Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Cute as buttons, every one of them.
Those little Chinese buttons with the Forever Happy symbol on them.

To the east, over the river, through the mountains and a little to the left of Dexing City are the villages of Hua Qiao and Xin Ying and found within are some of the most adorable and happy children I’ve ever been chased around a village by. The first time I visited (or found) the villages they were gathered around the center village stage/square and once they spotted me they screamed, ran to the back of the stage and hid behind their mothers and grandmothers.

After checking out the Ancestral Temple I slowly made my way across the small square and sat to watch the Village Women practice their Drum Dancing.

Slowly, like curious mice the children gathered their strength (in numbers) and quietly crept forward to take a closer look at the other curious creature sitting opposite them. I could hear them discussing my 'big nose’ and strange ‘wide eyes’ after which they began edging forward even further, so I waited until they were at the actual edge of the stage before I told them they had small noses and strange little eyes.

Silence filled the air as they all turned to look at each other, the women broke into a chorus of laughter and when joined by that of the children the village sounded like choir of happiness.

For the following hour they showed me all of the ancient homes and then we stopped to rest at the village store and snacked on tofu sticks, chili tofu and the local cola that was by far much sweeter than Coke has ever been. Somehow me informing them that I was about to leave turned into another hours fun and adventure playing Hide and Seek as they’d grab my bike to stop me from leaving, race off and I’d have to ride around searching for them and once found they’d race back to the village square in fits of laughter awaiting the next game.

I’ve returned to the Eastern Villages Full of Happy Smurfs several times but none of the following came anywhere near to topping that first adventure.

Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by LUSH
The album was ‘Spooky’
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