10th February, 2001.
Dazu Road Very Quiet: People Walking Occasional Car: View Scenery: Sichuan Spicy Fish; Rice Stored In Trees; Children Offered Sweets
August, 1987.
The Dazu road, once we had left Chungking, was a very quiet one with very few lorries or buses, and only the occasional car. There were some cyclists
 but more noticeable was the number of people walking, some distance from any signs of habitation. The Dazu road was almost empty for long stretches of our journey,
but the drivers of coaches, buses or cars seemed to drive with one hand constantly on the horn. Sometimes I was puzzled as to what they had seen to cause them to give such a noisy warning of their approach. If the driver saw someone walking well in front of him, his hand would promptly be put on the horn.
On our journey to Dazu, we stopped at a small town to have lunch in a restaurant, and one of the dishes brought to our table, was a very large fish, looking delicious and attractively garnished, which made me eager to sample the
 cook's handiwork. Using my chop sticks, I picked up a small portion of the flesh together with some of the crispy skin, and placed it in my mouth, then my taste buds exploded ! I'm sure the cook had used all the red hot chillies in the area to prepare the dish, as my small and only portion left me gasping for breath. We were of course in the Province of Sichuan, renowned for its spicy dishes. On the pavement outside some of the houses, shallow bamboo skips were layered with quite small, brilliant red chillies drying in the sun, part of the recent harvest.
The harvest at our next stop was more to my liking. Bundles of unthreshed rice from the paddy fields, stood on the road verges, and some of the harvest was being stored in the branches of trees, looking very much like gigantic nests of
 wasps or bees. Apparently the rice was stored in this way as a protection from mice and rats. The rice harvest was not the only reason for our stop, as nearby a group of the local people were crushing stone. It appeared to be a communal task as men, women and children were at the small site.
 The children came closer to the group to inspect the visiting foreigners but when we offered sweets to them, they declined to accept. It might have been through shyness or a lack of trust of the foreign fellows and what they were offering. Whatever the reason, they were a very happy group of people, and when we were driving away, most of them waved goodbye.
We had seen an aerial view of paddy fields; rice seedlings being handled; rice spread out on roads; rice being stored up in trees, and another view of paddy fields was seen, from a high vantage point on the road near Dazu. It was a well chosen spot, showing many flooded paddy fields in the valley below.
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