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rkkwan's 6-day trip to Yunnan Province, China
Well, since my thread on Hong Kong and Macau is already getting pretty long, I'll start a seperate thread for my trip to Yunnan. It wasn't just a leisure trip, and I didn't go to Dali, Lijiang or Shangri-La.
Instead, it was to Lincang in Southwest part of the province to visit many schools and children. Since I still have a couple of threads still haven't completed, I'll add to this thread over time. But since I've started to post some pictures on my site, I'll first invite you to see something: First, you may find photos of all my plane trips in this gallery. First part is Houston to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Lincang. Return trip will be posted a little later: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p476976649/ And this is a school we visited that's seeking help from the non-profit Sower Action of Hong Kong to raise money to build a new school building. You can see the conditions of the current one, including the bathrooms: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p212914365/ |
HI again!
love the photos, can you explain more about the Sower Action of Hong Kong please? thanks, Pauline. |
Pauline - I'm not directly associated with them, but went more or less as a guest.
The name is actually Sower<b>s</b> Action, with the "s". I'll let you read about them yourselves. www.sowers.org.hk |
Let me first explain a little about the nature of this trip. Some of my family members have donated money to Sowers Action, a non-profit based in Hong Kong, to build schools in remote, poor areas of China. Two schools were completed early this year in SW Yunnan province - a primary school (Grades 1-6) and a high school (Grades 7-12). I decided to join my parents and 3 other relatives to check them out, to visit the area, and to understand the situation and process there. We paid for our travel expenses as well as the volunteer's from Sowers. Later on, we found that there would be formal dedication ceremonies at those two schools.
Now, this is a travel site, and I was there basically only to observe. It was not my money, and I have no direct connection to any of the people involved. Here, I just want to report our trip and what I saw. I would report how I felt at times, but I would try as much as possible NOT to go into the politics of it. I hope you will do the same. I would NOT respond to things said about the Chinese Communist Party or its leadership, corruption, etc. I plead for you to refrain from those as well and find another thread, another forum for those. I would gladly respond to non-political questions or comments. Once I have new photos of the trip posted, I'll mention them here. |
<b>Day 1, Wed 11/1/06</b>
We started early this day, arriving 5:45a at the "All China Express" coach stop near Prince Edward MTR in Mongkok. We were joined by Mr. Yeung, an active volunteer from Sowers Action. There are now 24-hour coach services to the Huanggang border crossing from various points in Hong Kong. We boarded the 6:00a bus (HK$42, Octopus accepted), which dropped us off at the Hong Kong border control at Lok Ma Chau at 6:30a. All must get off and take all luggage with them. No line at the Hong Kong border, and we reboarded the bus (keep the ticket stub, and listen carefully where to reboard - announcement were made in Cantonese, Putonghua and English) at 6:40a. Two minutes later, we arrived at the Chinese border at Huanggang. Really short line at the border at this time of the day, and here's the process: - There are separate lines in the same hall for Hong Kong residents holding a "Home Return Permit" and other passport holders. But before getting into the hall, you need to fill a health declaration card and hand it to the official; - Then once in the hall, you need to find and fill the English side of the yellow entry form before getting in line. Since I didn't have the forms pre-filled, that really delayed the process. Otherwise, I would have entered China in 2 minutes. Once you exit the immigration building, you'll find a lot of people asking where you're going. For us, we already had a minivan pre-arranged to take us to Shenzhen Airport (SZX). Or if you're riding a "direct coach" to the airport, you'll look for the coach and reboard there. If you don't have arrangements between Huanggang and the SZX, then you should start negotiating. There are coaches, private vans, private cars, etc, all soliciting for your business. If you decide to take a regular taxi or public bus, then you need take the footbridge over the highway to the bus/taxi stands. [The Shenzhen subway will get to Huanggang soon.] Anyways, we found our driver, and the drive from Huanggang to SZX takes 25 minutes via the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway. Flight report for SZX-KMG (Kunming) along with the other flights are in this thread in the Airline forum, so I won't repeat here. fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=126&tid=34899811 |
<b>Day 1. Part B. Kunming</b>
After getting our luggage, we were greeted by a 21-year old girl who works for Sowers Action in Yunnan. Their office is in Zhaotong, a 10+ hours bus/train ride NE of Kunming. She came down by bus the day before and would accompany us for most of our stay in Yunnan, mostly to learn her skills in dealing with local officials and to interview students and their families. We had about 3 hours in Kunming, so we took a couple of taxis for a 3-minute ride to... <b>Wal-Mart!</b> Hm, why? Well, on the side of the building (which is basically the same size, shape and form as a Supercenter here) is a chain restaurant that sells "Cross-Bridge Noodles", a Yunnan specialty. We opted for the more expensive 40RMB/person combo, and got to sit in a VIP room with service. [You can get a cheaper bowl of noodles in the self-serve part of the restaurant.] Our meal comes first with a miniature "clay-pot chicken soup", then like 5-6 cold dishes, and finally the vermicelli noodles. Each one got a bowl of soup the size of watermelon, and then you add all the ingredients in it - quail eggs, various meats, vegetables, bamboo shoots, wild mushrooms, etc, and the noodles. I think I was the only one in our party who finished the whole thing. Since we still had some time left, we went next door to visit Wal-Mart. The set up is extremely similar to a supercenter here, and what they sell are mostly high-quality Chinese-made stuff and few foreign brands except for electronics. My aunts were very impressed by their selection of whole Yunnan ham (very famous), and planned for another visit on the last day of our trip. As more and more Chinese can afford cars, they have a parking lot in front of the store too, though a bit smaller than here. But they also offer a free shuttle bus to/from many highrise residential complexes. Very cool, and business seems brisk. We returned to the Kunming airport for our 35-minute flight to Lincang in SW Yunnan. Also on our flight was the Secretary of Education for the Lincang region, who was returning from business in Kunming and who would host us for the next few days. With her was a reporter from the Kunming Daily newspaper. As you see, our traveling group has grown from 6 to 10, and we weren't even there yet! |
<b>1C. Lincang</b>
