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A little bit about weather. Before we departed from Hong Kong, we were warned many times about the low temperature. Having lived in the Northeast US, 30F or so may sounds like nothing. But 30F in Sichuan feels a lot colder than 30F here in the US for two reasons.
One is the high humidity. Even though we only saw a little bit of flurries once, it was cloudy, misty and moist for the whole trip. We only saw the sun for half a day. There's actually an ancient saying which means "Sichuan dogs bark at the sun", as it's so rare the sun shines through. The second issue is the lack of heat. Our first hotel has no heat, and our hotel in Butuo has very weak heat. None of the schools we visited have heat in the classrooms. We saw some kids carrying small pots of coal for warmth, and occasionally, they'll bring one for us. Only once did we see a electrical heater. I have a good jacket, but since I have to take pictures and jot notes, my fingers often feel cold. The ladies in our group rely on the Japanese hand/body warmers called "hokkairos" for warmth. Overall, temperature in Leibo is around 50F in the Jinshajiang Valley, and 40F up in the mountains. Butuo is a lot higher - the county seat is at 2,400m/8,000ft. And temperature is around 30-35F. We went higher over a few mountain passes, and there are serious frost on the pine trees, though we didn't see significant snowfall. And it's not just us visitors who feel cold. The local Yi people carry a thick wool blanket wherever they go, and they often hang around a fire to keep warm. Inside each of their house is a fire in the middle of the room - for cooking and for warmth. --- About the roads. There's basically just one main road through Daliangshan. It's Sichuan Provincial highway S307 that goes from Yibin to Xichang. It passes through Leibo, but once you get off that main road, most other roadways are unpaved. But even sections of S307 are very very poor for two reasons - one is that the heavy trucks for all the dam projects are destroying the roadway; second is that parts of the current S307 will be submerged within the decade and new roads will be built, so there's no incentive to repair the current roadway. The nicest roads are the new ones constructed for the Xiluodu dam project. Currently, they're open to placarded vehicles only. I assume they'll become public highways in the future. S307 doesn't go through Butuo. The only paved highway in that whole county is a 8-mile or so connector from the county seat towards the S307 connection. That's it. And in both counties, most of the gravel roads are just one lane for both directions. When there's oncoming traffic, drivers need to find a wider spot to pass. Also, I saw less than a few hundred feet of railings in the 10 days of travel, even though significant parts of the roadway were on cliffs with drops of up to thousands of feet. |
Thanks for explaining about the temperatures. I wondered why I felt so much colder in northern Vietnam than I should have.
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And about the photo equipment.
I brought all my lenses to Hong Kong - 10-22, 17-55/2.8IS, 50/1.4 and 70-300/4-5.6IS - as well as the 430EX flash. But for the China trip, I only took the 10-22 and 17-55, and also the flash. All were extremely useful. The 17-55 is of course the all-around lens. Image stabilization and the large 2.8 aperture makes it very useful to shoot from the car, even though a dirty windshield. The 10-22 is invaluable in getting all the kids in the classroom in one shot. I usually don't carry a flash for travel, but with this assignment, I need it quite often inside fairly dark classrooms, offices, as well as some restaurants. The 40D + 17-55/2.8 combination is fairly bulky and about twice as heavy as the XTi + 17-85 combo I used last year. I didn't regret making the upgrade, though I did wish they were lighter. The photos look good though, and with IS and the strong flash, many classroom shots come out much brighter (and nicer) than they look in person. Margaret (our Sowers Action leader) half-joked that she needs to adjust the photos darker on her computer, or else no one would donate money to them anymore. ;) The Canon RB-511A batteries have very high capacity. I didn't have any problem with carrying just one spare with me each day, for taking up to 300 frames a day. |
I also want to add that I had wished more than once that I wouldn't have to change lens so often. It was somewhat time consuming and I was always worrying about getting dust onto the sensor in those kind of environment.
But I doubt there will ever be a super-zoom that starts from 10mm. So, as long as I need a ultra-wide angle, I'll always need to carry at least 2 lenses. Just no way around it. |
Thanks, j_4tay.
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NJStar is kind of expensive. I think this may be free, as my colleagues are using it:
tools.google.com/pinyin |
rkkwan,i will read your blog often.oh my god! my english is very poor,i need study hard!
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Ladies and gentlemen - the poster who just signed on and replied, sunny1094, is the Sowers Action worker Fang Ming from Yunnan who were part of our team.
