Market Day

Times are changing, changing, changing. Some of us remember what China was like before the big changes, yet now we can see clearly that Change is going to win. The old ways will be gone, and probably very soon.

West of Xiaozhushan and east of (the former) Jiaonan lies a region of villages which are very less-touched by the changes. What happens is that an investment group moves in, tears down the villages, and builds apartment buildings in their place. Once that happens, the new culture more-or-less replaces the old culture.

In these photos we see a market day. This old (ancient?) market tradition still goes on… out in the hills and valleys beyond the pulse of the modern world. People who have been living here for many years remember when these would happen seemingly eveywhere all the time. Actually, they happen in each village area about once every 6 days. (Or maybe it’s every 5 days.)

This market is right at the place where Yinzhu meets Lingshanwei. Of course, with the government’s new naming scheme, it’s all Lingshanwei.

Interestingly, notice the small mountain in the background of the first photo below. It is a small cone of pure rock. And absolutely fascinatingly, there are some amazing tunnels in the rock. Indeed, all of the mountains in Qingdao seem to have tunnels. Most people seem to agree that they were all built by the Chinese military during the 1900’s. However, I doubt this.

They were certainly USED by the military during that time (some have many rooms with windows and doors and bathrooms and inner-tunnnel water-collecting reservoirs). This one, however, does not seem to have any useful intention.

Around that cone of rock are six entrances to the tunnel. The tunnel inside is a complete circle inside the little mountain. Then…. there is a stairwell… which descends to another circular tunnel. So inside that mountain are two levels of circular tunnels. I have looked at them and looked at them and I cannot imagine any useful use for them. Even from a military standpoint, I cannot see any value.

My guess is that they come from an old time, maybe 1,500 years ago, and they were built by people who believed in some ancient religious cosmology. Maybe it was some ancient yin-yang belief. Who knows. But… there certainly are enough ancient tunnels around China and Shandong to support the idea that the ancients
were tunnel builders.

And this one is right next to the market.

Relevant Links:
Gars on QINGDAO(nese)