Before the trip, I've wondered what it looks like in this part of Yunnan. Photos are hard to find, but I did look at satellite images on Google Earth. Surprisingly, parts of Lincang, including the town itself, have high resolution images. And more surprisingly, I saw lots of new buildings. Turns out the Beijing government have put quite a bit of money in the region in the last 5-6 years. The airport opened in 2001, the major highway from Kunming rebuilt, and there are many new buildings, including our hotel, Wasai Hotel. It's a beautiful building with spacious rooms and good amenities. I'd say it's up to international 3*, except for the smell of cigarette smokes in many rooms. There's no such thing as non-smoking rooms in most of China. BTW, "Wa" is the name of the minority group that's populated Lincang, and "Sai" means territority. It was late afternoon by the time we checked-in, but we had two schools to visit. First was the "No. 1 Highschool" of ths regional capital, which is rated 3rd (or fourth, can't remember) in all of Yunnan Province for its achievements. It's a large school and many of its students board there, as their home village may be hours away by road. Once they learned that my parents and I came from the US, the teachers encouraged more than a dozen kids (Grade 11 or 12) to chat with me in English. While the students had English classes, they had little opportunities to practise. I basically asked them what their plans are, after graduating from highschool - where to go to college and what do they want to study. Many mentioned Shanghai or Beijing and even one said America, even though none of them have even traveled to Kunming. When it's time for them ask questions, some asked where I work and what I do. And many were surprised that I work with many Mainland Chinese. They also asked how to improve their English skills, with basically no foreign visitors to their city, unlike Kunming, Lijiang or Dali. This was such a different place from Beijing or Shanghai where foreigners have to caution against English-speaking locals trying to pull them into tea-ceremony scams. After about 45 minutes, we left and went to the No. 2 Highschool. Didn't get to chat with English here, though the students were just as interested about us. One girl who had chatted with my mom for a while actually cried when it was time for us to leave. Dinner was at a Thai-style restaurant with private huts around a garden. Our party has grown to 2 tables with the school principals and officials from the two highschool and various education and Communist party officials. One of the minority groups in Lincang are called "Dai", and they are basically the same as people in Thailand. Our meal includes dishes from various groups, not only the Dai's. I didn't write down everything as there were so many dishes, so many meals. But they taste good! |
Before I go on, let me state one more thing about Day 1. When we arrived at the Lincang airport, local school and party officials welcomed us with bouquest of fresh flowers. While it was nice and made for great photo op, I do find that unnecessary and quite wasteful. But that was the only time during my trip I felt that way.
<b>Day 2</b> <b>A. Yunxian</b> We left our hotel at around 8:10am and headed north from Lincang along the newly rebuilt national route G214 towards Yunxian. G214 is a major route that goes north to Dali, from where one can connect to Kunming by expressway or train. From Yunxian (1hr), we switched to a smaller road and head SE for and arrived at the primary school about another hour later for the ceremony. I wasn't expecting it, but suddenly we were there, and was greeted by the principal of the school, teaches, and a marching band (well, actually, just drums and cymbals - still these are just Grade 1-6 kids). Kids from the whole school lined both sides of the footpath leading from the road to the school in new uniforms. [Initially, I thought the uniforms were borrowed from elsewhere, but later I noticed in the pictures that they have the name of the school embroidered on it. It's still unclear to me who paid for and own those uniforms.] They decorated the place with some flags, and the dedication ceremony was pretty nice and short, with several speeches, including one by my mom and one by a student representative, who wrote it herself. Last thing was pulling the veil off the plaque with the school's name on it. Whole thing took about 30 minutes. Then the kids were back to the classroom while we toured the facility and visited them one by one. So, what was the facility like? It's a simple two-storey structure with 8 rooms. One classroom for each grade, 1 to 6, a teacher's room and a library/AV room. All rooms have large windows and are very spacious - in fact, larger and more airy than those I attended in Hong Kong. Detached from the building was a new outhouse. Still extremely primitive with no toilet seat or fresh water flush, but at least it was cleaner than most I've seen in places like this. There had been massive corruption in China in years past when it comes to money for education, especially donated money. So a lot was done to safeguard that and to make things more open. For example, there was a plaque permanently built into the wall right next to the staircase about the cost of the school and who paid for it. And that Sower Action would never paid for a whole school - they require the local government to pay for about 30% so that they feel responsible to control costs and keep an eye on the construction, etc... I feel very comfortable with the process. And a school like this cost under 300,000 RMB total, or about $40,000. Price of a SUV. Before we left, we hiked up a hillside on the other side of the main road to see the original school buildings, which was made of woodbeams and mudbricks, with no windows. Worse is the steep mudpath one needs to hike to get to the school from the village. Overall, I wouldn't say it's horrible, but the new facility is clearly a huge improvements. |
We had a little time before lunch, and the local education officials invited us to visit a nearby "experimental" primary school. It's a larger school with dormitories and kids come from the poorest villages afar. In this school, kids have to learn and help out with agricultural methods, and they raise pigs and chicken there. They also have some fields. From what I understand, the theory is that not all kids will be able to finish highschool, go to college, etc... and some will benefit just to learn about more modern farming methods that they can practise back home.
While we were there, the whole school was having lunch. Each kid have a bowl of rice, and they sat around large tables on which are one large bowl of soup, one large bowl of vegetables, and one large bottle of chili sauce. Didn't see any meat in there. [One of the minivans in our "fleet" had a dead battery around this time. In the old days, that'd be disaster in such remote areas. But not anymore. A quick call on the cellphone get someone out to install a new one in no time. In this part of China, they may not have running water in the lavatories, but cellular coverage is much better than here in Houston. For many people, they have simply skipped the generation of having a land phone. They went directly from no phone to cellphone.] At lunch time, I realized the number of people dining with us had increased once again. We went from 6 people to 8 to 12 to 2 tables the night before. From here on, it's 30-40 people at each meal. I finally understand the term "entourage". :) After lunch, it was an hour back to the town of Yunxian, and then another hour NW to the next county, Fengqing, to visit another school. The one that I've posted links to at the top of this thread. |
Did you like the Cross-Bridge Noodles? We had it at the Yunnan Province owned state restaurant in Beijing, it was delicious and belly warming on a freezing day!