Thanks for coming on to read this thread. I will write about YOU later on... :) <b>Tuesday, 12/25/07 Christmas Day</b> Leibo: Jincheng - Gudui - Lami - Magengzi - Jincheng 雷波： 锦城 － 谷堆 － 拉咪 － 马颈子 － 锦城 Christmas is not an official holiday in China, and it's a working day for almost everybody, including ourselves. We had breakfast at a little noodles and dumpling shop across from the hotel and then departed at around 8:45am. This day, the road condition wasn't as bad, so we had a Mitsubishi Pajero and a Honda CRV. Initially, we followed Jinshajiang on highway S307 towards the Southwest, then turned north onto a gravel road to follow the Xisujiao River (西苏角河), a fast flowing and very clear tributary of the Jiansha. The road climbed rapidly into the clouds, from about 700m/2,300ft to 2,200m/7,200ft in about 40 minutes. We were delayed by some construction work, but arrived at our first school of the day in Gudui. The arrival at Gudui was pretty dramatic. After over 2 hours of scary mountainous roads with huge drops, suddenly we were on a high plateau of over 2,000m/6,600ft that's flat and pretty wide. I can find it on Google Earth and measure it as about 500 yards wide and about 1.5 mile long. That's where the seat of the township is. The mountains behind the village is the southern most natural habit of the giant panda. The kids from the school lined the roadway leading to it to welcome us. The purpose of our visit is to formally inspect and receive a new classroom building donated by my family members in memory of my aunt. Just like the two schools in Yunnan we visited last year. This one is a fairly large building with 14 rooms for Grades 1-6 (2 classes for some grades), along with office, library, AV room, etc. Total cost is about 620,000RMB, and we donated 70%, while the local government covered the rest. My dad has decided we didn't want the celebratory stuff, so we just visited the site and walked into each classroom to chat with the students for a little. Inspection includes checking all the glass, ceiling for water leak, quality of the concrete, measuring the actual size of the building. We also climbed onto the roof, which provided a nice view of the whole area. The teachers in this school are even younger than the previous ones we've visited. Most born between 1983 to 86. And more of both teachers and students are Yi people, though in Leibo, most just wear regular clothings, not Yi customary ones. We had lunch at the local police station, with rice, chicken soup and preserved pork. A few dogs waited patiently beside us for the chicken bones - apparently, unlike American dogs - these dogs are okay with them. After lunch, we came down the hill back to the Xisujiao River valley, and then turned up another smaller stream to the Lami Township. They were also asking for help to construct a new classroom building. Their existing ones aren't that bad, but don't have enough room for a library or a small lab. The dorms are also quite crowded. It was quite late when we arrived, and the kids have just finished classes. I took picture of a few of them hanging out in the playground, and showed them the picture on my LCD screen. All of them started giggling, then more of them came to see what's going on. I took pictures of more of them, showed them the pictures and more giggling and laughter. Soon, the whole school was surrounding me, trying to have their pictures taken! It was hilarious. Then it was dinner time for them. The canteen area was so dark that without my flash I could not see what they were eating. Turned out to be a bowl of rice and some bean soup. The stove was heated by burning dry sticks collected from the hillside. On our way back, we stopped briefly, unannounced, at the Magengzi middle school. Sowers Action donated a 3-storey classroom building to them a few years ago. The government has since built a couple of even larger buildings and have converted the Sowers building into dorms. It looked pretty good, though when we got there, the whole area was in an electricity blackout. We didn't get back to Leibo/Jincheng until 7:45pm, and then had a simple dinner at a less fancy restaurant across from the bus station. Food is just as delicious, though. After dinner, the Leibo officials took us down to the construction site of the Xiluodu dam for a visit. We passed through that labyrinth tunnel again, and then zig-zagged up the hillside to an inspection platform above the future top of the dam. They had cut off the main channel of the Jinsha just a month ago, and construction took place around the clock. While pretty dark, it was still an amazing site. Then we took a new bridge over to the Yunnan side, went through a series of tunnel on the opposite shore, and then took a temporary suspension bridge (which can hold a 54tonne truck, going at 10km/h) over the river back to Sichuan. Daphne in our group has never been to Yunnan, so it was a bonus for her. |
A thought about the conditions of the schools we visited...
