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Shaping is a small village at the northern end of Erhai Lake were a big market is held on Monday. It was Monday so I went to see it.
These tractor-taxis handle the rural transport here as they do everywhere else in China.
Markets are great places to go people watching because everyone is so busy buying or selling that they generally don't notice that you are staring or taking their picture.
It was interesting to watch the people work and go about their business. Once in a while, a traditional costume would add color to the scene.
As far as I could tell from watching this butcher for a while, the Chinese don't care where the meat comes from on the animal but they apparently have a preference for the white fat that we try so hard to avoid eating in North America.
Red hot chillies come in various grades...
I wondered weather these beautifully costumed girls dressed like this every day or only when the boys could see them at the Monday morning market.
I also roamed about the village of Shaping. This was the entrance to one of the more well-to-do residences.
There was no one around so I stepped into the doorway and took this picture of the house.
Here is another part of the village.
I looked into doorways whenever I could because there was nothing to see from the outside. This courtyard evidently belonged to a school and the kids did not mind at all being photographed.
When I looked into this doorway in a poorer part of the village, the people invited me to come into their courtyard. We could communicate only by smiles and gestures but they pulled up a chair and made tea for me.
Then, everyone went about their own business until I finished my tea and left with another round of smiles and friendly gestures. It was a very odd but lovely experience...
On the way back to Dali, I took this shot of a small Bai settlement on Erhei plain.
My Yunnan adventure was coming to an end and I headed back to Kunming by bus on this modern superhighway. It could have been anywhere in North America or Europe.
Next stop, Chiang Mai.
