Smaller places

In Hebei

Yingwushanzhuaung

Yingwushanzhuaung is a small agricultural village in Hebei, in the mountains about an hour by car from Qinhuangdao, surrounded by crops, including jujube (red date) plantations. I visited with the head of Ocean College and his daughter, who was studying English (in Beijing, I think), just to get out of town for a while.

Wangyushanzhuang

Another village not far from Qinhuangdao. I visited here at least a few times with different students. The main crop around there is cherries, and my main reason for going there was: cherries! – free to pick and eat (though probably not any longer).
There were huge differences in the landscape over the years – what had been a lake became a grazing area for sheep and goats. There was some kind of military installation there – never found out what kind, because civilians were kept out.

First visit, in 2009:

The following year:
Besides drying out the land/river, some monkey business had been added.