Dong Ding, Farmer and Tea: This Is What I Did For Tea

When the farmer dumped the leaves into his water kettle, I thought he was very rude, but I followed him to his car anyway. He took us to see a small waterfall and there was a pond of clear water with lush greenery around us. It was beautiful! My son had fun playing in the water and it felt good to stretch after the long car journey to get to Dong Ding mountain. We all seemed to be in a better mood. Nature is magical!

Then Farmer told us to follow him. He wanted to show us one more place. We walked around and started to climb up a hill with very narrow steps. I walked behind the farmer and saw he was just wearing broken plastic slippers, but he made it look so easy. We stopped at a place where we couldn't go any further, with just a steep hill in front of us. Suddenly my friend's voice appeared in my head:  "Shiuwen, when you go visit the Farmer, he will take you to a special place he thinks you should see. It's a very steep hill and I almost died there!" "Oh sh**! THIS IS THAT PLACE," I thought. Farmer turned to us and said, "We will go up there. It's beautiful." I asked, "What's up there?" He said, "Let's go. You will see." My mother said, "I am not climbing up there" and then whispered to me," You shouldn't go. You have a son." I don't blame her. I looked in front of me and all I could see were a very steep dirt hill, a dead tree trunk, and an old rope tied to the trunk. I whispered back to my mother, "Mom, I will be fine. I have tea to buy. Stay here with your grandson."

I turned to the Farmer and said, "My mother and son will wait for us down here. I will go up with you." He seemed to be fine with that. I looked at that dead tree and rope, took a deep breath, and prayed in my mind that the dead tree and the rope would stay exactly where they should.

There was a waterfall and a pond up there. Farmer turned to me and said, "beautiful right? Nobody can see them unless he/she climbes up here." I thanked him and chatted for a bit.  Then we proceeded to climb down. Getting down was much more difficult for me than going up. When my feet touched solid ground again, I was thankful, thinking of my friend and wondering if he had thought, "thank God I didn't die on Dong Ding Mountain!"

Farmer led the way and said, "Let's go back. It's time for tea."

*I wish I could share some photos from this trip. Many of my photos are in a computer that I don't use right now. Some day I will get them out and share them.