Ningbo Part Two

One recommended activity is a relaxing rickshaw ride along the main street of Xikou town. It takes you right passing by the beautiful Shanxi river. Xikou is just some twenty kilometers southwest to Ningbo city.

The following is a dialogue between the host(H) and a store owner(S):

H: Hmm, smells great. What is it?

S: It's the specialty food of Xikou 鈥Qiancengbing.

H: It's not too hot, right?

S: How does it taste? Pretty good, huh?

H: It tastes great. Although it's a little bit dry, but definitely great. I think it's got some kind of rice flour, sesame, and some secret ingredients I don't know about and I'm sure she won't share with me.

In the kitchen area our host learned that the thousand-layer cookie actually got 27 layers.

There are the so-called鈥渢hree treasures鈥漮f Fenghua. Qiangcengbing is one of them. The other two are tara root and peach. Qiangcengbing is made the traditional way here, oven-baked. It takes about two and half hours to make it.

Just in this small town alone, there are almost sixty stores making and selling Qiangceng bing. It is extremely popular among tourists, almost like a trademark specialty of Xikou.

鈥淰ery good! It's my first time to try it.鈥/i>Said one tourist after tasting a piece of Qiancengbing.

The serene landscape of Xuedou Mountain scenic zone will definitely make you forget about the turmoil in the secular world. Maybe that's why one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Zhejiang Province found its location here. Built 1,700 years ago, Xuedou temple worshipped the Buddha of Maitreya.

A special parade caught the host's attention on her way to the top of Xuedou mountain. She's lucky because that day was one of the largest religious ceremonies of the temple. It had lasted for about seven days, that was the last day of the ceremony.

Buddhism is very popular in this area especially among elders. You can fully realize this by just looking at those devout grannies.