With the exception of the one in Dukou, I don't think the conditions of the schools in the two counties to be that bad. Most are fairly new, and in better shape that most we visited in Yunnan last year. The issue is that the government is trying to get kids to stay in school longer, and to consolidate some of the small village schools into "center" schools at the seat of townships. Currently, many of the village schools only have Grade 1-3; and sometimes they don't have enough teachers or students to start a grade every year. And many of the kids dropped out of school after Grade 3 to help out at the family farmland. For the Yi people who have their own language, that means many young adults can't even speak or write Chinese, and therefore severely limiting their advance in life. In some schools we visited that do have Grades 4-6, class size really shrink. From 50+ in Grade 1 to under 10 in Grade 6. But to consolidate the kids to better equipped "center schools" with more qualified teachers mean more than just classrooms. The main transportation for most is their feet. Some kids walk 1.5 hours each way each day to get to school; and if they live further out, they'll need to stay in dorms. Sowers Action in general don't give them money to build dorms, but hope that the current buildings can be converted to dorms once the new classroom buildings are built. And it's not just kids need dormitory space. Most of these villages can't get enough qualified teachers, so they have to get outside teachers. Which mean living quarters for them. At some of the schools we visited, 4-5 teachers have to share a small one-bedroom apartment that most of us will find too small for a single person. I don't think I've seen a single shower facility in any of the 10+ schools we visited. And in one village, they lack clean water (to be rectified in 2008) or electricity (no solid plan to provide it). It can be pretty discouraging, especially when one sees how modern many Chinese cities are. I'm not just talking about Shanghai, Beijing or even Chengdu. But in cities like Xichang, the capital of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, there are beautiful new hotels, karaokes, stadiums, and everything. Yet, 100km away in the mountains, people still live in the 19th century. But what's encouraging is that at the schools where Sowers Action had previously helped improve their facility, the local government has since provided even more resources to make those schools even better. So, the kick-starting did help. A lot. And most of the officials we met - either from the schools, the education department, or the Communist Youth League - do seem to care about the education of their next generation. |
<b>Wednesday, 12/26/07</b>
Leibo (Jincheng) - Butuo (Telimu) 雷波（锦城镇）－ 布拖（特里木镇） This was a relatively easy travel day for us, but it was still a long day. We had breakfast at the same noodle shop as the day before. But I tried their oily noodles (with minced meat) instead of the vermicelli in soup. Then we headed to Leibo Secondary School, the main Grade 7-12 school in the whole county. Sowers have approved funding for a new dorm, but construction hasn't begun. We were there instead to talk to some students who're receiving a scholarship from Sowers of about 700RMB for the year. We pulled 15 kids from classes and divided them into 3 groups and talked to them. Like last year in Yunnan, I talked to them a bit in English to check their skills, and encourage them to ask me questions about Hong Kong or America. A couple of them are willing to speak English. I didn't meet their English teacher, but their accent is actually very light. We also asked them about situation at home, what they do after school, and so on. I again am very glad that Yao Ming plays for the Rockets, as it makes it so much easier for me to explain where I come from. Everybody in China knows Yao Ming, even in very remote areas. Afterwards, we headed over to the Communist Youth League office and had the big meeting with the top officials responsible for Grade 1-12 education in the county. One of the school principals also came all the way from his village to the county seat to join us for the meeting. It's more or less a formality and photo-op, with us stating what we've seen; and them stating progress on the various projects and what they expect Sowers to give them. --- Now, let me say something about <b>Fang Ming</b>, the Sowers Action worker from Yunnan who've joined us. She's 25, but looks younger. She's fun and cheerful when traveling with us, but dead serious when working. Usually, when we visit a school, Margaret (our Hong Kong leader), Daphne (my friend) and Fang Ming will all be listening closely to the presentation and taking notes while I will just roam around to take pictures. My dad also listen closely and often post additional questions. But it's mostly Margaret and Fang Ming that has to comb through all the numbers and decide how much space the school actually needs. And at various meeting, I'm very impressed with how Fang Ming presented herself against not only school principals, but Communist Youth League officials, top education department directors, etc. I don't think many 25 year old can do it at all, and few can do it as well as Fang does. --- We walked across the main town squares back to the hotel for lunch. Now that work at Leibo has completed, the atmosphere was more relaxed and our host from the CYL, deputy secretary An (安书记) sang some Yi songs for us. Over the whole trip, we were offered various alcohol, but we usually just stick with a little bit of beer. No difference with this meal. After lunch, we packed and loaded our stuff onto the two Mitsubishi Pajeros from Butuo. The Leibo officials drove with us for about 20 minutes down to some orange groves along the main highway where women are selling them. We said we wanted a few oranges for our car ride, but they ended up buying us over 10kg (22lb) of them! Finally, we said goodbye and went our way at 3:40pm. Took exactly 4 hours on paved, but poorly maintained, highway S307 to get to Telimu, the county seat of Butuo. Like I said earlier, part of the existing roadway were to be submerged, so they're spending money to fix it; meanwhile, heavy trucks are destroying the roadbed. The first part of the drive was along Jinshajiang again. The scenery is really similar to the Three Gorges downriver on the Yangtze when I took the cruise in the mid-80's. Except the river here is even narrower and the hills just as tall, if not taller. I commented to everybody multiple times that after seeing this stretch of the Jinshajiang valley, there's even less incentive for me to go back to the Three Gorges now. Then the roadway followed a tributary, the Meigu (美姑河), where another smaller hydro dam was being built; and we gradually gained altitude. The river gorge is narrower here, and the roadway is sometimes underneath some overhanging rocks - it reminded me of Taroko Gorge (太魯閣) in eastern Taiwan. Anyways, we passed through two counties - Meigu and Zhaojue (昭觉) - before getting to Butuo. About 30 minutes from Butuo, we left 307 onto a spur, climbed a pass at 2,500m/8,200ft, and then descended a little to the county seat, Telimu, at about 2,400m/8,000ft. We would stay at the Butuo Guesthouse there for 4 nights. It was pretty late, at around 8pm, before we had dinner at the hotel. But some high officials waited for us and the food was quite good, including two of the Butuo specialities - potatoes and a bread made with a fairly rough grain, which I don't know the English name. Because of the high altitude and relatively poor soil, that's their main stable in Butuo. |
