It’s a foggy morning in Xixinan Village 西溪南村, a village near Huangshan. I’m tired of sleepless nights with a 5-month old baby, but I equally want to take this opportunity to take some photos, so I’m outside the door at 06:30. Watertowns like this are usually crowded during the day, but deserted this early.

Xinanxi is famed for its water management, a praise I can see fit just from walking to the village from our hotel. There are multiple waterways the river can take, depending on the level of the water or which sluices are opened. Here I walk on the riverbed which will be submerged in the summer. I’ve seen photos of the river being widest in the summer, with green vegetation on the sides — but now it’s a thin trickle in a world of greys. There’s a wooden bridge which is the star of the village here, as well as plenty of old houses, some still adorned with hand-painted decorations.

On my way back, I see the signs are in Chinese and Dutch, which is the first time I’ve ever seen that in China. Online the are some PR articles about a collaboration with the Dutch town of Giethoorn.

We return later that day. It’s Valentine’s Day and in a coffee store see a Chinese translation of Toon Tellegen’s Het Verlangen van de Egel (刺猬的愿望). Eva, who’s learning Dutch, reads the cover in broken Dutch.

Daoists will say that in the city, people are too far away from nature; that it has no seasons; you have strawberries all the time, and your work doesn’t change. The future is a concept created by man; and this is why people are unhappy. In nature, the world is perfect as it is; rivers flow, seasons change. And I can see that here.  The colors and even the shape of the land change with the months. I know I’ve got to go back to the city after this holiday break, but for now, I’ll take as much of this as I can.

In the early morning

During the day