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Shanghaiese - Yes, I do like the Cross-Bridge Noodles. I think one can get some in Hong Kong too. Well, I like it enough that I finish the humongous bowl, despite the fact that I finished the disgusting breakfast served on China Southern just a couple of hours prior. ;)
<b>2B. Fengqing</b> We got to the county seat of Fengqing, and we got flagged down by one of the accompanying vehicles. One of the tires on our minivan was going flat, so we had to stop there to get that fixed. While waiting, we found a tea store and bought various teas there - mainly Pu-erh, as well as a red tea which QE2 supposedly also enjoyed. Not a very good day for our minivan. First battery, then tire. But car repair shops are quite abundant in this part of Yunnan, especially for tires and brakes - because of the steep grades and often poor condition of the roads. With the tires fixed, we headed up a small road up the hill. Pavement soon ends, and the condition of the road got worse as we zig-zagged upwards. The road was muddy with pretty deep ruts. We had an excellent driver and didn't get stuck once, even though our minivan was not 4-wheel drive, and ground clearance wasn't that much better than a car. The other 3 vehicles that came up with us were all SUVs. Somehow, the 2 VW Santana sedans that were with us earlier had disappeared. So, after about 25 minutes on that road, we climbed from about 1,550m at Fengqing to about 1,900m at this little primary school. That's a 1,400ft climb. You can see the conditions of the school in the photo gallery I've linked to: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p212914365/ The purpose of this visit was to observe how Mr. Yeung, the Sowers Action volunteer from Hong Kong, does his work. We checked out the existing facility, its surroundings, count the number of students, etc... and then we sat down in a conference with the school principal and the local education officials. They are asking Sowers to help them build a new building, similar to the one we dedicated that morning. We went through the numbers - like expected number of students for each class in the next 15 years, whether the building should be 2- or 3-floors, exact size of each classroom, and even the number of "holes" in the new lavatory building. We were there for about an hour, until Mr. Yeung gets all his questions answered to satisfaction. He could then go back to Hong Kong and recommend for or against Sowers Action helping this school. [Yes, he felt like they would.] Then we left and went down to Fengqing for dinner. (to be continued...) |
Let me backtrack and describe a bit of my own feeling about this visit. When we first turned onto the mountain "path" (as it could hardly be called a "road"), I didn't expect to go that far up. I thought the town was right there, so why build the school so high up?
One very very significant difference between here (or Hong Kong) and parts of China is this - here, rich people live up in the hills in big houses, while poor ones live in inner city, except in some parts of Appalachia. But in Yunnan, rich folks live in new apartment blocks in the towns, but poor farmers live all over the hills. They cut terraced fields wherever they can to grow stuff, and they live where their fields are. I then also realize how there can be 1.3 billion people in China, as many are still poor farmers who live outside of the towns. So, the grade schools have to be near where they are, if you want them to send the kids to school. It's too steep to ride a bicycle, so everybody just walks. Only then I understood why the school is where it is, and who it's serving. And then I also understood why the road can be in such poor condition. It's simple - the farmers grow just barely more than enough for themselves. It's not like they're sending huge amounts of stuff to the town to sell or like they're going shopping every day. I think most people don't go down to the county seat more than a couple times a year. Anyways, I really invite you to see the pictures, and I hope to get some feedback to tell me what you feel. Maybe my photographic skills are too good or something - making everything beautiful - but I'm hearing from more than one person who've seen them that the school doesn't look too bad! Really? They have no windows, no lights, no heat (and of course no a/c), a shabby roof, dangerously-looking pillars in the middle of the room. When we first got there, one class was having music class or something, and with the walls so thin (and again no doors or windows), the whole school can hear them. The other classes cannot concentrate on their own work, for sure. And that bathroom was horrendous. Even the kitchen for the teaches and staff looked pretty bad, my mom reported, as I didn't go in and look. Another thing I'm hearing from others is this - why don't "someone" volunteer to just repaint the building? I don't know how to answer that at first, but the conditions and standards are just so different here in the US and there. Over there, everybody's working - men in the fields, women taking care of the house and kids and livestocks - and earning so little (annual per capita income about US$80), it's really hard to expect anyone to volunteer to fix the school. It's probably good enough the farmers agree to send the kids to school rather than have them help out in the fields! And who pays for the paint, and who's to get it? No one has a car to go down to town, and with people earning that little <b>cash</b>, who's paying? And if one has looked at their village houses, it's apparent they would paint their own home before the school. I think the better question is what the government is doing. We saw lots of new developments in the towns - new hotels, new stores, new restaurants, karaokes, foot massage parlors, new apartment rows. So, there's some fresh money coming in, probably quite a bit from the government. But unfortunately, basic education is not a top priority in how the money's to be spent. I am not an economist nor a sociologist, so I don't know what's the "efficient model" in bringing the living conditions of a place up to standard. Should the money be best spent in promoting economic activities so that you let some people get rich fast and first, and then hope the money with trickle down? That seems to be the way they're doing, and personally I can't disagree with that. So it's up to the charities, at least for now, to bring education up to standard. I also think many Americans will not understand, who thinks education is a right, and has to be funded from the highest government level. Actually, even in the US, education is a local thing, with local public school districts taxing people to build schools and hire teachers. Now, when people are earning US$80 a year, how much can you tax them to build schools? And, in where I grew up, Hong Kong, the majority of schools are run by churches and charities, with government subsidies. Including the ones I attended. Sure, the local Anglican church may have lots of funding these days, but they were started basically as charities for the church to educate local kids. My point is that in many parts of the world, for whatever reasons, education is not top priority for the local government. Changes may come, but it may take a long time. Meanwhile, it doesn't take that much to improve the conditions for quite a few kids for at least some years. Can't fault people for donating their time or money for helping out... Okay, enough ranting. I think I'll go edit the photos to make the place look worse! ;) Back to the travelogue next... |
After we got down the hill, we had dinner at a new restaurant across from the massive and brand-new county government building. We had some interesting food here, including fried bees and some wild-mushrooms. Lots of us were eating with us from the local government and Communist Youth League (which is responsible for grade 1-12 education in China) but I have no idea who most of them are.
