Alright. Departing tomorrow morning. I will be a long and busy trip. Will write after returning to Hong Kong from China in 10 days.

rkkwan, Had no idea where you were. I thought you were holed up in some school in HK. Have a nice trip and we will talk when you get back to H towm.

Hi all! I'm now back in Hong Kong, having returned from Sichuan on 1/1. It was a pretty tough and cold trip, but extremely interesting. Took over 2,000 pictures, and I'll post my report and pictures slowly after I get back to Houston this weekend.

Happy New Year to all.

Happy New Year to you! Look forward to your report.

Knew you'd take 2,000 pix! Happy New Year and will wait patiently for your TR.

Happy New Year my guru of cameras!

I'm back in front of my computer here in Houston after a long 3 weeks away. Caught the flu, and am still suffering right now.

Anyways, I saw on a post by Cicerone on another thread that she can post Chinese characters. I tried some time ago here and was unsuccessful, but I will try it again here. Since I went to China, I'd use simplified Chinese characters rather than traditional.

The places I went to are in the Sichuan Liangshan Yi Autonomous Perfecture (四川凉山彝族自治州). The two counties are Leibo (雷波) and Butuo (布拖).

<b>Sunday, 12/23/07</b>

Hong Kong - Shenzhen - Yibin - Leibo Mahu

香港 － 深圳 － 宜宾 － 雷波 马湖

My parents, my aunt and I tried the new direct bus from the Elements mall above the Kowloon AE/MTR station to SZX. Turned out to be excellent. Nice clean waiting area, fairly frequent buses (every :15 and :45), reasonably priced (HK$90 o/w, $160 roundtrip). 90 minutes, despite the advertised 75-minute time frame.

Best thing is the new Western border crossing at Shenzhen Bay. It's simply <b>the most civilized entry point</b> into China I've ever used. You get off the bus, grab luggage, go through HK immigration, walk another 50 yards or so, clear Chinese immigration, and you reboard bus. 10 minutes total and no line.

At SZX, we met up with our Sowers Action leader Margaret and my friend Daphne who was joining our working group; and ordered some severely overpriced noodles (~45RMB each; we ordered 4) so to get a place to sit. Airport food pricing in China is way worse than the worst in the US.

We flew a China Eastern 737-300 that's part of the Kunming-based southwest regional fleet. No first class and very tight pitch of about 29&quot; by my estimate. SZX - YBP is flown only 3 times a week. Flight time 1:52. Lunch was a choice of tasteless chicken and spicy beef. The fruit salad was a nice touch.

We were greeted by a Yunnan-based Sowers Action worker Fang Ming and the cars, drivers and the Communist Youth League official from Leibo at Yibin (elevation: 290m/950ft). We departed 3:50p and arrived at Mahu inside Leibo county at 7:45p. Mountainous roads, but all paved. We followed the Jinshajiang (金沙江), basically the upper section of the Yangtze for a while.

Mahu (马湖) (elev: 1,300m/4,250ft) is a fairly scenic area. It calls itself the 3rd largest high-elevation fresh water lake in China, though I have my doubts. They produce some tasty fish and a kind of fresh-water weed which they export to all over China.

It's off-season and extremely quiet. The hotel doesn't have heat, hot water, or regular toilet. But at least the food is good and we only pay 60RMB/room. All we were looking for was a clean place to sleep and we got it.

Welcome back! Sorry you got the flu. Anxiously waiting to see the pictures.


(My penalty assessing days are, thankfully, behind me. Nice to be 'regular' folk again).

Chinese characters - how cool!

Welcome back, do hope you feel better soon. Looking forward to the rest!

I hope you are feeling better. I'm looking forward to your report.

rkkwan: Thanks for posting even when not feeling well! Looking forward to your photos!

What is Sowers?

The Chinese characters are a wonderful touch! Now I can even understand where you went! Although that &quot;horse&quot; sure looks funny! :) What software or website is necessary to post in Chinese?

