Meeting Some Very Honest People in CHUXIONG, China

We learned that we were in Chuxiong just in time for the annual Fire Festival, therefore we decided to extend our stay from a day to three days so that we could participate or join in the fun festivities. We moved into the next hotel which was right inside the old town, how convenient was that! After breakfast, we went to the train station and have our tickets refunded and purchased new ones to Kunming. J. wanted to pick a random village to visit in order to experience the real rural life of the farmers in China. So we did.

We went to this village randomly picked out by us. We walked around the small village with just a few houses, bought a snack at the only convenience store and then visited the roadside market with fresh produces being laid out on the ground sold by the local farmers themselves. We saw some nice pears and asked them how much, replied the farmer:" 3 kgs for 10 yuens!" Unbelievable price! Since we were travelling, we didn’t want to carry a heavy bag of fresh fruits so we dropped off 10 yuens and took about 2 kg of pears.

But the farmer insisted that we took the full 3 kg weight before letting us go. How honest was this person? We were willing to pay full price for less but he would not allow that. He must sell us the full weight of what we paid for! We tried to have an early dinner by 5 or 6 pm so that we would not go to bed with a full stomach. We picked a restaurant close by a small river flowing through the old town and had our dinner there. We learned that there were a few programs planned for the Fire Festival in Chuxiong. But in order to control the crowds, some of the activities charged an admission. Tonight the celebration at the Old Town charged 150 yuens, but for me and Stan, it was free as we are seniors. There were singing, dancing, fire swallowing performances as well as the MC inviting participants to join in the fire walk around the stage they set up in the Yi Village. I learned that the Yi people worship the fire God so I didn’t want to go forward and danced with them. We stayed on the side and watched the performaces for a bit and soaked up the atmosphere. RT, CHUXIONG, CHINA 08092023