YUYAO RED BAYBERRY FESTIVAL IN ZHEJIANG, CHINA

One of my students invited me and my collegues to Yuyao red bayberry festival…Yuyao is the land of red bayberries…The second week of June is the official start of Yuyao red bayberry festival and we’re going there to pick our delicious red bayberries…

In this article you’re gonna find:

• Background info on Yuyao
• How to go to Yuyao from Shanghai(SH)?
• The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the world’s third longest trans-oceanic bridge
• Yuyao Red Bayberry Festival
• Lunch at a traditionalChinese restaurant
• The Historic tour at Neolithic Hemudu Culture Site
• Visiting the little village in Yuyao

BACKGROUND INFO ON YUYAO

Yuyao is one of the cities in Zhejiang Province in China. It is between the cities of Ningbo and Hangzhou. It has a population of 1,5million.  As it lies in the subtropical moonson zone, there is no way we could run away from humid this time of the year(June).

The Neulithic Hemudu Culture which is the earliest sites of human civilization was formed in Yuyao about 5000 B.C. Findings at the Hemudu Culture Site showed that the ancestors started to eat wild red bayberries. Why I mentioned red bayberries because Yuyao is the land of the best red bayberries. I am gonna share more interesting stuff about red bayberries once we start picking them.

HOW TO GO TO YUYAO FROM SHANGHAI?

This time you won’t see any train or metro information as my student’s parents will take us with a minivan and here is our route…It will take around 2.5 hours to arrive Yuyao and we’re gonna cross the Hanghzou Bay Bridge, you’ll see why it is one of the important bridges in the world. Stay with me!

THE HANGZHOU BAY BRIDGE, THE WORLD’S 3rd LONGEST BRIDGE

Hangzhou Bay Bridge which connects Haiyan in Jiaxing City and Cixi in Ningbo City,  is currently the world’s 3rd longest trans-oceanic bridge with a length of 36 kilometers . The first longest bridge is Jiaozhou Bay Bridge with a lenght of 42kilometers  in Qingdao, China.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge is not only the third longest bridge but also one of the most important bridges in the world as it stands on one of the most complicated sea environment with one of the three biggest tides on Earth, the affects of thyphoons and the content of the difficult sea soil.

Hanghzou Bay Bridge was designed as an “S” shape considering the pyshology of the drivers. It makes sense when you think of yourself driving straight away  for 36km when you can’t see anything around you other than the road and the fog, so boring! I am’m gonna tell you more about the fog thing in a second.  Besides, the rails of the bridge are in rainbow colors and every color covers 5km which also helps cheer you up.

On top of everything, there is a big environmental issue about the Hangzhou Bay Bridge.  As it connects two of the 10 most developing cities in China, on both sides there are a lot of factories causing the bridge to be surrounded by heavy fog which includes dangerous chemicals for health. Just to give you how heavy the fog can be around the bridge: one time because of the haze, Hangzhou Bay Bridge was closed to traffic for more than 13 hours. You see what kind of fog I am talking about.

The time we were crossing the bridge, I was like “are crossing a river?”…After 10 minutes “are we crossing the sea?”…after40 minutes “are we crossing the ocean? yep and still going…There was a heavy fog that made it difficult to see around…We were going with 80km per hour and with no traffic jam…It was a real long bridge journey…

Let’s keep going.

YUYAO RED BAYBERRY FESTIVAL

Me and Jessica, we’re at the factory of our student’s parents to get our baskets for Yuyao red bayberry festival.

Passing through these people who are getting ready for Yuyao red bayberry festival… The last picture below shows the hill we’re gonna climb up to pick red bayberries…

I am definitely ready with my basket…Here is a typical conversation when I am having my picture taken:

Jessica: Look out! The car is coming!

Evrim: Yeah, first take the picture!!!

Hiking in the hills of  Yuyao red bayberry festival…

Yuyao red bayberry festival rocks with these guys! Here is our group!

The view from the hill…Keep climbing up…

Do you remember “Me in the nature! ” from Mystical Valleys of Xinchang? I laugh out loud when I see my pictures taken in the nature, being so passionate about exploring around like a kid…By the way, can you see the red bayberries?

Here are the lovely ladies with their baskets full of red bayberries…

Red bayberries look so delicious! You’re gonna hear me saying this a lot…

Samuel is showing  the “Yes, we ate two red bayberries, so what?” face, haha…

Already tired, no way?

