Pigs' Ears and Stomach Parts

These aren't the Christmas Eve elves. These are the Queens of Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings), queens who heralded for me what turned out to be a twenty-four hour eating marathon--one that started New Year's Eve in my apartment, wove through the apartment of some other Chinese friends for lunch on New Year's Day, to the terraced slopes of JinYun Mountain (along with hundreds of other revelers), and then back to the apartment of some colleagues who served up an amazing New Year's Eve dinner with amazing parts. Pigs' ears. Stomach parts.

All this feasting is not to be mistaken for the real bonanza yet to come--Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, which is neither in the spring nor at the beginning of the year, at least according to a Western calendar. Eastern--or lunar--calendars, of course, tell a different story. My story, a version of the Western New Year in Beibei, is suggested in the pictures below.

Before the Chinese cabbage is diced in to millimeter sized pieces.

"Vicky" is making dozens of dumplings--still New Year's Eve
in my apartment.

"Edith" and "Naomi" aren't about to be outdone by "Vicky."

We're ready to eat by eight--and the conversation rolls on for another few hours.

"Merry," "Tom," and "Lizzy" scramble ahead
of our four-family party on New Year's Day - 2013.

They turn to wave. Terraced vegetable gardens are in the foreground,
the rest of JinYun Mountain looms in the background.

We wind right through various peasants' gardens, up and down the slopes.

Beibei and the Jialing River are wedged between two mountain ranges.
In the foreground are lots of freshly pruned trees (plums maybe?)--
their recently pruned flowering branches now adorn
homes all over Beibei (including mine).

Mrs. Niu brought me these.

We're still far from the top of JinYun, but you can see Beibi below.