Then it was an hour's ride back to Yunxian where we overnight. <b>2C. Yunxian, again</b> We were staying at the 2* Yunxian Guesthouse, probably the best in town. It was pretty basic, and not as fancy as the one in Lincang, but still clean and comfortable. It was still kind of early, and the driver of the VW Santana invited us to <b>his</b> Karaoke bar (they called it KTV in China). Turned out this young and smart guy wasn't a professional driver, but he's one of the best driver in the local party. So, he was to drive that car to go with us for the next 4 days. And he just opened the KTV a couple weeks ago. My parents and my uncle and aunts have all bailed, so I went to represent the family with my horrible Putonghua. Fortunately, I did know a few songs in Mandarin by Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung, so that was okay. We had some beer, but also a famous local wine that's made from papaya juice. Relatively sweet, but quite flavorful. Not bad at all. The winery is owned by a private individual, and is one of the new industry in that area. Anyways, I had fun. The decor inside the room was pretty basic, but they did spruce up the lobby, with cool neon lighting, and young pretty girls as hosts/cashiers. With us was also a beautiful lady who've been with us all day, from the Yunxian Communist Youth League. Very very nice person, who could also sing. Afterwards, we went to a small market with a bunch of food stalls for midnight supper. I remember having some vermicelli noodles, but there was also an interesting fried tofu snack. It's like those outdoor food markets in Singapore or Penang, though the sitting area was less comfortable. |
<b>Day 3. 11/3/06 Friday</b>
<b>A. Kengma</b> After having breakfast (simple porridge, buns, etc) at our hotel, we said farewell to the young lady host from Yunxian. And it was a three hour ride to Kengma. It's a relatively well-maintained road that sometimes follow a valley, sometimes going through canyons, sometimes riding high along a ridge. At times, it look like the Swiss Alps or Tuscany in Italy, if one ignores the few houses along the road. We were getting close to the Burmese border now, and there was a People's Liberation Army checkpoint before Kengma. All of us need to show ID/passports, and explain why we were heading that way. It became apparent that one doesn't mess with the PLA soldiers, not even our Communist Youth League official. From what I've read, Kengma suffered a pretty devasting earthquake a few years ago. Perhaps that's why there are plenty of new buildings. We were only passing through here and to have lunch with no official visit or business, but that didn't stop the local officials from joining us for lunch. After lunch, we spent a little time at the local main monastery. There are lots of Burmese influence around here, including its architecture. And while this buddhist temple itself is pretty non-descriptive, there were some Burmese style tower around it, and some of its buddha statues came from Burma, including a jade one. |
<b>3B. Cangyuan & the "Wa" People</b>
From Kengma, we headed south towards our final and ultimate destination on our trip, Cangyuan. The road got more twisty, and lots of repair and repavement going on. We climbed some hills, cross a tributary of the Langcang River, and then we were in the Wa Autonomous County of Cangyuan. A few km later, we stopped near some caves along the main road and was greeted by a huge group of people - including the local Communist Youth League rep, Cangyuan officials, etc, including a beautiful Wa school teacher in traditional dress who'd accompany us for the next two days. A little description of the Wa people (also spelled "Va"). There are just over 1 million of them, with about half in China, half in Burma. And of those in China, they live basically in two counties, one of them Cangyuan. In Cangyuan, over 80% of the population are Wa people. The Wa doesn't have a written language until 1957, and their believe is Animism. The water buffalo and the cow are central to their believe and lives, but they also eat them - more about that later. They wear sleeveless cotton clothings mostly in red and black, with silver ornaments. Wine and dance are central to their lives. Also, they have very dark skins - even darker than the minority groups that share common ancestors to the Thai and most Burmese groups. [I will post photos later on.] And the geography here is also very interesting. The county seat of Cangyuan is only about 3-4 miles from the Burmese border, near the southern end of a beautiful valley, at around 1,200m/4,000ft above sea level and near the Tropic of Cancer. The valley is about 25-mile long as the crow flies, but is twisty and with many branches, and is entirely surrounded by hills as tall as 2,400m/8,000ft tall. Widest part of the valley is about a mile, at the county seat, but at most other places, around 300 yards or so. The valley floor is flat, and they grow corn, sugar cane, some rice, and raise cows and water buffaloes. Along some hillside is a species of the Alsophila trees - they look similar to palms, but these ones grow in pairs. Very interesting. As I mentioned, the valley is surrounded by hills on all sides, and from what I understand, the water flows through underground cave(s) to reach a tributary of the Lancang River, who becomes the Mekong. [Cangyuan = "Source of Lancang", though realistically it's just one of the many sources of it.] As you can tell, this is an extremely isolated area, with a minority people that only tastes modernity in the last 50 years. They are self-sufficient, but not much more. In fact, many of the improvements (electricity, tile roofs, a water reservoir, cellphones, hotels) only come to existence within the last few years. If we had visited just 10 years ago, I think the experience would be even more drastic. Anyways, even today, most Wa people still live in huts made of bamboo. Many still have straw-grass roofs, though the government is replacing them progressively with tiles in a very beautiful deep red color. First time I saw a village, I thought it's a modern 5* resort until closer inspection. |
Fascinating report. Loved the photos. You can see the difficult conditions at the school. We visited China for the first time this year and found it incredibly interesting.