My pictures will all be posted inside this album:
rkkwan.zenfolio.com/f1048124216 Right now, I have Day 1 posted only. Will try to get some more done this weekend. |
Yea! The photos are here! :)
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<b>Thursday, 12/27/07</b>
Butuo: Telimu - Jizhi - Telimu 布拖： 特里木镇 － 基只乡 － 特里木镇 The hotel we stayed at is the largest and newest in town, Butuo Guesthouse; but quality and management was pretty bad. Of the 5 rooms they gave us, 3 were unacceptable, and even after we moved, there were still plenty of problems. Very weak heat, missing toilet seat, and so on. Again, we got the government rate, this time 100RMB (US$12) per room per night, so it's hard to complain too loudly. Anyways, on this day we would go to one of more remote villages in Butuo, and the road goes to over 2,900m/9,500ft at a couple points with questionable weather. So, my mom and my aunt would stay behind in Telimu for a resting day, half-way through our journey. Turned out that the weather was actually very good, and we saw the sun in the afternoon, for the only time during our whole trip. Temperature in Butuo is around 28-34F the whole time we were there. We all had breakfast at a noodle place for rice vermicelli, noodles, and also some dumplings and congee. That's basically all Butuo has to offer. Then we departed for the 2-hour drive to Jizhi. Jizhi is literally at the end of the road, but is actually lower than Telimu, at only 2,250m/7,400ft; and faces east towards the deep but beautiful Xixi River (西溪河) valley. That's why the road has to climb over the hills to get there. Over the first pass, visibility was down to a few feet as we were literally inside the clouds. Interesting sight when we pulled in to the school at around 11am - a guy seem to be roasting a pig. Yes, that'd be our lunch, a special treat from the village; but they're actually not roasting it to cook it. Instead, they blacken the skin to pull its hair. We were there to check out the progress of a new 2-storey classroom building being built there. It has been topped off, but construction has been halted during the winter months. We didn't see any particular problem, and proceeded to check out the classes. Unlike in Leibo where more kids are Han Chinese, here almost everybody is Yi. Because they use their language at home, Chinese has to be taught as a second language. And it's a problem keeping the kids in school. Class size drops significantly once over Grade 4 and above. Then, it was time for lunch. The sun has come out, so we told them we would eat outside instead of inside a cold office. Now, here's a first for a meal. There is <b>no</b> table, chair or stool; there is <b>no</b> dish, bowl or plate; there is <b>not even</b> chopsticks! So, how do we eat? Well, we had three pans of food laid out on the ground - rice, soup with chicken and mustard green (I think), and big chunks of pork. Then each of us get a scoop that's about 3 inches long, 2 inches wide but only 1/3-in deep; with a 9-in handle. (I bought a few as souvenirs). That scoop is the only eatery for Yi villagers. Locals crouch down around the pans, but we can't, so we just stand around to eat. Because fuel is scarce and expensive, meat is just cooked and not simmered to tender, making them somewhat hard to eat a lot. Dogs would take care of our bones, naturally. It may sound kind of bad, but we all highly enjoyed the experience. After lunch, it was 2 hours back to Telimu. We visited the Butuo middle school, where Sowers Action has built them a large 3-storey classroom building for Grades 7-9, bought them almost a thousand desks and chairs, and is currently providing scholarships to Grade 10 students. We found a few missing glass panels in the classrooms but otherwise the building looks fine. We then fetched 10 students who had received 700RMB of scholarship from Sowers and talked to them. This is the largest and best middle school of the county, but we found the kids (~80% Yi) not as outgoing as those in Leibo (or the ones we talked to in Yunnan last year). It was hard to get them to ask us any question, and only one girl in my group of 5 were willing to speak any English to me. I believe the school officials told us they had a total of <b>four</b> kids that entered university last year. The educators really have their work cut out for them. Then we visited the home of one of the students who received the scholarship. Unlike most others, he lived right in Telimu and the family doing pretty well. They sold their farm land and bought a nice apartment. The mother came home while we were there, and it turned out that she didn't even know the son has gotten the scholarship. She was beside herself when she knew he's gotten the 700RMB (about half a month's salary for, say, an experienced highschool teacher or party official). We had our only dinner outside the hotel this night, and afterwards we went to visit a lady, Ms Ho, from Hong Kong, who has her own little non-profit organization helping the poor in Butuo. She has set up a little office there with a couple of workers, and she just happened to be visiting during Christmas holiday. We chatted and heard some of her story working there. Unlike Sowers Action, her work is beyond just education, but also try to provide basic healthcare, water and electricity to the poorest villages in Butuo. Some of these places have no roads, no clean water, and no electricity. Now, primitive roads have been cut, but before she and others had to walk 6-7 hours each way to get to those villages. It's hard to imagine a very elegant lady like her running around remote villages in Butuo. |
I'm enjoying your report and the details. As usual, your photos are very interesting - and I really like the fact that you label them. I do hope you have one or two of the Yi meal!
