Lakeside Wall - Huanghuacheng

"Daddy, there is a woman with a scythe down there asking us for money, what should we do?"

"A what," I said

"A scythe."

"A what?"

"A scythe, you know a stick with a curved knife on the end."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Alright, you stay here, I'll check it out."

Yep, she wanted 2 yuan per person to pass through her land.  The scythe as it turned out was just that, a scythe.  I am not sure if I was more interested in the fact that our boys who had wandered on ahead down the mountain path, had actualy encountered a woman holding a scythe, or that they actually knew what a scythe was, identified this tool as such and came back and used the term correctly.

She sat on a stone with a sign,  appearing to be in her 80s, weathered, holding her scythe.  At this point I realized it was not to scare elementary schoolers, but instead to reap the tree fruit which hung all along this mountainside.

We paid her and continued down the path from our journey to Huanghuacheng, or Lakeside Wall as driver Tom had pitched it to us.  We had been to the touristy Mutiyanu as one of our first ventures outside of our compound and into "real" China, but this trip was a totally different experience, and one of my favorite places I've ever been in my life.

The terrain was tough; we had pay various taxes to the landowners around the wall to gain access; moreover, on our climb up, the locals were shooting M80 firecrackers off, and for a few moments, I thought we were being shot at, I think Joanne and Granny did too.  We had to climb an old iron ladder to a window of a guard post to enter the wall, and some of the footing was extremely challenging in places.  But man, when I got on top of that wall, I felt like I was on top of the world!