We began the day with a long bus ride to lunch, continuing an intellectually stimulating reflection session from the day before. With gorgeous views outside, the time passed quickly as we discussed the past few days and interrogated the politics of crayfish farming systems, of tourism aesthetics (the wedding ceremony we witnessed the day before was a particularly hot topic), and I was wondering about the ways in which a modernizing, postcolonial China organize and present conceptions of time, nature, and “community.”
Today, our main destination was the Stone Forest in Enshi. Immediately upon arriving, the time and life of the landscape had me in awe — in all the ridges of the stones, the way moss lined rocks as they piled upon one another, and the particularities of each of these seemingly parallel formations that reveal millenia of movement and dynamism. I kept behind the large group much of the time because when I was alone, I found that I could really listen to the stone forest and its silence was filled with the fairy-like tinkling of water drops in crevices and the slow-moving waves of wind. It was serene, and almost spiritual. Though we later discussed how the belief-infused labels, like the thousand Buddhas in the stone wall, were perhaps performative, I don’t doubt that people across ages, before it became a scenic spot and even now, have found transcendent meaning in this place. Incredibly unfortunate that I lost my notebook, but even those moments of writing and sketching and being present were powerful for me! Words cannot do it justice, (nor can the photos) but perhaps the visual documentation can help~~
Afterwards, we ate dinner! Amazing and filling, again, as usual. After dinner, a few of us (including fellow blogger Kathleen!) went on a long walk to a park that had a lake, and I really enjoyed moments like this where we could venture and experience parts of China on our own time. Part of that was spotting a street vendor, and I got super excited to try out some locusts.
That was the end to another wonderful, jam-packed day in China!
From the road we saw the surrounding mountains slant and tilt as the road continued straight and flat.
The rocks were covered in moss, and when I was alone all I could hear was the sound of water dripping from moss to rock down. There were lots of look out points to see the profile of the surrounding mountains. We had dinner afterwards and checked into our hotel. 
It was a wonderful day 🙂