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Before I go on, here's the website of Ms Ho's non-profit organization:
www.interglow.org Unfortunately, it's in Chinese only. But here's the direct link to their photo pages: www.interglow.org/ipic/?album,cat=3 Also, I have the pictures of the morning of Day 2 up, and afternoon ones being uploaded: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/f1048124216 --- <b>Friday, 12/28/07</b> Butuo: Telimu - Tuojue (Huoluojue) - Laguo - Wuyi - Luogu - Telimu 布拖： 特里木 － 拖觉镇 火洛觉村 － 拉果 － 乌依 － 洛古 － 特里木 It's gotten colder this day, at around 28F and there's some flurries. Our Hong Kong members were a little bit excited about it. :) This day, we visited 4 schools that were somewhat close together, and road distance weren't too far. My mom and aunt rejoined us for the visits. We had breakfast at the same place as the day before, for the same stuff. Yes, we were starting to get bored. We were hoping to visit Luogu first, which was only 40 minutes away from Telimu. However, when we got there at 9:30a, nobody was there. The school was padlocked, and we weren't able to find the principal on the cellphone. Schools usually start here at around 10a or 10:30a so that kids from the further villages don't have to walk in the dark in the morning to school. Instead of waiting, we continued on and visited a small school at the Huoluojue first, only 20 minutes away. It is a small school, one of the earliest projects Sowers Action has in Butuo. Two simple one-storey buildings donated by the Hang Family (幸氏) from Hong Kong. They only have Grades 1 to 3 and only serve a single village. The building is simple but looks well kept. The outhouse was very clean. Next stop was Laguo, about 30 minutes away. The main purpose was to check the construction progress of a new two-storey classroom building. The setting of the village is really pretty, with clouds and mist coming up from a valley. The first storey of the new building has been completed, and the concrete pillars for the 2nd floor were poured a few weeks prior, before work stopped for the winter season. We first noticed that the quality of the mortar holding the brick wall was pretty poor - lots of sand and not enough cement. Then Fang Ming noticed something more serious - the concrete pillar itself has lots of foreign material and is crumbling. We took quite a few pictures and we attempted to talk to some experts on the phone. Finally, we got some handtools and started chipping at the pillar itself. Without too much effort, we could chipped all the way to the iron bars. That's the type of issues Sowers and other non-profits often have when sending money to rural areas, and that's why they had to send working groups like us to the projects many times. In general, they'd do it at least twice a year - around Easter and Christmas - and then often in September or October. Plus, workers from Yunnan's office will also go there. Since none of us are engineers, all we could do is report what we saw, and the higher-ups will need to find some experts to determine the next step. [One of my friend is a civil engineer in Hong Kong, and he builds highrises in HK and Bahrain. When I told him about what we saw, his first reaction was "Tear it down". But when I showed him the photos, his opinion changed. For a two-storey building that size, all the pillars were over-engineered, and there were lots of iron rods in the reinforced concrete. He felt that the architect probably had accounted for the poor construction techniques when designing the project. So his final opinion was that "It won't fall".] Lunch was not quite ready, so we (except for my mom and aunt) went to visit another school at Wuyi, 15 minutes away. They were also seeking help to get a new large classroom building with about 14 rooms. We headed back to Laguo to have lunch. While my mom and aunt were waiting for us, they were served the local specialties as appetizer - potatoes. Because of the cool temperature and high elevation (~2,300m/7,500ft), potatoes is what they can grow. And they taste pretty good. Lunch has rice and chicken and some soup, and this time they found some paper cups for us to substitute for bowls; and they also found a total of <b>four</b> pairs of chopsticks. I just use the scoop like the day before. Plus, there were chairs, and even an electric space heater! Not too bad. On our way back, we finally got to visit the school at Luogu, which was also seeking help to build a 14-room classroom building. Somehow, we found that here in Butuo, some of the school principals weren't as sharp as those in Leibo or like those we met in Yunnan last year. They were often very quiet and just sat there. It's probably partly a language problem, as some of the Yi adults aren't that fluent Putonghua, and partly just the overall shyness of the Yis towards outsider. On our way out, we found a Yi family in the village to let us into their house. It's a brick house walled off with a mudwall. Only a mother and son live there, and they're pretty well off with quite a few animals. We we first stepped in their