Day 9
I got up at 5:30am to go do Tai Chi with my cousin's mother in law, I shall refer to her as Grandma Lee, up the temple in the mountain called WenZiGong. It felt good just to stretch and do some tai chi. It felt really good to watch the sun rise at 7am and see layers of the mountain ridges appear, including YuShan "jade mountain". It is the 15th of lunar calender so people visit the temple and make offerings. I really need to get back into doing tai chi everyday for an hour or more. Feels really good to do tai chi, I've missed doing tai chi, just get really lazy about getting myself going on doing tai chi.
The tai chi here, they do it to music. This requires getting used to for me.
This is the view down below from the temple.
I got to go to bed early last night and had a good 7 hours of rest. However I haven't been able to sleep straight, I have been waking up every two and half hours incriments. So I feel naps are a must to adjust and make up. After tai chi I laid down for another hour to rest some more. I didn't fall asleep but laying down felt really good. I have been really busy last two weeks and had very little rest. It felt good to rest. I am glad I am not sore from the bike ride. It's been a few years since I rode one. We went up hills and I actually had to get off the bike and walk it.
Then I went to Plum Factory and was introduced to the process of plum preserve making, cripsy crunchy plums, chewy plums and dry plums. I made it in time to watch plums getting smashed after the wash and salt. The air was filled with beautiful plum aroma. Plums are picked in the month of April. I arrived before the massive picking season that lasts the entire month of April, which starts next week.
This is where all the salted dried plum preserves are being dried, out in the sun. It takes about 3 to 4 months to finish the process.
This is a photo of plums after first wash before salt.
This is a photo of plums after salting and ready for smashing. Each plum gets smashed once with a wooden mallet.
One of their products is Mulberry juice concentrate.We went up to ErPingShan where the classic flavors of popsicles are made in a famous factory. It's sunny today, I was hot and did put on lots of cedar oil on my body to repell bugs.
This is the trail up to the factory. There are said to be snakes and monkeys. I didn't know about that until we were half way up the trail. If I had known ahead of time I wouldn't have taken the path. These were steep steps. 
This is the view at the shop. The path to the shop is full of beautiful trees. I like classic flavors or peanut, red bean, green bean, taro. It is only 9NT per stick. I had two. I may have to come back on my own and eat some more. It really is delicious in flavor and texture.
This place did not get their name registered and trade marked but another company did and took their name. So all those who think they are eating famous delicious popsicle sold as "Er Ping" are not actually eating the real thing.
