A student once mentioned visiting and eating at 'farmer happy', and I was completely puzzled. What he meant was a nong jia le, or guest farm. These are places in the country where people go to relax and experience rural life, and they are very in vogue in Sichuan where they first started out. People like to go out in the morning, eat simply prepared organic food for lunch, and then drink tea and play ma jiang or cards during the day. Many nong jia le have other activities like karaoke, ping pong, horseback riding, fishing, or picking flowers and fruit. They are often the venue of choice for class reunions and corporate functions too. I am fascinated with nong jia le, not the least because I can find so little information about them in English, and also because there are hundreds of them around the city. I've written about San Sheng Xiang (Flower Town) before but only got to see a small part of it, and today visited a different area.
Camera shy waterfowl:
Fish pond:
The bird park is almost like a petting zoo. It costs one yuan to get in, and five yuan for a handful of corn to feed the birds. You can have peacocks and pheasants eating out of your hand. It seems like a pretty glamourous kind of farm life, with peacocks and black swans mingling with the ducks, chickens, and pigs.
These birds called out, "ni hao, ni hao" (hello, hello) as we walked by.
This fellow was in the bird pen.
We realized his fate when we noticed this poster outside a restaurant, detailing the benefits and flavours of different parts of a deer.
