Taishan Off The Beaten Path

Sijou is one of the many small cities that dot the area of Taishan. This is the main city for what I would equivocate as a "county" by the same name. It is literally translated as "four nine" (not forty-nine as you would logically think). This is because it is in pattern with the other towns around Taishan. Each town has numbered market days. So if you live in Sijou, your market days are the 4th, 9th, 14th, and 19th. It is easy to see why the town was named as it is. This allows the towns each to have separate non-competing market days.

As it is with all the other small towns in the area, it is also surrouded by small farming villages. Some of the more affluent villages, usually from the largess of overseas relatives, have remodeled the older village homes to more modern facilities while others have increased their standard of living, yet maintained the old way of living.