Nice basket…

Here are my cuties…

The action starts for Yuyao Red Bayberry Festival

Have a look at this tree full of red bayberries!

There are four types of bayberries: red, pink, white and black.

Do you know that the flowers of red bayberry trees bloom at midnight? It’s a pitty that we’re missing a real beauty.

June is the perfect time to pick red bayberries…

What do you think about my alive brooch? Yeah, as you can guess I had no idea he was there, otherwise I wouldn’t be able smile while shouting and running a mile away probably with him still on me…It is hard to get rid of them as they can be really sticky…Still a good combination as he is the same color as my skirt…

According to the famous legend, the beautiful fairy of fruits who married a hunter but was killed by a demon was turned into the red bayberry. She wanted to leave sweetness to people and also wanted people to remember the bitterness of having to be separated from her beloved husband. It is believed that this is the reason why bayberries taste sweet and a little bit sour. That’s a really sad story…

Picking up red bayberries from the branches…

It looks amazing!

OMG! We’re at the heart of red bayberries…A perfect spot for Yuyao red bayberry picking day!

I need to pick more…

Yuyao red bayberry festival is going so good! I loved this place!

Red bayberries make your hands red too…

Here is a lady bug…

They look like flowers so I can do that…

Samuel is having a “are we really here?” moment…

We’re checking the bee picture and surpised by the details my phone caught.

Here is Mr.Bee..

Finished? Noooo, not that early…

Good, keep picking guys…

Everyone is happy to be here…Do you remember this sign from Peaceful Clouds, Yunhe Rice Terraces? It means luck for Chinese people…

“I am confused about from which tree to pick red bayberries, they all look great!”, I definitely agree with you!

The view from the top of the hill…

Look what I found? A ladder!

All happy and baskets are full…

The lady picking the red bayberries from the ground…

The first basket with dark red bayberries belongs to professional fruit pickers and the second one is mine…What is the difference? The darker one is sweeter and the red ones which are mine are definitely sour…I hope they taste sweeter after a couple of days…

He is in the tree break…

The trees full of red bayberries…To be here and not to eat the bayberries is not acceptable…But after we’re done picking and eating, I got a text message from my friend Nancy saying “wash the red bayberries before you eat, cause there are a lot of tiny bugs on them and they are not seen with the naked eye”…I wish I knew it earlier as we already ate tones of them…

It’s time to go back…

Waiting to go to the town to save the red bayberries from milllion bugs dancing on them..

LUNCH AT A TRADITIONAL CHINESE RESTAURANT

We are in a traditional Chinese restaurant which has many rooms for different number of groups of people…

What do you see in the picture?  A lot of leftovers on the table, right? This is a picture from another room. It is also special to Chinese culture. Most wealthy Chinese people order many food and again generally leave most of them on the table. It is a way of showing their life style and generosity. As there are many people waste food at their own will, there are still many people in China who do not have enough food.

I’m going to share with you some insane figures…A study conducted by a Chinese university reveals that the annual amount of food thrown out by restaurants in China is enough to feed 200 million people for a year… Statistics from the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development show that China has 128 million people living on an annual income of less than 2,300 yuan (US$368), a poverty line revised in November, 2011…

It doesn’t matter where we are but it is important for us to understand how our behaviours can put others in a bad situation, even not doing anything about it makes you on the wrong side…Sorry but that’s a harsh fact! When I was a kid, I remember my grandma once told me “you’re not eating your rice? imagine what a kid in Africa would do to get your plate!” this hit me so bad that ever since I eat what I get and if I can’t, I try to take it away and give a homeless person or a kid begging…

Here is our table…Everyone has chop sticks, a small plate, a little soup bowl or you can use it to put food in it and a small glass to drink tea or other beverages.

Here is what my student’s parents order for our group:

Seeing the chicken dish served with its head looks weird for me…

 A special kind of vegetable…

More food is coming…

I couldn’t even take the pictures of all the food we got…The other food on the table…

I gave the sea bug on my plate to Samuel…Look at my plate and Samuel’s plate…I am happy with the potato and fish dish…

After taking away all the leftovers, we are ready to go to Hemudu Culture Site…

A man who has been lost…Have you seen him?

