Most of our time indoors during the visit to Changyucheng Village was spent making dumplings and then eating them, along with lots of other food, for lunch. We did all this in the house described in the previous blog post. That was the first stop in our tour.The photo shows several members of our group watching—the three people on the right are Filipinos—one of the locals demonstrate the art of making dumplings (包饺子). This lady is doing the first stage of making the dumpling, namely rolling the wrappers (来擀皮儿). I have to say, this gal was a real pro (饺子能手) when it came to making dumplings!
After the wrappers were rolled and cut up into individual dumpling sizes, it was out turn to participate in the dumpling making. We got to stuff the stuff the wrappers and then close them. You do this by first spreading the wrapping on your hand, then put in the filling, and lastly fold the wrapper over the filling and then tightly pinch the edges. Or, as the Chinese would say, “先把皮儿摊在手上, 然后放陷儿, 再把边儿捏紧”.
Like everything else in the Spring Festival celebrations, eating dumplings has lots of symbolism. Dumplings, or to use the Chinese word, Jiao(3)zi(5) (饺子), are shaped like the gold (金) and silver (银) ingots that were used as money in ancient China. Thus making dumplings both symbolizes and is supposed to bring families prosperity (富足) and good luck (福气).
Indeed, making dumplings is the first thing families usually do after the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, or the so-called “Broken Five” (破五) Festival. Our guide, Hong Gao, told us that during the first five days of the Spring Festival, families are supposed to observe some rather strict rules. Women can't visit their parents, children shouldn't cry, no one should utter inauspicious words, and neighbors aren't supposed to quarrel. It's also forbidden to break any tools or furniture, see a doctor, do needlework, use scissors, or sweep the floor. And one is not allowed to eat thin porridge for breakfast (that's one don't I could comply with!!).
However, on the fifth day of the Spring Festival, all these rules can finally be broken. In addition to feasting on dumplings, people remove the offerings placed on the household alters for deceased ancestors (ancestor worship remains quite strong here). Other normal tasks, such as doing business, can also be resumed after the five day Spring Festival hiatus.
There are three basic kinds of dumplings in China: boiled (水饺), steamed (蒸饺), and ones that are fried in a skillet (锅贴). English speakers call the third kind of dumpling “pot stickers”, and that's what the Chinese call them as well: “锅” (guo3) means “pot” or “skillet” while “帖” (tie1) is the word for “stick.”
I prefer the “锅贴” dumplings; however, “水饺” dumplings are what people here usually eat during the Spring Festival and that's what we had for lunch. These dumplings came with the two most commonly used fillings, namely pork (猪肉) and greens (青菜). Of course there are many other kinds of fillings put into dumplings. These include chicken (鸡肉), mutton (羊肉), shrimp (小虾), and mushrooms (蘑菇).
The meal also included chicken, fresh greens and vegetables (蔬菜), tofu (豆腐), toasted almonds (烤杏仁), rice (米饭), potatoes (土豆), noodles (面), and quite possibly some other dishes I've forgotten about. Since this house didn't have a kitchen, the food was prepared somewhere else and brought in through the front door (前门).
Hong Gao told us that all of the food served for lunch was grown in the village. I mentioned the almond trees (杏树) in earlier post and could see how this place would have them. And there were plenty chicken coops in the village. However, I didn't notice any greenhouses (花房), which would have been the only place where vegetables could be grown in the winter, during our stroll about this place. Perhaps they were located somewhere outside of the village.
The comment about the food made it clear that the people of Changyucheng Village are largely self-sufficient when it comes to food. I'm certain this is as much a matter of necessity as it is of choice. After we left the western outskirts of Beijing, it took us some 90 minutes to reach the village. During that time, we didn't pass through large any towns, so there are probably no big stores within easy driving distance from Changyucheng Village. And very few, if any, of its residents have access to a car or some other kind of vehicle.
This isolation really distinguishes these people from their counterparts in North America. Even people who live way out in the sticks in Wyoming and Montana can hop in their car or, in the case of many of these folks, pickup truck, and drive themselves into the nearest town or city of any size.
To be sure, it might take them several hours to do this. But they can at least go on their own to the nearest big supermarket and store to stock up on food and other necessities. I suspect someone periodically drives a vehicle to a store at the edge of Beijing or over to Changping—also more than hour away from Changyucheng Village—to pick up stuff such as toilet paper, hardware, and the like.
We did our stroll through the village after finishing lunch. Along the way, we met a few more of the local people. One of them is the elderly fellow in the photo below. We were told that this senior (老年人) is 84 years old. Hong Gao, our tour guide, is on the left side of the picture, while the lady on the right side, whose English name is Cathy, works for Hong Kong Government's office in Beijing.