little courtyard, the few piglets there were irritated and rushed out. Pretty funny. They have electricity, but that means a single dim light bulb (same deal as a family we visited in Changyuan, Yunnan last year). Also like the Wa people in Yunnan, the most important thing for the Yis is the fire in the middle of the single-room house. It's for heat, for cooking, and the smoke to dry and preserve meat. But what's most amazing thing is that inside the house, on the other side of the door, were a cow and a calf! They live under the same roof as their owners. We arrived back in the hotel and headed to their banquet room. The top Butuo education and party officials were treating us and Ms Ho's group for dinner. We sat at the largest round table I've ever sat at, with about 20 seats. And there were about 18-20 different dishes - from various meat stuff to potatoes. Alcohol was also present, and after 2+ days in the high altitude, I finally got myself acclimated and could drink a little. [2 nights ago, I felt sick after drinking a little too much red wine.] The locals like to drink a rice liquor, which is very smooth and flavorful. But I stick with a specialty drink of theirs - warmed beer, fortified with rice wine cakes. Interesting drink that's pretty sweet and doesn't taste anything like beer as all the carbon dioxide has been boiled away. |
<b>Saturday, 12/29/07</b>
Butuo: Telimu - Luojiaping - Jiudu - Telimu 布拖： 特里木 － 罗家坪 － 九都 － 特里木 This was our last full day of "work", but it turned out to be one of the hardest, because of the very long car ride on very bad roads. Luojiaping should be only 2.5 hours away, but we were informed in the morning that the main road leading to the village was impassable because of landslide after the recent rainfall. We would need to take a detour adding an hour. Anyways, in the morning, we told our hosts that we don't want to go back to the same place for breakfast anymore, so we switched to a different place. Similar food, but actually tasted better and the place was also cleaner. We left Telimu around 9am, heading south like the previous day. About an hour out of Telimu, one of our three Mitsubishis had a puncture; and the skid plate protecting the underside of the engine was also hanging loose. It wasn't my car, so I don't know exactly how that happened. Probably hitting a big rock at too high a speed. Changing the tire and getting things fixed cost us another 30 minutes. After we went over a mountain pass at 2,600m/8,500ft, it was all the way down. Within 75 very slow minutes - remember, all roads here are unpaved - we got down to the shore of the Jinshajiang at 580m/1,900ft. Road distance may be 30 miles at most, while distance as the crow flies is only about 10 miles. We were zig-zagging along cliff sides all the way down, next to a tributary of the Jinsha called Jiaojiehe (交际河). We followed the Jinshajiang for about 4 miles to a place called Niujiaowan (牛角湾), and then went up up and up all the way to Luojiaping at 1,750m/5,700ft. It was a very tiring ride that took 4 hours total, but the scenery made it worthwhile. On our way up, we noticed some huge water pipes on the hillside. Turned out there is a series of medium-sized hydroelectric plants at Niujiaowan to take advantage of the fairly significant rainfall and very large elevation drop. But then just before we entered the village of Luojiaping, I saw some new buildings with signs that indicate a solar power plant. Strange, I thought, as we saw the sun for only about 4-5 hours since we arrived in Sichuan 6 days ago. So, we visited the school, which is hoping to get help in erecting a new classroom building. But then we realized that even though there were light fixtures everywhere, <b>there was no electricity</b>. The village wasn't hooked up to any power grid, and that solar power plant can only generate enough juice for an hour a day during the summer, and nothing in the winter! Then we found out that the village also <b>doesn't have clean tap water</b>. How could that be, when there are hydro plants just a few miles from here, and there are plenty of water everywhere? Well, the problem was that the local officials didn't fight, didn't know they should have fought, or just didn't have the power or resources to flight, for themselves. They explained to us that it was the power company of Xichang that invested in the hydro plants, not them, so they didn't deserve anything. They don't have the concept that their water was being used, and they were being abused and forgotten. In a way, Xichang can have a rocket facility to send a satellite to the moon, Xichang can have beautiful hotels and 5-storey tall karaokes. But 100km away from Xichang, and a few km from the water and hydro plant, villages like Luojiaping are left in the 19th century. The locals, we found out, didn't even know about the satellite going to the moon, which was broadcasted on CCTV (Chinese Central TV) channels 1 to 12 non-stop for 3 days last month. And no one dare to tell us whose brilliant idea it was to build a solar power plant there. Lunch was interesting. First, it