Lin Songtao 254238712@qq.com THIS May Day holiday witnessed a strong domestic demand for tourism, and long-distance inter-provincial tours have become popular. But how to avoid the crowds has always been a headache. This time, I chose to take a tour of a location that few people visit . Wenling is a county-level city located in East Zhejiang Province. On May 2, I took an eight-hour train from Shenzhen to this beautiful place. The next morning, I stepped on a bus, and spent an hour to arrive at the destination: Shitang Town. Shitang Town is an old fishing town surrounded by the sea on three sides. The town has houses in an unadorned style built with stones. In order to defend against the sea wind, the roofs are also made of rocks, providing a strong sense of vicissitudes. As I passed through the town, I felt the remaining folk atmosphere. Luckily, I saw an old man in an old house carefully sewing and tailoring; there were also some peddlers selling traditional snacks including shanfenyuan (山粉圓) and ginger soup noodles (姜湯面). Shanfenyuan is made mainly of sweet potato powder and the noodles have shrimp, clams as well as mushrooms in them. After nearly an hour’s walk, I arrived at an open area with fishing boats in a gulf. May 1 was the beginning of the off-season for China’s fishing industry, so I was lucky to see various boats there. The port in town is a famous national-level fishing port in Zhejiang Province as well as in China, hosting more than 1,500 vessels and producing a total of 300,000 tons of aquatic products per year. Moving forward by climbing a hill that is the home of Xiaoshatou Village, I encountered a Shaoxing opera show celebrating the birth of Tianhou, or Matsu as she is commonly known to the coastal people of Southeast Asia. I also got to see a huge wall painting depicting a fishing scene on a slope in the village. Then, after walking through a long tunnel, I finally saw the highlight of this trip: a rainbow-like village! Xiaoruo Village used to be on an island but now the island is connected to the mainland, and the walls of the whole village are painted with various colors and provide ideal views for taking photos. The original idea of painting the walls came from the practice of a village in Italy in which its residents live by fishing. To help their husbands recognize their houses at first sight when returning to the harbor, wives started to paint the house with colors. In 2017, the Wenling Daily published the news of the village and from then on, this previously largely unknown place began attracting visitors. Now about 500 people are living in the village. Most of them are surnamed Huang and it’s said that their ancestors moved to the place from the neighboring Fujian Province. Although the village has became a tourist attraction, traditional customs have been passed on and life here is as usual. Many villagers are followers of Buddhism and Taoism. On the third day of the third lunar month, people who have faith in Tianhou usually go to the temple to worship her. On the seventh day of July, villagers will celebrate the traditional Children’s Festival for children under 16. Folk customs in Fujian and Taiwan record that the “weaver girl,” a celestial being in Chinese mythology, is regarded as the guardian angel of children in south Fujian and her birthday is said to fall on the seventh day of the seventh moon, when families in south Fujian offer sacrifices to her to pray for the health and safety of their children. Shitang and Xiaoruo Village’s Children’s Festival follows this custom. | 