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travelgirl2 - Thanks for reading and checking out the photos. Maybe it's the Thanksgiving holiday, but I'm not getting a lot of replies here. Which is kind of surprising. [Anyways, I'm writing this mostly for my own "entertainment". I'm starting to care not if anyone's reading. ;) ]
But back to the trip now: --- As I mentioned earlier, we were greeted by a large group of officials once we entered Cangyuan. The first place we visited is right there on the roadside, which a large semi-open concave indentation in the mountain, and some caves that unlit. According to the legend of the Wa people, their ancestors used to live in caves, and those are their origins. [Remember, they do not have a written languange until 50 years ago, so, all stories and legends were passed on verbally from one generation to another.] So, caves in the mountain side are still sacred places to them, and they use the indentation for celebrations and ceremonies. A few miles further south, we came to the valley floor, and walked through a "model" or "show" Wa village. This one is next to a scenic area, where an elevated walkway has been built so one can walk above the fields for just over one mile to appreciate the scenery. In the village, we saw loose corn being dried for pig feed, an older lady smoking a pipe, some finished cloths, and a small group of men rebuilding a habitat. In this village, most of the buildings have the beautiful deep-red tiles on the roof, replacing straws. But because of their believe, the main community hall still have straw roof, and won't be replaced. After the village, we walked along that raised walkway along the valley. It was a surreal experience, as the sky was clear, the nearby highway has no traffic, and there's just a light breeze. It was around 4pm, but the place was so quiet, so serene. The sound we heard are those from the cowbells tied to the many many cows grazing in the valley. With the tones of the each bell different from another, it was pure music. If one doesn't care about modern things, this would be close to Utopia. Near the short cliffs on the east side of the valley are one species of alsophila trees. This species have been around for millions of years, and are similar, but not identical to palm. Interesting to see them at 4,000ft above sea level. Also, they grow in pairs. If one of the tree get cut down, the other usually will die. Then we went to visit the homes of three primary-school students in the area who got support from Sowers Action. The first girl is 11 years old, and is in Grade 5. Her home is halfway up a hillside, and it was a pretty difficult hike. Unlike some other houses, theirs haven't received the roof tiles. The home is a rectangular structure with bamboo sticks as support, raised roof with straws, and then wooden panel. Inside is one large communal room and one small one, mostly for storage, in the back. They do have electricity now, but the only thing I see that uses electricity is a light bulb hanged from the ceiling which they turned on when we got there. Like all traditional Wa homes, in the middle of the main room was a slow-burning flame, fed by three pieces of wood placed in a "Y" pattern. As it burned out, they would push the pieces of wood closer to the middle. On top is a kettle, but they also hang meat from the roof to be smoked dry from the flame. Behind the main structure is a small hut. I believe a couple of pigs might be living there, and there were lots of chicken hanging around too. In the front the house, I took a picture of a banana tree. We gathered around and chatted with the girl, who was very shy but pretty and nice, and her parents. They brought out the main beverage of the Wa people, which they call "water wine". It's like a fruit juice (probably made with corn) with extremely low alcohol content. Chen, the Yunnan girl working for Sowers, did her work in interviewing the family, about their financial situation and everything. We found out that the dad has to go to the other side of the valley to work his fields - about a half a hour walk each way, at least; so is the walk for the girl to her school. Officially, per capita income is 420RMB (US$55) per year. Then we went to two other homes, both better built in other villages. One is a Grade 6 student, another a Grade 2. The younger one was very very cute. [BTW, all the people have two names. One is in their Wa language, and then a Han-Chinese name for official and schooling purpose.] So far, I found the regular Wa people pretty shy, and were still quite suspicious of foreigners. Or perhaps because they've met with so few. For example, while no one hid from my camera, most were not-sure what to do, including the kids. In other places, one may expect kids to gather around the photographer to get their pictures taken, especially now that I can show them on the LCD screen the shot I took. |
rkkwan - I've also been reading along, with much interest. I visited some smaller towns south of Kunming last time I was in China, but didn't get out into the countryside the way you have done. How difficult do you think it would be visit some of the places you went as an independent traveler with no Mandarin (why is it sometimes called Putonghua?)?
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thursdays - For many of these people, Mandarin is already a 2nd language, and you'll not find anybody who speaks English. [Probably except the English teacher in the schools; anybody else who speaks English won't be staying around in these areas earning next to nothing, especially in places like Cangyuan.]
So, it comes down to your skills in using sign language and drawing pictures; and your willingness in doing so. Or using a whole bunch of cards with English and Chinese translated already. In my opinion, "independence" is a relativey term. At places like this, you at least need a car and driver. So, if you can communicate with him somehow, then he can be kind of a guide already. Public transportation is non-existence once you get out of the various county seats, and you don't just want to visit those towns anyways. I mean, I don't think I even saw a public bus that goes the 22km between the Lincang Airport and the regional capital. People who could afford to fly there also would have a car arranged already. |
Thanks rkkwan. There was no English spoken in the Yunnan towns I visited - I got by on sign language and a phrase book with characters (I had already found that few people seemed to read pinyin). But there was public transport - I wrote the name of the next town in characters and showed it to the bus drivers. I always feel so extravagant with a car and driver for just one person - assuming I can afford it. Perhaps I should look for a tour to the more remote areas.
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thursdaysd - The area I went to (i.e. Lincang) have so little tourists that it's quite hard to get around with a car and driver. But if you want to visit the minority groups but don't want the commercial tourism of Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La, you should consider going to Xishuangbanna in the SSW corner of Yunnan. There are flights from Kunming to Jinhong, its regional capital. Tourism is more developed there.
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BTW, thursdaysd - are you the "thursday" who've been posting on Flyertalk?
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Hi rkkwan - no, different thursday altogether. I haven't spent time on flyertalk, although I (very) occasionally post on LP's thorntree. I did find Lijiang very touristy, although mostly Chinese tour groups. So much so, the second day I took the bus out to Dazu, at the far end of Tiger Leaping Gorge - after seven months traveling I didn't feel up to hiking it alone. The southern side of Kunming - Tonghai, Jianshui, Gejiu - seemed much less visited.
