The Noodle Man of Shangli Ancient Town
The sun was just about to wake up as we carefully negotiated the misty, dark air hanging over the ancient town of Shangli in the Sichuan Province of China.
Two women used crude brooms handmade from twigs to sweep the courtyard before locals and Chinese tourists descended upon the quaint village.
 A few merchants had already wiped the sleep from their eyes and were busy readying their establishments for business. In most cases, that meant removing the wooden planks from the storefronts.
Peaking through the window of one unopened shop, I noticed a group of four men and women sitting around a table playing Mahjong, a popular Chinese tile game. Couldn't tell if they were pulling an all-nighter or were just getting started, but I found it odd to be playing before the sun came up.
The busiest person in the village at this time of day was the Noodle Man. A glow emanated from the opening of his shop and could be seen from far down the mostly vacant plaza.
The Noodle Man, working near his storefront, took the dough of noodle and stretched it by more than three feet. He waved the stringed dough and hit it on the flour-covered cutting board. Amazingly, the dough hung tough, never breaking. The finished product was then submerged into a large boiling pot.
By 7:30 a.m., the plaza was well lit by the sun and the tables inside the noodle restaurant were filled with customers. We were among them. We all ordered a bowl of noodles, but I confess I had trouble eating them. I guess I'm not a morning noodle person.
Unfortunately, they didn't have Raisin Bran.
I opted for a piece of cornbread from a shop across the plaza. The cornbread came in a plastic wrap and was so hot it could have been used as a hand warmer.
The rest of the village began coming to life. Roosters were heard crowing. A man reclined in a chair getting a haircut for the world to see. A man and wife were on the sidewalk beating some kind of vegetable. Root, maybe?
Kids on bikes started to appear, heading toward the nearby school. Several from a photography club set up tripods in an attempt to get the perfect shot of the 300-year-old Two Immortals Bridge.
The bridge is as ancient as the traditional houses made of wood and bamboo.
The village offers plenty of history. It was an important hub for the Silk Road, an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world.
The Silk Road name emanates from the lucrative Chinese trade of silk, which started in the Han Empire around 200 BC.
Shangli was also a stopping point in the 1930s during the Long March, a massive military retreat by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party to evade the pursuit of the Chinese Nationalist Party army.
After the Sichuan earthquake, Shangli's tourism came to a halt, despite the fact the ancient town was undamaged.
But once word spread that Shangli was intact, the Chinese tourists reportedly started showing up in greater numbers than ever before because so many other tourist destinations were closed.
Westerner tourists visit Shangli, too, but you won't see many. Our host said we'd probably be the only two that day. I was glad to have visited this unique village and it's people.
|
