Sparkles and Onyx in China: Squash and pumpkin excursion

I never really know where I am going.

Having a driver or riding in the car with someone else's driver does not lead one to learn exactly where things are. Consequently I don't know where this place is. It is a road with roadside markets somewhere outside the 6th ring. If you look at a map of Beijing you will see that there are roads running in circles around the center of the city. No they don’t actually run…they are thereJ Due to congestion and pollution there are days when you cannot drive your car inside 5^th Ring Road. This is based on the last digits of your license plate. Currently our day is Monday; I believe your day changes quarterly. Lucky for Mike our driver lives outside the 5^th ring on the east south side of Beijing and we live outside the 5^th ring on the east north side and work is somewhere back on the east south side. (Just giving directions the way it is done here.) On the day your car cannot go into the city you either take a taxi or shuttle or subway. Mike never has to do that, very lucky guy.

I am having a great deal of difficulty with the VPN so a quick bit of wording before all is lost!

Looking along the road showing the pumpkins and apples as far as you can see.

Just huge piles! So colorful.

Not a lot of variety of apples, just plenty of them.

An interesting looking tractor type thing, for lack of a better description. At first I thought it was a rototiller but here it is being used to haul the wagon load to the stand. Perhaps it is a rototiller in the spring and the tines are removable.