Last weekend we spent a couple of nights on Moganshan mountain with some of our church small group friends. It's a lovely wooded area, and we enjoyed several hikes through the bamboo forest.Heading up into the bamboo!
It was a bit of a rainy weekend... I love this misty shot Scott got of Madelyn.
Part of our crew of kids!
We had never seen tea growing before. I was intrigued by how it seems to be so neatly trimmed into hedges. The ladies you see out in the fields are picking the tea, just the new growth off the top.
I am reading a book about the Moganshan area right now, it's quite fascinating. It was a retreat from the summer heat and disease of Shanghai about a hundred years ago, for both foreigners, including missionaries, and wealthy Chinese. The area came to be a thriving summer resort. When the Communist party took over in 1949, of course all the foreigners were forced to leave and many of the homes fell into disrepair. We saw some of these places as we hiked, and also came across several church buildings like this one below. This one was completely stripped inside, just the shell of the once lovely building remains. I am anxious to learn more about what happened in Moganshan. Why has this church been left in this state? I know things are not always what they seem here...
There seems to be an aura of mystery about this place... I hope we can return and discover more about it. If nothing else, it's a beautiful retreat from the city... just like it was a century ago.
