Wishful Living Part 1 – Hollow Village in Dali
Guangdong Science Center
May 24, 2019
Why Cyber Security Is So Important?
March 5, 2021
Return to the pastoral and live in the countryside of Dali, Yunan, China
If you don't need to worry about money, or if you have made enough money to live your own life, what kind of lifestyle do you wish for?
A TV show, named "Wishful Living", talks about all kinds of living styles of others in the world, and the celebrities go to join those people to experience their lifestyles in different cities around the world.
Have you ever dreamed of living in the countryside in a different country as a foreigner, owning your private kitchen and serving the local people?
A French freelance writer, Xiaosong with a French name, Gil, moved to China in 2005. He and his wife first lived in Beijing for five years, and then they relocated to Chongqing and stayed there for another four years. But they found themselves exhausted with the big city lifestyle, and they decided to return to the pastoral. They are living in Panqu Village in Dali, owning their private kitchen and serving dishes to the local people.
The village is a “hollow village” at the foot of Cangshan Mountain in Dali. Due to the inconvenience of life and the construction of the new countryside, most of the local villagers have moved to new houses closer to the city. The old house was idle and abandoned, and it was kept in the village. When Gil first moved in, the roof of the old house was on the verge of collapse. There were no circuits, earthen toilets, spider webs hanging around the corners, and haunted houses. After a difficult transformation, Gil, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter settle down now.
Gil cooks and serves the dishes to local people one to three times per week. He has to plan what he wants to buy a day before he goes out and to do grocery shopping at the local farmers market. He gets up at 5 AM in the morning, carries bamboo poles to the market in the ancient city to buy fresh ingredients, bargains with Chinese and local farmers with French accents, and learns about the ingredients.
Gil is very creative with cooking. Though he teases that he cooks "weird" French food, he invents a lot of fusion dishes. He will add Sichuan pepper in traditional French cuisine and wrap the traditional Bai snacks and milk fans with leaves.
8 Comments
Greetings from Los angeles! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your site on my iphone during lunch break. I love the knowledge you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, fantastic site!
Thank you for your compliment!! We put lots of efforts to make the site load as fast as possible!
Will keep up the great work!
I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog.
I’m hoping to check out the same high-grade content by you later on as well.
In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me
to get my very own blog now 😉
Dear Milagro, very sorry about responding back to you so late. Your great comments also encourage us to keep on writing useful content to benefit everyone. Thank you very much! Happy holidays! Stay safe and healthy! 🙂
I appreciate, leaad too I found exactlyy wha I waas takking a lookk for.
You’ve ehded my fur day lenbgthy hunt! Godd Bless you
man. Have a niice day. Bye
Awesome! I am glad that you found what you were looking for!
It?¦s really a nice and useful piece of information. I am happy that you simply shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving us your great comment! Really appreciate it! 🙂