Can't wait to read the next segment! :)

easytraveler -

I have mentioned it in the thread from a year ago, but Sowers Action (苗圃行動) is a non-profit based in Hong Kong that provides funding to schools in remote parts of China (particularly in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou) to construct new buildings; and to provide monetary help directly to select students to help them stay in school.

www.sowers.org.hk

rkkwan -- sorry you got the flu, when there's no heat the body can only take so much, get well soon! Btw, the chinese characters are so cool, you'll tell us how to do it, right?

Let me stop for a moment to explain the geopolitical characteristics of this area.

Sichuan Province is one of the most populous in China with 87mil people, and is also very large; even after Chongqing was split off from it. In China, a province is then divided into administrative zones known as cities (市) and/or prefectures (州). Within each city/preferture are counties (县) plus the seat of that city/prefecture. Within each county are towns (镇) and/or townships (乡). Finally, there are villages (村) inside the towns/townships.

Liangshan (凉山) is an &quot;autonomous&quot; prefecture of 4 million people, with about 50% population being the Yi People (彝族). Yi has their own spoken and written language, as well as its own primitive religion/belief. All signs are presented in both Chinese and the Yi language. The seat of the prefecture is the city of Xichang (西昌), which we would visit at the end of our journey, and flew out of.

The western half of the Liangshan prefecture is sparsely populated by the Tibetans (藏族), as it's basically the same high plateau as Shangri-La/Zhongdian in Yunnan. The eastern half is the mountain range called Daliangshan (大凉山), which is where we went. It's bordered to the south and east by the Jinshajiang river gorge; across the river is part of Zhaotong (昭通市) in Yunnan. There are very very few river crossings or bridges, and the river is not navigable (at least for now).

But back to Leibo. It has only about 240,000 people, and not very large on the map. About 45 miles E-W, and 70 miles N-S. Yet, highest peak is about 3,600m/12,000ft; while the Jinshajiang is at about 350m/1,150ft. Very extreme terrain. For the longest time, its two most famous stuff are that fresh water weed from Mahu (马湖莼菜) and its navel oranges - extremely juicy and moderately sweet.

But constructions have begun in 2005 of the Xiluodu (溪洛渡) hydro dam on the Jinshajiang. When completed around 2013, it'll be the 3rd largest dam in the world, and 2nd largest in China, only after the Three Gorges Dam. More about it later in the trip report. With the construction, Leibo is like a boom county. New roads, bridges and housing are being built.

Leibo is the furthest east county in Liangshan, and we found that it's mostly Han Chinese that live there. Few years back, before the dam construction, it was indeed very poor. The local officials worked very hard to get Sowers Action to help them with funding of schools, but nowadays the support is winding down.

Day 2 of the journey will be posted later today.

I use a Mac at home, and Chinese input (both traditional and simplified forms) is built in. There are several input methods for each, and I just use pinyin.

There should be plenty of Chinese input methods available for the Windows platform. I don't know which one is the best or easiest to use, however. One of the easier ways for those not wanting to spend lots of time learning is to use a tablet.

Thanks again!

rkkwan, hope you are feeling better. You did not mention the flu in your e-mail. How does a guy from H-Town get along with no heat, no hot water and no toilet? No wonder you came home sick. After reading this report I can't wait to do lunch or dinner when I get back in Feb.

<b>Monday 12/24/07</b>

Leibo: Mahu - Shuanghekou - Dukou - Leibo (Jincheng)

雷波： 马湖 － 双河口 － 渡口 － 雷波（锦城镇）

This was our first working day. After breakfast at our hotel (vermicelli noddles - like for most remaining days), we left the serene and misty Mahu and backtracked down the same way we came up. On the previous day from Yibin, we had a sedan (forgot make) and a Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD SUV; from today, the sedan was substituted by a second Pajero.