The building on the right of the photo is this old fellow's house. If you look hard, you can see a small dog standing at the base of the wall. This spot in the wall had a small hole, and the dog kept going in and out of the house through that hole. As the Chinese would say, this little canine friend (狗) was 很可爱!As this post and the previous posts have made clear, the people of Changyucheng are not at all affluent. But this didn't prevent them from being incredibly welcoming and generous hosts for our little group. Their hospitality (好客) will go down as one of many highlights in my China adventure.
The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.
包饺子 (bao1jiao3zi5). The verb “包” means to “stuff” or “package” (this character also is the noun “package” and “bag”). Since making 饺子 mainly involves stuffing different kinds of filling into the wrapping, Mandarin speakers use this verb rather than “make”, or 做 (zuo4).
来擀皮儿 (lai2gan3pi2er5). In addition to “wrapping,” “皮” has several other meanings, including human “skin” (皮肤; pi2fu1) and the “leather” in “leather bag” (皮包)
饺子能手 (jiao3zi5neng2shou3). “能手” literally means “capable hands”, and is used to refer not just to people who are able to work with their hands, but who are also good at everyday chores. People who are skilled at doing more specialized tasks are called a “高手” (gao1shou3), which literally means “high (高) hand (手)”. It's customarily translated as “master.” So a chess master is a “国际象棋高手” (guo2ji4xiang4qi2); “国际象棋” is the Mandarin word for western or “international” (国际) chess. Chinese chess is “中国象棋” (zhong1gu2xiang4qi2). As noted in a very recent post, 中国 means “China”, or “Middle (中) Kingdom (国)”.
先把皮儿摊在手上, 然后放馅儿, 再把边捏紧 (xian1ba3pi2er5tan1zai5shou3shang4, ran2hou4fang4xian4er, zai4ba3bian1nie1jin3). “先” means “first,” while “把” is a particle emphasizing the noun it precedes, in this case “皮儿”. It has no equivalent in English—it would be like saying “First, especially the wrapper …,” and of course we don’t say it that way. Since there are no hard and fast rules about its use, we loawai have a hard time knowing when to say it. Native Mandarin speakers, of course, know instinctively when to do so. “摊” means to “spread out,” while “在手上” means “on (在 and 上) the hand (手).” “然后” is “then” and “放馅儿” is “stick into.” “再” is the word for “then” when you do one action, as in these dumpling making steps, right after another action. And “边捏紧” means “pinch (捏) edges (边) tightly (紧).”
金 (jin1). For those who are wondering, a “gold medal” is a 金牌 (jin1pai2); “牌”, of course, is the word for “medal”.
银 (yin2). Since historically the Chinese used silver coins, the character “银” is in the Chinese word for “bank”, “银行”.
富足 (fu4zu2).
福气 (fu2qi4).
破五 (po4wu3). “破” is the word for “break” or “smash”, while “五” means “five”.
水饺 (shui3jiao3). “水” is the character for “water.”
蒸饺 (zheng1jiao3). And “蒸”, of course, means “steamed.”
猪肉 (zhu1rou4). “猪” means “pig,” while “肉” means “meat,” so together they mean “pork.”
青菜 (qing1cai4).
羊肉 (yang2rou4). The same logic applies with “mutton” as it does with “pork.” Mandarin combines the character for “sheep” (羊) with “meat” (肉).
小虾 (xiao3xia1).
蘑菇 (mo2gu1).
蔬菜 (shu1cai4).
豆腐 (dou4fu5).
烤杏仁 (kao3xing4ren2).
米饭 (mi3fan4). The second character refers to cooked food, so 米饭 really means “cooked rice.”
土豆 (tu3dou4). “土” means “soil” or “earth”, while “豆” is the word for “bean.”
面 (mian4).
前门 (mian2men2). “前” means “before” or “in front of,” while “门” is the word for “door” and “gate.” The latter character actually looks like a door or a gate.
杏树 (xing4shu4). “树” is the word for “tree.”
花房 (hua1fang2). “花” is normally the word for “flower”, but here it stands for the “green” in “greenhouse.”
老年人 (lao3nian2ren2). Translated word for word, this means “old year person.”
很可爱 (hen3ke3ai4). “爱” is the verb “to love” and when combined with “可”, it becomes the adjective “loveable.” This adjective is typically applied to just young children and pets.
好客 (hao3ke4). “好” means “good,” while “客” is a shortened for of the word for “guest,” i.e. 客人 (ke4ren2). So it literally means “good to guests.”
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