ChengYang to CongJiang
           Via HeLi, ChanKou, ZhaiMing, BaSha, GaoZeng villages:
With our early morning breakfast of Dong "oil" tea finished we began our journey through the narrow winding roads. An hour and half later, our first stop - HeLi - an ancient town dating back to the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) inhabited by the Dong people here the Wind and Rain Bridge and near by San Wang Temple (3 Kings Temple) is built in the combined style of Dong (wood) and Han (stone). See panorama. Next we decide to check for ourselves the rumor of a living legend -

a 1000 year old plus banyan tree - in ChanKou village. And yes the tree is huge as for how old, who can say until you cut it down, only that it is very, very old. Moving on we get an "close encounter" of the high rise kind - ZhaiMing Village - can this ancient village be the forerunner of all our modern cities? .See panorama

And at BaSha Village we get up close and friendly with the locals...

... while at GeoZeng we are escorted into the village by the returning GeoZeng women.
DAY THREE