It was dark the previous night, and we didn't realize how scary that road was. A series of switchbacks from 1,150m/3,800ft down to the Jinshajiang at around 350m/1,150ft. Then we left the main road to climb a gravel road (okay condition for most parts, some muddy ruts on some) for about 45 minutes to Shuanghekou (elev: 800m/2,600ft) to inspect a new building at their primary school. Travel time: 1:30.

Sowers Action have in 2004 already helped this school built a brand new building with 6 classrooms and office; and the government has built a dorm building. But Sowers just helped them extend a building to include an extra classroom and a library/AV room, and we were there to do the final inspection so that they will get the final sum of money.

The village doesn't have much flat land, but the hills aren't that steep. Classes are well attended, and some kids actually come from the neighboring Pingshan County (屏山县）just across a small river. What's most interesting is that most of the school's teachers, including the principal, are born in 1982. Only 25 years old.

The 2004 building was donated via Sowers Action by a famous person from Hong Kong - Elsie Hume Elliot (葉錫恩) - and her husband. Elliot is a English lady who came to China in the 1940's as a missionary. After the communist took over, she went to Hong Kong and had been an education activist for 50+ years, and spoke fluent Cantonese and Putonghua. She was also a Urban Council member in Hong Kong for decades. We were honored to have re-inspected a school she donated.

Lunch is in a small office just outside the school. Not sure who owned that building, but the school principal and teacher joined us for rice, tofu and preserved (and slightly smoked) pork. Then it's a 1:35 car ride to Tangfang Village (糖房) in Dukou Township.

Dukou is on the Jinshajiang shore, facing Yunnan Province, and the school we visited at elevation of 650m/2,100ft. There's a nice new road along the shore and the longest bridge across the river just completed. All these are built for the construction of the Xiluodu hydro dam project. Our vehicles from the Leibo Communist Youth League of course have the placards to go on them.

The primary school currently only has just one old building with 6 rooms. Pretty poor condition with the roof and walls being held up by dangerously looking beams, and only lighting come from glass tiles on the roof. Rare in China, this school has a young female principal.

They were trying to get money to build a fairly large building with like 14 rooms. A lot of residents are in the process of being relocated due to the dam project, so they're expecting many more students. However, they have problems with the actual estimates; and there were also long discussion whether it should be a 2-storey or 3-storey building.

Finally, it was a 50-minute ride to the county seat of Leibo, Jincheng where we would stay for 2 nights. We took that new road constructed on the shore of Jinshajiang to where the bottom of the new dam would be. Then, we entered a 2-mile long labyrinth tunnel inside the mountain where constructions of the power generator rooms and other facilites are taking place. Tunnels everywhere, visibility very low. It's one of the more incredible roadway I've ever traveled on. I thought about certain scenes in the &quot;Lord of the Rings&quot; movies.

We used that road because it's a short cut, and our vehicles have the placards for it. It wouldn't be a through road after the dam is completed, and of course it doesn't exist 2 years prior. So, it was basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go through the mountain adjacent to the construction site of the world's 3rd largest dam. Incredible.

After exiting that tunnel, we rejoined the old road for the climb up to Leibo/Jincheng. From about 350m/1,150ft zig-zagged up to about 1,150m/3,800ft.

We stayed at the Xiluodu Hotel, largest in the town, and fairly well maintained. Except for some strange smell from my bathroom occasionally. We were again charged 60RMB per room a night.

Dinner was at a restaurant up the hill in this hilltown, not unlike those in Italy. Plenty of dishes, including a soup with small 6-inches long fresh water fish, hashbrown, glutinous rice, etc.

rrkwan,

Always enjoy reading your posts because they are very detailed and extremely helpful. I copy and paste so that I can use them in the future.

Besides trip reports, your photos are very nice too. I hope you will share your latest trip photos soon.


Shanghainese - you can purchase NJStar Communicator 2.70 if you want to input Chinese characters. For more info, go to njstar dot com