Impressions of China - Yun Meng Mountains   by Audrey Hotchkiss

Today was our day in the mountains. It was a fascinating drive as we got to see more than just the city life of China. As we began seeing the foothills of the mountains, cows and other livestock started appearing along with small houses on the side of the highway. Settings like that set the mood for the day, and this is how urban and developed civilization has cut its way through the most rural and humane places I've ever seen.

The Mother Tree:

When we reached the halfway point, there was a village nestled in the mountain. We went to visit it and learned the story of the Mother Tree. When mothers are pregnant, they take themselves to a prophet of sorts who will tell them whether their child will be a hard one to raise, or an easy one to raise. If the child is prophesized to be a difficult one, the mother is brought to the Mother Tree and has the tree adopt her child so that the spirit may help in raising the child. There is only one Mother Tree out of a handful of villages, so often the children would be adopted by trees in other villages.

Mountain Restaurant:

On the bus ride back we stopped at a small mountain restaurant that cooked only local vegetables of the mountain and fish. Everyone was compelled to go fishing in a concrete pool that the restaurant kept the fish in. They said that we could try to catch our own fish, but if we were not successful then they would catch one for us. There were only a few people who did not go fishing. In fact, no one ended up catching a fish this time. The people at the restaurant caught one for us.

It was pretty scary when they brought the boiled carcass right to our table, because it is rare to see the whole cooked animal in America, save lobsters and such crustaceans. There were these little battered vegetables that had thorns on them. At first we were afraid to eat them, but after we started to indulge on the little morsels we found that they were really good. The thorns didn't even hurt, it was a nice surprise. They were very salty, as well.

About the Author

Audrey Hotchkiss graduated from Massachusetts College of Art in 2006. She is a freelance, portrait and wedding photographer in the Boston area. At 15, she spent two weeks in China with a group of students from Yarmouth High School in Maine. . This is one of her impressions of China. She is associated with chinaglance.com