Village on Rocks (1) -- revise please

Is this a record-breaking thread? Let's vote it as Winner of Getting Jilted --

Oh, sorry, Oristar! I'll give it a try... What's a gammer? The person in the first picture?

A gammer is shown here walking up the steps of the southern gate of the Stone Town. Khubilai Khan, first emperor of Yuan Dynasty of ancient China traveled to the Da Li (nowadays Yunnan), and was greeted by some locals in the Stone Town. Today, this important cultural relic of the province is under protective care.

Villagers of the Stone Town have to go from the town (altitude: 1500m) to the riverside of the Jinsha (altitude: 1700m) to cultivate their crops. There are up to 10,000 terraces there, the size of which vary from 4 acres to the smallest ones -- so small that a cow could barely lie down on them.

Mu Gengyuan, the director of the administrative village -- the Stone Town -- is building his new house in the yard of his old house. His parents have raised 6 children, but in Mu Gengyuan's generation, a couple were* only allowed to have two children.

*were in British English, was in American-style... just another confusion.

Thanks Wy.

You've made some expressions clearer. Such as:
Today, this important cultural relic of the province is under protective care.
the size of which vary from 4 acres to the smallest ones -- so small that a cow could barely lie down on them.
...

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(1) A gammer is an elderly woman, esp. of country. The term is humourously used, chiefly in the UK.

(2) Khubilai Khan was not travelling there, he led his army and took an invasion upon there.

(3) Acre is a unit of area in the U.S. Customary System, while are is a metric unit of area equal to 100 square meters.

(4) Mu ... is building his new house.
In fact, Mu has built his new house.

1. I thought it might mean something like "gramma" -- grandmother -- but I haven't heard it here in the US.

2. Sorry, I was confused. The Stone Town inhabitants "greeted" their invader? Lemme try again: Town. Khubilai Khan, first emperor of Yuan Dynasty of ancient China, led an invasion to the Da Li (nowadays Yunnan), where he met with some locals in the Stone Town.

3. Thank you for enlightening me. I thought are was a typo, so I inserted the "c". 4 ares is a very small field, itself, at least by American standards!

4. I misunderstood here too. I thought the log and shavings in the foreground of the photo was part of the construction of a new building...

I'm glad you liked some of the changes I made -- and sorry if I confused you with misunderstandings!

Hi Wy,

Probably they were some traitors, who were sucking up to the invaders.

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I think I have misinterpreted the unit. It should be mu, Chinese unit of area.
1 mu equals to 667 square meters (1/15 of a hectare)

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Was he also a carpenter, or someone else in his families was a carpenter?

gammer used humourously in UK???? I'm afraid not! I've just looked at your post and wondered what it was!

Don't trust those dictionaries Oristar! Have you got an English dictionary? i mean simply an Oxford English dictionary, not a Chinese/English - I think with the high standard of your English you would find an up to date one helpful to double check some of the things your Chinese/English dictionary says.

Hi Vivien,

Three of my dictionaies have adopted the word gammer. One of them is AHD, in which it says "Gammer n. Chiefly British An elderly woman." And another dic says: "Gammer, a bantering word, refers to an elderly woman, especially one in country." This dic is English-Chinese one, however.

And I checked out Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary just now.
The result of the search:
Main Entry: gam·mer
Pronunciation: 'ga-m&r
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of godmother
archaic : an old woman -- compare GAFFER

While the search results of AskOxford showed:
Sorry, there are no results for that search.

And, gammer was not found in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary too.

But msn Encarta showes:

gam·mer (plural gam·mers)
noun
U.K. woman: a woman of advanced years, especially a woman from the country ( dated informal )

[Late 16th century. Origin uncertain: probably a contraction of godmother, with "ga-" by association with grandmother.]

Hmmm... interesting American dics.

"Gammer" and "gaffer" are used in J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those books were written shortly after WWII. (I don't have the book here, can't check the publication date.) In this usage, farmers and peasants use the terms to refer to their own aged parents...

I know, I denied knowing it. But I finished the third book yesterday. Samwise Hamfast has referred to his old gaffer several times, just in the last few pages did he talk of his gammer too...

But that was written a while ago, and you should probably find another way to say it. Maybe just say, "This elderly woman is shown..."

Yeah, just use This elderly woman, because some of the dics also have indicated the usage is archaic or out of date.