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thursdaysd - Let me clarify one thing about public transportation. There are good coach service between Kunming and all of the county seats, with one exception. I see those beautifully looking sleeper coaches (it's a 10+ hour ride) on the highway all the time for Lincang, Yunxian, Kengma, etc. But the problem is what you do once you get there. I don't remember seeing any local bus in those areas. A taxi or two at Lincang perhaps. At some towns, the public transportation is a three-wheeled motorcycles, not unlike Bangkok some years ago. But you can't go to the villages or attractions outside of town on those.
And there are so few people going to/from Cangyuan that I don't remember seeing any coach on the one-and-only highway going to it from Kengma. --- So after visiting the three students sponsored by Sowers Action, it's time for dinner, which is actually the "Wa King's Feast". We went to one of the Wa village still outside of the Cangyuan town, and at the very far end of the village is a little "countryclub". Which is basically one large bamboo/grass-straw hut that can fit 50-60 people under. Inside was a long table about two feet off the ground, and we sat on little stools. Large banana leaves were the tablecloth and dishes all in one. Food is pretty simple - rice and sticky rice, roast chicken, roast pork and whole roast fish. Also some soup and picked vegetables and side dishes. While chopsticks and bowls were provided, the main courses would be eaten with hand. The food was quite delicious, but soon after we started, we were interrupted non-stop by two guys, one girl (all in the twenties), as well the school teacher who've accompanied us all afternoon for traditional Wa drinking songs. They all wear traditional clothings, of course. And lots of the "water wine", plus a rice-liquor. And while they were singing to and drinking with others, the various local officials would come to drink with us too. It was extremely festive and fun, and perhaps because I was the youngest one in our group from Hong Kong, and single; and perhaps I was most receptive of all to the alcohol, it seems like I was getting the most attention. Even Chen, the Yunnan worker for Sowers, wasn't supposed to drink while at work, and couldn't really drink, got a lot of "attention" too, from the two young Wa guys. All of them really have great singing voices. Can't remember what time we finished dinner, but when we got out the moon was very very beautiful. [It was a few days before full moon.] The air is super super clean here, unlike Hong Kong; and there's virtually no light pollution. None of the other village houses show any bright light from them at all. Another incredible experience. It was about a 20-minute ride to get to our hotel in Cangyuan. The singer girl at our banquet hitched a ride the VW Santana I was riding, and she was explaining to others that all three of them were actually a part-time teachers in Cangyuan. They also got to travel to other parts of China to promote Wa culture. We checked into Washan Guesthouse, a new hotel that's one of only three hotels in all of Cangyuan county (not just the town) with a star rating. It's actually not bad, with decent-sized room; but it has three major problems. One is that they usually leave the lights off in the hallway, so the whole place was dark; while the only light switches in the room are between the beds. So, imagine the problem getting into our room at night. Second, the shower was a cocoon-like thing with many buttons and switches. I guess it was supposed to be really fancy, but it made taking a simple shower the work of a PhD. I'll talk about the third problem later. It was still kind of early, and after having so much fun the light before at the KTV, our guide (the Communist Youth League official) brought us to a foot massage parlor just around the corner from our hotel. (to be continued...) |
7 of us walked into the foot massage parlor. We were split into two groups with the two drivers on their own, 5 of us in another (me, Mr. Yeung from Sowers Hong Kong, the Communist Youth League official, the deputy minister of education for all of Lincang, and the Kunming Daily reporter) to a room upstairs. Foot massage has become the latest fad in all of Asia, as place to relax and socialize; like snooker and karaoke before it. But it was the first time I did it.
Anyways, the place was empty when we walked in, and I wondered if and how they'd get 7 masseurs; but incredibly, after just waiting for about 5 minutes, 5 girls showed up. I then realized that it's a small town, and they could come right away from home or wherever! Cost is 50RMB for 90 minutes. The first 30 minutes or so, the girl put my feet in a bucket of hot Chinese or Tibetan herbal medicine while she massaged my arm and neck. Then she cleaned off the feet and massaged those for about 50 minutes, and for the final ten, I turned around and she did my back. It was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep. [Also because everybody was chatting in Mandarin and I had a hard time following the conversations.] About that 50RMB. That's about the same price you paid elsewhere in China, but that's a lot of money in a place like Cangyuan when a farmer earned just over 400RMB a year. I don't know how much the girls actually made out of the 50RMB, but it was definitely better and easier job than farming the fields. But none of those girls were Wa people. Instead, they were Dai (Thai) group who came elsewhere to work at the town. Apparently, the Wa people weren't interested in this form of work, even if that could earn them hard cash from visitors. Very relaxed, I returned to the hotel to found out the 3rd problem. Well, there were perhaps a few KTVs in town, but because our hotel was basically the only place where businessmen/tourists would stay, they were right beside us, with loud music blaring. The windows weren't well sealed, and the music was very audible. But I was so tired from all the day's activities - I mean, it took me 3 days to describe that 16 hours! - that I had no problem falling asleep at all... |
<b>Day 4. Saturday, 11/4/06</b>
