Excursion to the little tigers hometown
A few days ago the two friends decided to go to a beautiful place called Pengnan, which is the hometown of the little tiger. The flying pig was curious about the place and the little tiger finally agreed with some reluctancy to head southeast. Pengnan is a small dusty city about an hour by bus from Suining, Sichuan (referred as a village by the little tiger, but a village in the glorious country of China, is not really a village in the pig’s opinion, since the population is higher than most cities in Sweden).
Anyways, 40°C and a lot of dust made the two friends dirty and when they finally arrived the flying pig was soaked in sweat. The little tiger’s house was pretty big and had several floors, so many that doctor baba had rented out the two top floors to some other people. So doctor baba is also landlord baba. Landlord is also a Chinese card game, that the black bear, the flying pig and the little prince learnt last summer in Chengdu. This time the flying pig played with the little tiger and her cousin tired tired. For each loss, the looser had to glue some paper to it’s face. Several games later the flying pig had so much paper stuck to his face that he could barely see the cards. He was very lucky that they didn’t use the mao papers to play! Something that is illegal in China except in Macao, but if you peak into the teahouses in Chengdu you can see a lot of maopapers on the card and mahjong tables (note that the flying pig is not accusing the tea house guests for illegal gambling, the money might be for tea. A lot of tea!)
The two days were pretty much uneventful. Except card games, siesta and a few walks nothing really happened. The flying pig met aunt number 5, her husband and their son, as well as aunt number 1’s parents (the little tiger’s grandparents). He also had the privilege to say hello to the great grandpa, a strong fellow at 97 years that made some very noisy sounds after lunch as he tried to make some poo. All with the bathroom door open. Anyways the flying pig was impressed and thought that he looked very much like an old kung fu master with his long with beard and shaved?! head.
The high point of the two days spent in Pengnan was the walks. The first walk was just around the corner, where the flying pig saw some beautiful rice fields, which made the 6 hours sweaty journey all worthwhile in a few seconds. The second walk was to the little tiger’s old high school. The best one in Pengnan. It had its’ own swimming pool, and also a football field (in concrete) and stone ping pong tables. The most fascinating was the entrance which had a red carpet à la Hollywood. It also seems like the gardener was Edward Scissorhands, since somebody had cut the bushes into shapes of horses, elephants and other animals.
Altogether it was an interesting excursion to the “village” of Pengnan. The flying pig is thinking that it might take a while until he sets his foot there again. Next excursion will probably be to his ancestors hometown in a couple of weeks. The flying pig’s mama has told him tales that his ancestors are from a place far far away where there is an enormous Buddha that has his feet in the water. The flying pig is guessing that this has to be Leshan, not more than a few hours by bus from Chengdu. This explains a lot why the flying pig is not so tall, since Sichuan people are a bit short. But this also scares him a bit, since he and the little tiger might actually be relatives. Maybe the pig’s great, great, great, great, great…great grandfather was also the little tiger’s great, great, great, great…great grandfather…
to be continued…
sincerely yours
Fei Zhu, the rice farmer
