A trip to the supermarket..

Today was an extra day off.  I got up later than usual and cleaned the flat.  Anna rang and asked if I wanted to onto the supermarket with her at twelve o'clock.  So off we went.  We never got to the supermarket.  Let me explain why.
I have a friend in Beijing whose home town is Tongren which is a big city near here.  Her younger sister still lives in Tongren and she has a friend who owns a hotel in Jiangkou.  Pretty big coincidence given that China is so big! Anyway, I persuaded Anna to come with me to search for the hotel.  It wasn't too difficult to find.  We took the obligatory photos outside as proof we got there and went in.  In my poor Chinese I spoke to the receptionist.   Told her that my friends friend was her boss and showed his WeChat icon.  She then tried to phone him...It didn't look to succesful.  In the meantime we ordered two coffees and a piece of cake.  The receptionist beckoned me over and said something in Chinese.  It sounded like " The boss is coming".  My WeChat pinged and he confirmed that he was coming.  Ten minutes later this guy walked down the stairs.  It was the boss.  Our adventure had begun!
He invited us to drink tea, ushered us outside and gave some orders to his staff.  To cut a long story short, we drank tea for a few hours whilst eating fruit and nuts.  This fruit was absolutely lovely.

It is a kind of peach, but nothing like any peach I had eaten.  It tasted like peach and honey!
We then had more tea, more fruit and nuts, met his sister and her child, and suddenly we were invited to go to Fanjinshen mountain to see the sunset.  Fanjing mountain was unfortunately shrouded in mist, but this is what we saw on the way.

Eventually we came down from our mountain view and back to the car. "Now we are going to eat" announced our friend.  So off we drove to the place we had  been last week.  All the doors and barriers were moved and opened and we drove into a restaurant forecourt.  We were introduced to yet more friends and talked whilst price around us smoked.  Talked some more and others smoked some more.  Whilst we were talking I noticed a white bag on the side.  From time to time the bag appeared to move.  At first I thought it was a lightweight bag blowing in the wind, but it was more than that.  It was a bag with a live chicken inside. Tomorrow's food!  Fresh!

We then had an excellent meal.  Meat, fish, tofu and veg to name but a few.  So we ate and talked and drank baijiu (literally translated as white spirit  but actually actually a sort of Schnapps/vodka). 

Eventually we went back to our flats, tired, fun and amazed.  Amazed at everything,the friendship, the hospitality and China in general.  Oh and the big box of cakes, from the mother of my friend in Beijing, via her daughter and eventually by our hotel friend he is the guy on the right.

Too many Cakes!  The box weighed about two kilos!  Thanks Ming for carrying it on the plane from Beijing!