was still pretty cold there at around the freezing mark, and with no electricity, heat was provided by a pile of coal in a pan. And they killed a lamb for us. They brought in a large bamboo pan of about 2 feet in diameter. Rice in the bottom, and then big chunks of lamb meat and all the internal organs, including coagulated blood. Tasted pretty good, but the meat was just not tender at all, so none of us ate that much. We did enjoy the chicken soup quite a bit. Again, no chopsticks or bowl or anything. Just the Yi scoops. Turned out that workers had been working in the morning to reopen the road, and it was again passable. So, we didn't have to go down to the river. Just went up about 1,000m/3,330ft from Luojiaping to the pass, and back to the main road. We saw the bulldozer they used to reopen the road, and there were lots of loose rocks and boulders along the way. The return trip took about 2.5 hours. On the way, we saw lots of Yi villagers heading from Tuojue, one of the larger towns, back to their home, after the market on this day. I took lots of pictures of them in their native clothings. It was already 5pm when we got back to Telimu but there was one more school we need to visit. In fact, it was one of the most important ones to visit for our whole trip. At Jiudu, which is just 10 minutes from Telimu, a large 3-storey 15-room classroom building was just completed at its primary school, and it would be dedicated to my aunt. Structural construction has completed, but blackboards haven't been hanged and the plaque explaining whose donation, etc, hasn't been placed. Because it was Saturday and it was late, all the kids were gone. Only the principal and a maths teacher came to show us around. We also measured the overall and classroom sizes and it was fine. There were some minor issues, but otherwise the building looked pretty good. Jiudu, being close to the county seat and sat on a plain, has a decent population. The school (Grade 1-6) should be well attended, and many of them should continue at the Butuo middle school in Telimu. We were still in a rush, as the next day would be a Sunday and close to the New Year holiday, the meeting with the Communist Youth League and education department heads had to take place this day. Since we visited so many schools and real issues were found, it was more than just a formality. We discussed the issue with the scholarship at the secondary school going to not-so-needy students, we discussed about the construction problem at Laguo, and we discussed about the water and electricity issue at Luojiaping. (They guaranteed clean water supply by 2008, but couldn't say about electricity). Here is a county that seriously still needs a lot of help, not only from Sowers Action, but the officials really need to work harder to get assistance from Xichang (the capital of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture). Lots of work still has to be done for the kids (and adults) there, but our parts were basically finished. We walked back to our hotel, which is just next to the county Communist Party office, and had dinner again at that banquet room with the huge table. For a second night, we had about 20 dishes, but amazingly, most of the dishes were new! |
<b>Sunday, 12/30/07</b>
Butuo (Telimu) - Xichang 布拖（特里木）－ 西昌 Our official work was done the night before, so we got up late this morning. Margaret and Fang Ming had some final paper work to do with the deputy secretariat of the Communist Youth League, so we just hanged around, and bought some Yi souvenir. I bought a few of those wooden scoops that are the sole dining ware for the Yis. I haven't talked much about this deputy secretariat, Mr. Cai (蔡书记). He's a Han, worked in Butuo before, then in Xichang, and just recently back in Butuo in the current position. Unlike the other CYL secretariats I've met, he's quiet and soft spoken. But also very attentive to us and nice. We also met his wife and daughter this day at his office. After lunch, we checked out of the Butuo Hotel and headed for Xichang, the capital of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. A new Toyota SUV with 3rd row seat substitute for one of the two Mitsubishis, so that Mr. Cai's assistant, who is a Yi, can also come with us to Xichang. It'd be a nice little vacation for them and the drivers. From Butuo, we would go back north for about 30 minutes and then rejoined the S307 highway west. It's about 100km, and takes 2 hours, as we would climb a mountain pass at 3,200m/10,500ft, the highest elevation we would achieve in the whole trip. We stopped for about 10 minutes taking pictures at pine trees that are covered with an inch of ice near the summit. Then the road dropped to Xichang at around 1500m/4,900ft. Xichang is nicknamed the "Moon City", and is home to China's satellite launch center. Just 2 months prior to our arrival, the "Chang'e 1" （嫦娥一号）spacecraft was launched here to orbit the moon. It is a very modern city surrounded by hills and bordered by the Qionghai fresh-water lake (邛海). My first feeling in arriving the city was <b>"we are back in civilization"</b>. Our