We had a very active last weekend here in Jiangyin and the weather was hot and sunny! On Saturday, we traveled less than an hour from Jiangyin to tour the "small" village of Huaxi. The village was founded in 1961 and at that time was only one kilometer in size and contained small thatch hut dwellings, but over the last 50 years has thrived and grown to 60,000 people and now covers 35 kilometers. The "village" is also in the process of building the second largest building in the world which will have a five star hotel and a revolving restaurant on the top. Things are good for the village of Huaxi!
Some other interesting aspects about the village were it contained small scale replicas of the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square complete with a cable car as well as the Sydney Opera house, Statue of Liberty, Arc de Triomphe and several other famous monuments. The homes in this village, fully furnished, are given out to the residents with one small catch- they can't lock the doors and anyone can come in and have a look, which we did.
We had a lovely tour guide who we called Lin. She explained, in very good English, that the people of Huaxi all love the Secretary (Hu Ren Bao) and she toured us through hall after hall with his photos, writings, family photos, etc.... Then, she took us to an auditorium where we had third row seats to hear Hu Ren Bao, the Secretary, give a speech. Karen found his speech very funny, he said he met with the Chairman and the Chairman thanked him not just once which is a formality, but twice which means he was really thankful for his work on the village. He also said people from this village don't need to travel since they have replicas from around the world, but no one has a replica of Huaxi!
On Sunday we had the option of taking a local bus to a temple area in the city that has many small shops with nice traditional gifts. Karen and Anita found the area and were kind enough to work out the bus route and take us all back there. It was very fun bargaining for treasures and some people explored a great Chinese bookstore on the way back.
Later that same evening we all walked to a local Hot Pot restaurant and enjoyed cooking our own meat, fish and vegetables in a delicious broth.
It was a wonderful last weekend here in Jiangyin!
Michelle and Connor Stauffer
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