Clothes left to dry outside…

People getting ready for the red bayberry festival…

We’re off  to the Neolithic Hemudu Culture Site…Here is the view along the way…

Ghost buildings..They are all over China…

A chinese covboy woman in flip flops…

Here is the paddle boat that will take us to Neolithic Hemudu Culture Site…

The captain of the paddle-boat…

We’re all on the boat…

Selfie time…

What’s happening over there?

We arrived at Hemudu Culture Site…Pants left to dry on the sign welcomes us…

A lady is sitting in front of the small market …

HISTORIC TOUR AT NEOLITHIC HEMUDU CULTURE SITE

Hemudu Cultural Site Museum reveals the life of a tribe who lived 7000 years ago. This is not the typical museums you’ve seen before…There are some parts that will take you to those old times and keep you there for a while…

During the excavations in 1970s,  a depiction of a legendary bird of prey spreading its wings was discovered…

People visiting Hemudu Cultural Site Museum…

Hemudu people used to live in houses like this…

Red bayberries are on the market…Thanks dear, we have a lot…

The entrance of the museum…

The chart that shows the part of the Neolithic Archaelogical Culture Distribution in China…

The cultural layers of Hemudu Site…

A picture shows the old times….

What would it be like to live in those times?

Animals lived in those times…They are the ancestors of elephants, buffalos, monkeys and deers…

Women collected leaves in the woods with their baskets. Different type of leaves they used while cooking…

Men went to the rice paddy with bone spades on their shoulder.

An animation of the village life…

The Hemudu people’s villages were usually located on a slope of a hill adjacent to water. They lived in pile-dwellings made of posts, beams and wooden planks. They had a sedentary lifestyle, subsisted on rice and fish, paddled around on their canoes, made pottery, weaved and sew their clothes.

Harvesting tools…

The rice fields…

The chaorcoal tempered pottery of the Hemudu culture was made by purposefully mixing charcoaled plant leaves, stems and rice husks into clay. These pottery were hand-made by using coiling techniques.

The discovery of a large number of spindle whorts, weaving shuttles, weving knives and bone needles demonstrates that they were able weave their clothes.

Bone needles, bone weaving knives, weed mat, bone weaving shuttle and bone axis…

The large number of canoe paddles found in Hemudu Culture Site indicates that canoes already became important transportation tools.

I know what you think, but it is not what you think! It is Camealia roots which is a typical evergreen tree in East Asia…

One of the canoe paddles…

Totem was created by ancient humans when they worshipped natural deities. It is usually an animal, plant or other natural things that closely relate to people’s lives. It is believed that Totem has mysterious power. Bird and sun figures are the most frequently portrayed artistic motifs in Hemudu culture, reflecting the Hemudu people’s ideology and feelings.

The butterfly shaped ivory object decorated with two birds facing a sun…

The beauty of ornaments…Crystal rocks and sharp animal teeth were also re-shaped to personal ornaments…

The Hemudu people mixed the sticky translucent liquid from the lacquer tree with the red minerals, and then applied them on the surface of wooden vessels, making endurable and exquisite lacquer wares. This was the beginning of traditional Chinese lacquer ware dyeing techniques.

Bone hairpins…

Eternal Life…The Hemudu people buried their dead in clean cemetery or adjacent to their houses.

Human skulls…

The souvenir shop at the museum…

In China, cyclists can come out from everywhere as you can remember from Peaceful Clouds, Yunhe Rice Terraces .

Waiting for the boat…

Look at the umbrealla for the sun…

People on the boat…

Our communication with the captain works with just one look…Now we’re going…

ONE OF THE LITTLE VILLAGES IN YUYAO

We’re off to one of the villages where my students’ granma lives to give her one of the red bayberry baskets.

People seen in the village…

This is a really old village…

I love this color…

Look what I found while I was walking around the narrow streets of the village…

A cute, cute and cute puppy…

I am barely controlling my reactions… He is such a cute puppy!

This is a hilarious picture! It looks as if I am feeding Jessica and Jessica is feeding the puppy…Probably all I am saying is “can you hold my watermelon slice for a sec?”

I am literally not hearing orseeing anything other than this little puppy…

Eating watermelon in front of an old house…

This was a great day in Yuyao…I had a blast thanks to my student, his parents  and collegues…For the record, the red bayberries I picked tasted better after a couple of days as they got sweeter…

When was the last time you picked fruits from branches instead of buying them at the groceries…Leave your comments on what you think about Yuyao…See you in the next article…