. . . spring is here!!!
The northern China weather teased us with hints of spring for nearly three months. In early February, the temperatures rose, the rivers thawed, and some desert shrubs blossomed; then in early March a cold snap hit and we had two weeks of snow and sub-zero temperatures. In late March we had another thaw; early April brought freezing 50 kilometre per hour winds and more snow.
But in the last week of April, we descended from the high mountains around Zhangjiakou and walked down into spring. This time, it was here to stay.
Blossoms covering the hillside
After weeks of sporadically fertilising and plowing their fields, suddenly people were in the fields from sunup to sundown, planting corn and potatoes in the uplands and garden vegetables at lower elevations.
Like many farm couples, Mr Zhuang and his wife work the fields together
But only the husband gets to do the fun part
Mr Zhuang’s harrow is made of twigs wrapped around larger twigs
With the weather warming up, people were also outside just for the fun of it, cutting blossoms, riding bikes, eating, drinking and gossiping.
This girl gave each of us a beautiful sprig of cherry blossoms before riding off without giving her name
Tree-lined streets, even in the countryside
If you can call it fun, some people were out walking the wall.
Hi guys
im so jealous of the flowers and colour, one thing that really depressed us on our walk was that, apart from snow, we saw nothing other than brown for 6 months. We are suddenly getting a surge of press coverage in the UK, and on our new website (address still http://www.primaljourney.com) within the Great Wall trip section we have written a little about your journey and incredible images with a link to increase your follows. I hope this is ok with you, obviously we will remove it if not.
you must have passed Jiakiou (cant remember how its spelt) would love to know if it left you stunned as it did us.
keep batteling,
with you all the way
Katie and Tarka
Hi guys! 2621km. Amazing. Just watch a documentary on the Long March and read about Andy, Ed and YX. You guys are all awe inspiring.
Tim
Katie – we can’t tell you how good it was to start seeing colour after so many months of the brown you mentioned. When we saw our first blossoms we couldn’t keep our eyes off them, even though it meant taking a few stumbles while we weren’t looking ahead of us. The green of the new spring leaves was like the brightest green we’ve ever seen because our eyes had been so deprived of colour.
Tim – Those Long March guys are pretty awe-inspiring. Imagine going back for a Great Wall 2 like they did, going back for a Long March 2. I don’t think I could do it. BTW, our Slogans for Andy section is written for Long March hiker Andy McEwen who gave us some great words of encouragement before we left Beijing.
Nice photo of ‘the husband’ behind the horse! You should send the photo in to “Top Gear” or the motoring section of SMH (or maybe Gardening Australia?)
Sanjay