<b>A. Cangyuan</b> This was the day of the main event for our trip, the dedication ceremony of a middle school (Grade 7-12) in Cangyuan. We had a basic breakfast at a restaurant not far from hotel, and then it's a 2-minute drive to the school on the east side of the valley via a new road. Like at Yunxian 2 days ago, kids from the whole school lined up along the two sides of the path. No drums and cymbals here in Wa territory, but they were chanting "Thank you, thank you for life" the whole way. Some of the girls were wearing traditional Wa dresses, but most in regular daily clothes. Some boys also wore the traditional sleeveless vest, but because it was a cool morning, they wore it over their daily clothes. While we waited for the kids to get seated, we visited their classrooms in the new building. It's a 3-floor structure with 6 rooms on each floor. Probably have 2 classes for each grade, and then 6 rooms left for teachers, labs, library, etc. Again, the bathrooms were in a seperate building, and it was huge and clean. Traditional bamboo-built huts of the Wa people have a "X" on top, with the main bamboos sticking out. These days, when they build new concrete houses, they all retain that "X" as a tradition. Our hotel has it, and so is this new school building. The structure looks simple, but decent. I believe the total cost was about 1 million RMB, or about US$130K. The ceremony was the same as last time, with various officials speaking, then my mom, and then Mr. Yeung from Sowers Action. Finally, my dad and the major of Cangyuan unveiled the plaque. Over in 45 minutes. Right after, the kids carried the benches they were sitting on back to the classrooms. Only then I remembered there were no chairs or anything when we looked at the classrooms prior. And even though it was a Saturday, they continued to have classes. For the next 30 minutes, about 40 or so kids, mostly older Grade 11-12 ones, stayed behind to chat with all of us, in groups. Since my Mandarin was so poor, I mainly eavesdropped on their conversations, and with them all sitting and standing still, I took lots of pictures of the faces, their clothings and the silver ornaments. They were sitting ducks! :) Then we toured the old school buildings. The better-condition ones are now dorm buildings for the kids and the teachers, and the poorest ones - some were just bamboo huts with straw grass roof - were abandoned or torn down. Like other dorms we'd seen, they were are bunkbeds, and perhaps 3 kids would share two beds. Most of the kids need boarding because they came from villages all over the county to attend middleschool here. [I don't know exactly how many middleschools they have in the whole county, but can't be that many.] Same with the teachers. While I was walking around the old campus, I was accompanied by a maths teacher. He is actually from Shanghai, being sent (or maybe he volunteered, I don't know) to Cangyuan, as they seriously lacked maths, science and English teacher here. At the same time, some of the local teachers were sent to a Shanghai middleschool as exchange to improve their skills. He told me that he was really shocked when he first came to Cangyuan over a year ago to see the conditions here at that time, before they have the new building. In fact, the previous principal of the school was also from Shanghai. It was him who really pushed hard to get funding to improve the conditions, and finally got the Communist Youth League to get donations from Hong Kong to help them out. Mr. Yeung had met this principal (who'd returned to Shanghai after his two-year tenure) many times during the funding/construction process, and really admired his resolve to help the kids in Cangyuan. |
It was almost time for lunch, and we said goodbye to the teachers and students at the highschool. We drove by a new stadium in town, where Cangyuan held its annual Carnival. Turned out this was not a very old tradition, and only started a few years back to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, and to try get some tourists to come here. It's held in the spring time, and everybody there kept telling me to come back in May 2007 for it. No one actually told me what actually happens AT the festival.
So, only after I got home and did some research before I realized the main activity at the Carnival is something called "Touch You Black", where everybody went into a big field of special mud and then tried hard to make everybody else black! ;) Hm... Okay... Anyways, it is indeed a Wa tradition to put mud on someone to drive away illness, etc; but the current festival sounds too much like mud wrestling to me. :D We had lunch at a small resort area underneath the reservoir's main dam, a mile or two outside of town. We were only 2 miles from the Burmese border, which is at the hills behind the reservoir. The road distance is close to 4 miles because it's a small winding road. It's mostly local Wa villagers who cross the border, and it's not a major trade or commerce route. All the ladies in our visiting group were presented with a cotton bag to wear across the shoulders - Wa people always wear it, even when they're dancing and drinking. And each of us also got a wood carving of an ox's head, which is the symbol of the Wa people and they were handmade by students at the highschool. I've been wearing mine often since. Lunch was again filled with songs and drinks. Instead of the weak "water wine", I drank mostly "Nanlajiu", the local liquor. It's very smooth and while I could feel the alcohol, it didn't give me any headache. Couldn't remember how much I drank, but definitely quite a bit. Finally, it was time to leave this amazing place, Cangyuan for the 4.5 hour drive back to Lincang. And the local officials gave each of us a gift box of their most famous export - beef jerky. [I had some later in Hong Kong, and it's really good. I like it a lot better than the Texas ones, being more moist and just as flavorful.] |
<b>4B. Lincang</b>
I slept during most of the 4.5 hour ride back to Lincang, as it was the same route we came down. Also chatted a little with Chen, and I showed her some of my electronic gadgets I had, also pictures I had taken earlier in Hong Kong. About an hour before Lincang, we stopped, and Mr. Yeung and Chen had to leave us for a few hours to visit school officials in another county. Those people had sent a car out to the main intersection to pick them up. So, we got to Lincang, checked into a different hotel, also very nice 3* facility. We switched from the earlier one because the rooms at the Wasai were too smokey. This one has a funny name "L. Road Grand Hotel". For dinner, we went to a new hot pot restaurant in the brand-new residential complex the Communist Youth League guy lived in. First about the apartments - he told us that his 1,000 sq feet unit it cost him about 180K RMB (~$25K), equipped. Still expensive even if you're a high government official. His salary is about 1,400RMB (US$200) a month. But he's doing very very well, as he belongs to the Yi minority group and his parents are farmers. So, it's not like he has a "good background" as kids of People Liberation Army or Communist Party officials. Now, about the restaurant. First, it had lots of beautiful young girls as hostesses, who basically just stood around all night. They probably earn 400-500RMB a month. [Remember that's how much a farmer earns in a year.] As for the food, it's a hotpot all-you-can-eat restaurant with a twist. The soup is made with "sour ants", which supposedly have medicinal purpose, is good for you, etc... But if you didn't tell me anything about it, I wouldn't know. For us curious visitors, however, they brought us a dish of the ants they used to make the soup with. I tried a couple, and they were indeed sour. They told us that these ants live in trees, and don't come down to the ground. But the soft texture of them grossed me out a little. A little later, they brought another dish of ants - this time they were stir-fried with various spices. Pretty crunchy, this dish tasted pretty good. For the hotpot, there were various meat and vegetables. The soup was actually pretty good. With the entourage disappeared, there were only 9 of us for dinner including the two drivers, and the bill was 240RMB ($31). Money goes very far in this part of the world. We had an early flight the next morning back to Kunming, so we went to bed once we found that Mr. Yeung and Chen had arrived safely back from their other visit. |
