by Melissa Block

Feeling very far away from the booming metropolis of Chengdu.

Shangli
Saturday April 5, 6 am

I'm writing this in pitch dark from a small guesthouse in the "ancient town" of Shangli, about 100 miles southwest of Chengdu.

peasant tourists shangli
Melissa Block, NPR

Peasant life brushes up against tourists Shangli. TOP: A man carries load of goods. MIDDLE: A farmer prepares land for planting rice. BOTTOM: Just across the stream, a tourist poses for a photo outside a guest house.

The first rooster crowed at 4:43 a.m. and I've been awake since.

The power went out last night and still isn't back on, but my Blackberry works (that's how I'm sending this post) and handily, the blue glow doubles as a faint flashlight in the pitch dark.

We've come to Shangli because it's a tiny display of some fascinating economic and social trends in China. This small farming village has been discovered by urban Chinese with newly disposable income, with cars, and with a nostalgic hankering to dip a toe in rural life. So on this holiday weekend, there are hundreds of Chinese who have come from cities like Chengdu to eat rustic food, drink tea, play mah johngg along the river, walk through the historic old houses, and brush up against the barefoot peasant farmers coming in from the fields, bowed under the weight of the heavy baskets filled with vegetables they carry on their backs. No doubt these tourists are listening to the rooster cacophony, as I am, and feeling very far away from the booming metropolis of Chengdu.