China, which is almost the size of USA, uses one time zone, so when we got up at 7am in Jian Shui, it was not only totally dark outside, even the hotel door was still locked up. We knocked on the office door; a worker who slept inside came out and unlocked the hotel door for us. There was hardly any business opened yet. We found this tiny breakfast place and ordered some rice noodle in spicy soup. It turned out to be really good.

1. Breakfast. Yum!

2. The place where we ate breakfast.

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, drove to Jian Shui train station and took the little sightseeing train to Tuan Shan, an old village nearby.

3. Jian Shui train station.

4. Just outside Jian Shui train station.

5. Sightseeing train to Tuan Shan.

6. The train made 2 quick stops before Tuan Shan. This was the first stop.

7. This was the second stop.

8. Tuan Shan village.

9. Tuan Shan.

10. Tuan Shan.

11. Tuan Shan.

12. Tuan Shan.

13. An old style house in Tuan Shan.

14.

15. Men Shen or door gods on an old door in Tuan Shan.

16. Firecracker flower. We saw them a lot in Yunnan.

17. An old style window in Tuan Shan.

After Tuan Shan, we drove 4 hours to reach Yuan Yang where we watched sunset at Lao Hu Zui (lower left on the map below).

18. Yuan Yang map.

19. Terraced rice fields at Lao Hu Zui.

20. Terraced rice fields at Lao Hu Zui.

21. Terraced rice fields at Lao Hu Zui.

22. Hani (a local ethnic group) woman dresses very different than Han people (the majority of Chinese).

(To be continued)