Every now and then something interesting goes on outside my window. Today the sludge cleaners have arrived. Not sewage, just collected runoff water and mud, but still fairly stinky. The cleaners work in a 5 man team. One guy uses a pick axe to lift out the lid. Another brings over a sludge bucket. A third uses a long bamboo pole with with a sack on the end to scoop out the sludge. The sack has a ring on the bottom, and one guy uses a metal rod to lift the sack up and dump out the contents. Once a bucket is filled, two other guys mount it onto a truck. A fairly clean operation, unless the truck tipped over.

The best place to hangout outside when it's rainy and cold is a hot spring; that or a heated rock slab. A bunch of us did both this weekend in a little city called Wuyi, about 3 hrs drive south of Hangzhou. Like so many places in China, we worked our way through worn out looking streets and found a little oasis amongst all the mess. The hot spring resort had 20+ piping hot pools, each infused with different substances including chinese medicine, coffee, and wine. Afterwards we got massages, wrapped in towels laying on rock slabs that must have been heated with water pipes below. After a month of rain, today the warm sun finally returned. Our timing was perfect.

Last Sunday, after a pleasant walk in the mountains with my dog, I passed by the organic food place in my neighborhood and went to buy some buckwheat noodles. The usually sleepy venue was packed with people, most of them, it turned out, avid environmentalists. In the picture is Mrs. Hu, the store owner (and quickly becoming my personal hero), showing off her trash cans made from trash. She plans to sell them and donate the proceeds to environmental cleanup efforts.

I got into a conversation about trash cleanup. Lots of Chinese throw trash on the ground without a thought. One lady was talking up organizing a group to pick up trash somewhere in Hangzhou. She also runs a big brother big sister like program, and suggested she could bring some of the kids along. Another lady said she had some media contacts and perhaps could make a story out of it.

Mrs. Hu was telling me a story the other day about a foreigner in Western China that started picking up trash himself on the weekends and ended up inspiring more than a thousand people to join him in the process every weekend. Very inspiring to be amidst all the passion.

Here is a ridiculous video I came across. A toddler in Western China smokes an entire cigarette. No good, no good at all.

Ain't our puppy 锤锤 （hammer hammer) a cutie? For more photos check out my friend Iverson's blog.

Yup, the girl in the photo is wearing heels. On my hike up the mountain next to my house this afternoon i saw a handful of ladies doing the same. Style comes first for some I guess. hehe, from their expressions it looked liked they were paying the price. I also saw a few monks walking really slow; very relaxing to watch. As it's Saturday, the path was fairly packed with people.
Orange peels and chewed up sugar cane lined the way, along with a bunch of trash unfortunately. Nearly everyone commented on my dog, who also came along. She's turning into a great friend maker and quite the hiker. The mountain next to my house is called the north peak, but two mountains right next to it are taller so I'm not really sure why it has the name. hehe.

I spent a lot of time looking up last night. I loved watching these ladies set off this lantern. For a while we thought it would veer into a tree and start a fire. At midnight, when the year of the cow officially began, we saw some massive explosions, in the sky and on the ground. You would not believe how long the black cat strands are here. Loads of folks came to our usually sleepy neighborhood to burn incense at the Buddhist temples in the area. The whole event kinda felt like Christmas and New Year's eve wrapped up in one. Roger commented the procession of people reminded him of Christmas mass. Early in the evening I heard little kids in our neighborhood crying because of all the noise, but our little puppy was unphased. I was so proud.