The earthen remains overlooking the scenic Yellow River sight, at this part of Laoniu-wan, were the trail of Great Wall built in Ming Dynasty. The relics stretched parallel along with the flow of river, with an ancient village settled under it.
A little Buddhist temple enshrined with Image of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Goddess of Mercy) was found standing high up on the ridge of the mountain. There was no a single devotee but two of us who knelled and bowed to pray for a safe journey.
The old structure built besides the temple most probably was something like an activity venue of the past.
All cave dwelling homes were made up of loess soil and stones, materials that were easily sourced and obtained at the site.
All homes were the same. They have individual living areas with bed room, a separate structure for a kitchen and bathing room while the toilet is an excavated hole winded up by simple material without roof.
The abandoned village at Laoniu-wan was the home of many local natives who had been staying here since they were borne. Our home-stay host was one of them. He told us that they were forced to leave their home and gave way to development, which by the end of the day, did not get it done successfully.
Owners had shifted out from the settlement leaving all these houses empty and abandoned.
Cave dwelling homes are warm in winter and cooling in summer.
Our host showed us some historical precious relics remained at Laoniu-wan and told us his heart-touching stories of the past that happened at the site.
Illustration and direction map of Laoniu-wan.
Various fresh peppers hanged at the external wall of cave dwelling homes, to the villagers were to avoid bad omens, but to visitors, were interesting home decorations, similarly as those stones arranged on the wall.
Most of the locals after being forced to move out from the old settlement built their new homes nearby, duplicating a cave dwelling house exactly as what they had lived in before. This is the new home of Song-Ershuang, our host in Laoniu-wan.
For our two days stay in Laoniu-wan, we lived in the cave dwelling homes with Song-Ershuang and his wife, a typical local family who never have a thought to leave the place where they were borne, though children are well established at town. They love their homeland and work hard for it.
We had a great time living in Laoniu-wan with Song couple following their version of life, in a cow-like slow pace, leaving all bustling behind, simple and comfortable.
The corner cave was our living area, where we had our bed room, dinning place and a little washing corner to clean ourselves and to soak our two feet. Manually boiled hot water was prepared and provided in huge vacuum flasks.
The dried corns were the food for their domestic animals like pigs.
We had two nights sleeping on an ancient Chinese traditional bed with a manual heater. A wonderful experience in our life!
The wife of uncle Song was preparing our meals including millet rice, steam buns, cabbage, potato, radish and eggs dishes. She cooked them in a very simple way but these were the taste that had long been missed in our daily life at city. We enjoyed it.
Cabbage and parsley were grown very well in their farming fields.
They also grow radish and some other root produces.
These are local herbs.
Wild cherry trees.
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