<b>Day 5. Sunday 11/5/06</b>
<b>Kunming, Yiliang, Jiuxiang</b> We arrived at the airport at 8:30a for our 9:30a flight back to Kunming. Said goodbye to the locals, as well as Chen, who stayed behind to visit more schools and student families in the Lincang region. You can see the incredible views from my window seat late in this gallery: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p476976649/ Flight report in this thread: fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=126&tid=34899811 --- Mr. Yeung's god-daughter, Miss Xia, came to greet us at the Kunming airport, and the hotel van picked us up. Mr. Yeung has 4 sons, and recently got a god-daughter whom he knew from Lincang. She's now a school teacher near her home in Yiliang, about an hour east of Kunming. She invited us to her home to lunch. Her brother-in-law cooked a great lunch for us, and he also bought a famous Yiliang roast duck, and we chatted with her parents, her sister and BIL. She also has a 3-year old niece. After lunch, the girl, her sister, nephew, and dad came with us to visit the Jiuxiang Scenic Area, sort of a national park, with a river gorge and some limestone caves less than an hour east of Yiliang. On the way, we stopped the school where Xia taught. I'd been to quite a few limestone caves in the world, and my parents had gone to even more. Still, there are two unique things here - one is a pretty large waterfall inside a cave, and second is a series of terraced pools formed by mineral deposits. They are similar to those in Huanglong in Sichuan, and other places like Yellowstone have some too, but we'd never seen them inside a limestone cave. It's quite worthwhile to visit, and it was the first time in our trip we saw tour buses and foreign tourists. [The famous "Stone Forrest" is also not far away, but all of us had been there before (I went over 20 years ago as a kid).] One thing I was shocked to learn is the cost of visiting such attractions. Adult fare is 90RMB (US$12), but that wasn't it. After you got to the bottom of the canyon at the end, there was an optional "sedan chair" service to bring one up the 350 steps for 50RMB. My mom and my aunt used them. Then a ski-lift type cable car cost 15RMB to bring one back to the main entrance, or else it's a half-an-hour walk with ups and downs. These kind of prices are limiting visits to foreign tourists and the well-offs from the big cities, while locals really can't enjoy them. I know that the high fees are used to control crowds, but it just doesn't seem very fair to me. This isn't a commercial theme park. We had dinner back in Yiliang. Decent restaurant, lots of food, and the cost for the 12 of us, including beer? 168RMB ($21) Unbelievable. Many dishes cost under US$1. |
<b>Day 6. Monday 11/6/06</b>
<b>Return to Hong Kong</b> Remember the first place we went to in Kunming? Yes, Wal-Mart. We went there again on this last day, on our way to the airport, so my uncle and aunts can buy the Xuanwei Ham. Wal-Mart really has a great selection with a whole wall of it of various sizes, various grades, in various gift boxes. I looked at their beer and wine selection and did find the Langcangjiang Beer and the Sigan-Lee papaya wine from Lincang that I had at the KTV few days ago. Those are pretty popular brands, at least in Kunming. This also show how much local Yunnan stuff they sell in this Wal-Mart. Smart business decision and no wonder they are successful in China. The rest is routine - Shenzhen Airlines flight back to SZX, where we had lunch. Then my uncle had arranged a van to bring us back to the Huanggang border where Mr. Yeung, my dad and I headed back to Hong Kong. My mom, uncle and aunts then went to Panyu on their own. --- Hope you enjoyed this lengthy report. Comments welcomed, though as I said in the beginning, I may not respond to stuff said about the Chinese government - it depends on what. I will post the link to the photos once I have them posted, besides those for that one school we visited in Fengqing, which is already up. |
I really enjoyed reading your trip report, it was so informative, descriptive but not in any way judgemental, just open and honest reporting imo, thank you for posting. Also being able to see the photos made it all the more interesting, and your photos are outstanding, I'm very impressed.
thanks, Pauline |
Thanks for reading. I'm starting to post the many photos I took in Yunnan.
Day 1 is now posted, from Hong Kong to Kunming to Lincang: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p67944091/ Hope to have everything posted by this weekend. |
Big news! All ~800 pictures of the trip to Yunnan posted in the folder:
rkkwan.zenfolio.com/f334779450/ 7 separate galleries, holding pictures for : - The 4 domestic Chinese flights - Day 1: Hong Kong to Shenzhen to Kunming to Lincang. - Day 2: Yunxian school dedication, and other school visits. Also Fengqing. - Day 3: Yunxian to Gengma (Kengma) to Cangyuan. Beautiful sceneries, visit 3 Wa homes, "King's Feast" - Day 4: Cangyuan school dedication, lunch, back to Lincang - Day 5 & 6: Kunming, Jiuxiang - School in Fengqing we visited on Day 2. They are trying to get Sowers Action to help them finance a new building. |
really enjoyed your photos of this trip, thanks for posting
Pauline |
Raymond:
Were you in Singh Singh on Saturday at about 11:45 am? We though we saw you there with friends/family? |
Bill - YES! I was there. I wasn't looking, but you should have come by. My sister (Fodorite "yk") and my BIL came down from Dallas.
In fact, I ate there again last night. The place is owned by a relative of mine. Like the food, hate the cramped seating and lack of service. |
We thought that was you with your signature hat! But you had company so we thought we would not interrupt.
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Oh, Bill. That's Chinatown! Did I look like I was on a date? ;) And so far, I am not quite a celebrity yet... Hahahah. :D
Next time, come on by! Anyways. Everybody else, go look at the photos and read the review above! :) |
I came by my old thread from over a year ago. Now that I find a way to input Chinese characters, I'll make this complete by adding some Chinese names here:
Sowers Action - 苗圃行动 Yunnan - 云南 Kunming - 昆明 Lincang - 临沧 Yunxian - 云县 Fenqing - 凤庆 Gengma - 耿马 Cangyuan - 沧源 Yiliang - 宜良 Jiuxiang - 九乡 Dai people - 傣族 Wa people - 佤族 |
Very cool!
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