Location: Hancheng, China After saying goodbye to our very sweet hosts in the little village we got to enjoy a little while of fairly quiet roads on this sunny morning. Hancheng (as well as many other Chinese cities) is surrounded by a network of very wide, brand new roads waiting for high rises to be built on all the empty blots. The rate of construction here in China is just mind boggling. Entire residential areas of 20-30 story apartment blocks are being erected in numerous locations around any somewhat sizable town. We liked to call these sites high-rise forests because that is exactly what they look like.
The closer we got to the Yellow River, the busier the roads got with coal truck traffic and massive industry wherever you looked. Every few hundred meters a road sweeper (a person not a machine) was at work with a broom trying to keep the accumulation of coal dust along the side of the road at bay. What horrible work. Riding through there on bikes and breathing in the coal dust all day was bad enough. The air was smelly and felt thick with chemicals. We were not in a good mood because we knew we were headed into the heart of highly populated eastern China and the air and traffic are bound to just get worse. O no! If it was not for our flight from Beijing to Los Angeles we would have turned around on the spot and headed south to beautiful Yunnan province.
During the day I had a constant craving for persimmons because I kept seeing them hanging high up on trees in people's gardens. That evening a timid lady reluctantly allowed us to camp in the grove next to her house. She soon warmed up though, brought us warm water and soap to wash our hands and lo and behold, she also brought us four persimmons. I had briefly prayed earlier that someone would give us a persimmon and here was this lady giving us four. Thank you Lord for your generosity! After this dirty, tiring day this was such an encouragement and I was reminded that even though this part of the trip may not be the most pleasant, God was still at our side.
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