Lishui

Don’t ask me where I am. I’m not altogether sure. Somewhere in Southern China. At least that’s the direction the train was headed, I think.

It’s an area called Lishui, and I’m here on an office retreat. It’s the hometown of one of my colleagues, and he offered to more or less host us for the weekend. I must admit I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this little excursion. Not because of the location, but rather because I’m not much for these sorts of business team-building things. But it’s been something of a pleasant surprise, mainly because this little region I’ve never heard of before is quite beautiful. Today we visited the remarkable rice field shown above, as well as a quaint tea plantation about a 45-minute drive away. It’s easy to forget there are places like this in China when you mostly encounter one giant modern city after another.