Why is there meat hanging from that tree?

I was waiting for a bus from Tong Li to Suzhou with some friends that I had spent the day with. Across the road I noticed some meat hanging from a tree outside a China mobile shop.

Meat hanging from a tree.. Click on the image to get a better quality photo.

The conversation with my Chinese friends went as follows..

Me: Why is there meat tied to that tree?

Them: What?

Me: Why is there meat tied to that tree?

Them: What? (One of them starts looking up words in the dictionary to figure out what I am asking them.)

Me: Look across the road... See the moped?

Them: Yes

Me: Do you see the tree beside it?

Them: Yes

Me: Is that meat tied to the tree?

Them: Yes its pork.

Me: Why is it tied to the tree?

Them: What? What you mean why?

At this point the girl has figured out what I was asking originally and she starts laughing. Eventually we are all laughing.

Them: They are preparing the meat for the spring festival in a few weeks.

Me: Are people actually going to eat that?

At this point they are laughing so much that people are staring at us as they walk by on the street. Well people are been staring all day but they even more so now.

Them: Of course they are going to, why would they not. You ate it last night at dinner.

Me: What?

Them: Remember the word we translated for you last night

Me: Cured Meat?

Them: Yes. It's cured meat.  I thought you said you had cured meat in Ireland...


Me: Yes we do....


Them: So why do you think it is so strange that it is hanging from a tree. This is normal in China.

Me: Yes we have cured meat in Ireland but we don't hang it from a tree.

Them: How do you make it if you don't hang it from a tree?

Me: I don't know but I'm pretty sure we don't hang it from a tree.....

Related Blog Posts:

• Head up a tree
• The Miracle Safari - Part 1
• The Miracle Safari - Part 2
• The Miracle Safari - Part 3
• The Miracle Safari - Part 4