Yuan Family Village

Street made of old doors

Grinding cornmeal 

Vinegar vats

Blacksmith. He made these tea kettles

Pastries

Wanting to escape to horrific pollution we decided to take a hour long road trip North of Xi'an to the Yuan Family Village. The air wasn't as clear as we had hoped, but the village was awesome. This quaint village that puts traditional Chinese industry and folk arts on display.
One street was made entirely of old wooden doors. It was awesome to see the workmanship that went into these heavy doors.
We first spent time tasting local food. We tried  chocolate pastries. They were cake filled with a pudding and were delicious. We had lamb, nan bread and soup. We also tried scorpion. It tasted crunchy and salty, kind of like popcorn.
In the village we saw the process of making vinegar. A woman told us that it takes six months minimum to produce the vinegar. We saw chili powder, cornmeal and canned chili being made and we saw blacksmith making iron tea kettles. We watched a weaving demonstration and there was a man selling hand made Chinese tops. They were so cool that we had to buy one. We thought it was a steal of only $3.20 US dollar.

There were demonstrations on paper cutting and painting. The girls really liked riding on a little goat cart. A highlight were some children aged eight to twelve performing street acrobatics. Their talents and strength were amazing.