters.

Four of five sisters

The girls, it turns out, were sisters, six siblings in all, five girls and one boy. The male was the last born, a long-awaited birth that put an end to that family's reproductive cycle. As they live in a place like Jianzizhen, there were no government restrictions on the number of births per family. 

As often happens, my age was mistaken.  The girls guessed 40.  They were shocked to find that I was a year older than their mother.  (Father, it seems, passed away last year.)  But they didn't ask me to leave. They asked instead if I wanted something to eat and left off on scooters to buy some take-away, which turned out to be boxes of dumplings and bowls of noodles. Their home was in fact a storefront selling shoes and we retired to the interior for our meal. 

The dining room seemed to make up the bottom floor of the building, with bedrooms upstairs.  A space was cleared to set up a folding dining table.  One of the sisters is getting married this week and the room was filled with items comprising her dowry:  a washing machine, linens, blankets, dishes, furniture.  

After lunch and plenty of photo taking, three of the sisters took me out to the town's boardwalk, not made of boards at all but running next to the river that flows out into the ocean.  Apparently this is a popular spot for strolling and is lined on the opposite side with bars and karaoke shops.  It all looked rather sad and decrepit, though.  

And that was the end of my tour but not my last sight of these girls.  They had to do some chores related to preparing for the wedding, so they rode me back to my hotel on their bikes and we said our farewells, but not before exchanging Wechat connections.  Later in the day one of them messaged me and asked if I liked desserts and when I said, Of course, one of them brought over a bag of pastries, surfeit from the wedding celebrations.  

It turned out to be a surprising beautiful day in a small town where I expected  not very much to happen.  At one point during our meal one of the girls asked about travelling alone and I noted that if I had been with someone, the girls probably wouldn't have tried to talk to me. They seemed to agree.

I also told them that because of their great kindness, I will always remember Jianzizhen fondly.  

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