To reach Shuozhujiao, you have to cross two mountains. It's a village group about 7 or 8 kilometers from the village committee. The road is cement but very narrow, only allowing one car to pass. In winter, if there is heavy snow, the road freezes, so the mountain is closed, making travel difficult. The eight households in the entire valley are trapped here, completely isolated. There are eight houses, but one is left with only an elderly person who has moved to a nursing home in Tacheng Town outside the mountains to spend his remaining years. Only seven households make a living in this valley.
The name Shuozhujiao is very special, especially when the villagers talk about it. Their pronunciation sounds more like "Suozhujiao," and they sometimes can't help but joke about it. Almost all the houses are built on a sunny slope, but during the season when the sun travels to the southernmost point, these houses don't bask in warm sunlight until after nine o'clock. The mountains opposite the village brighten much later, and some places don't get any sunlight all day, with frost covering the ground that never melts.