hotel, the Lushan Hotel, is very new and extremely nice. It's rated 3*, but the rooms are actually international 4* quality. [Its breakfast is definitely not!] We were charged about 250RMB a night. We walked about 5 minutes through the new part of town to the south of the old center, to a wild mushroom hotpot restaurant. Xichang seems to have lots of these restaurants, and the one we went to is very busy. The soup and food is very very good. After dinner, we went to a karaoke (Chinese call them KTV), about a 10-minute walk. This place is pretty amazing. The whole 5-storey building is just this karaoke, called Feidian (沸点). Hardware is very nice, and they have plenty of songs in Putonghua, Cantonese, English, and even Korean and Japanese. Not bad. I don't know how much they charge for drinks, but the rent for our medium-sized room (comfortable for 10) was only 60RMB/hr. Even my parents and aunt came, and we stayed for about 2 hours. |
<b>Monday, 12/31/07</b>
Xichang 西昌 This is our sightseeing/leisure day, or whatever you want to call it. Secretariat Cai had lived and worked in Xichang for several years, so he served as our tour guide. There's nothing historical worth visiting, so our first stop is Torch Square. It's a brand new complex that includes a very large open square, various statues depicting Yi and other minority cultures, a movie theater specialized in western films, as well as an art museum. It's nicely designed, very well done. On this day, a stage was put up and rehearsals were going on for the new year countdown party. After that we spent the next hours going around Qionghai (邛海), the large fresh water lake just to the southeast of city center. It highly reminds me of the West Lake in Hangzhou, but without the crowds and those ten man-made sceneries. It's more about natural beauty here than about "attractions". It's quiet and very nice. Lunch was at a lake front restaurant specialized in fresh water "seafood". We have fish, shrimp (including some that are still moving), and each one gets a crab. Then we continued around the lake and then went back to the hotel for a short rest. We had a simple dinner at a "tofu" restaurant, though they also have other dishes. Then we headed to the Moon City Square (月城广场), the center of Xichang, for a charity show. We weren't very sure what it was about until we got there. Turned out it is a dance show by students of various grades from area schools. It was put up by the Liangshan Communist Youth League to thank the donors who have helped the "left behind students" in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. We weren't not involved in it, but were just guests. What's happening is a very serious social problem in the poorer parts of China. Many adults have left the area to go work in the coastal cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, etc; and left the kids back home to be raised by grandparents. These parents often only come back home once a year during Chinese New Year. [It takes 2 days by train to get from Guangzhou to Xichang, for example; and likely another full day to get to their home town villages.] So, now, local governments and other donors are trying to give these kids support, including decent boarding schools. The show started at around 7pm and lasted until around 8:30pm. We got there before 6:30p and it was outdoor, with temperature about 40F and there was a breeze. My mom and aunt had to leave early, but I took a lot of pictures of the dances. Fang Ming had to catch a overnight train back to Kunming in Yunnan, so she also had to leave early. Poor girl had to spend New Year's Eve on the train. After we got back to the hotel, Daphne, Margaret and I just hanged out to wait for midnight. And we looked at pictures on the digital camera to reminisce on our journey. Then at midnight, we heard fireworks from the Torch Square, not far from our hotel. We went to the end of the hallway and stuck our heads out to watch it. |
<b>1/1/08, Tuesday</b>
Xichang - Chengdu - Shenzhen - Hong Kong 西昌 - 成都 - 深圳 - 香港 Last day of our trip was just going home. The airport was just about 15 minutes from our hotel, and it's a simple building. It has about 5 flights a day to Chengdu and one to Chongqing (重庆) and that's all. The 50-minute XIC-CTU flight is quite expensive, and really adds to our travel cost. Wish they have a non-stop to Shenzhen. Flew Air China (CA) for the first time (not counting the CAAC days before it was broken up). Short flight on a 737-300. The plane has first class seats and the pitch in economy is significantly better than on China Eastern's Kunming fleet. One of the flight attendant looks like the Hong Kong singer/actress Kelly Chen (陳慧琳), though not as tall. At Chengdu (CTU), we had a gate and came into the main terminal. Miraculously, right there was a CA transfer desk. Because we were also flying CA to Shenzhen (SZX), we got our new boarding pass and had our bags transferred without having to go through regular check-in and security. That's a first time for me in China. We had some time, so had some overpriced Japanese coffee and sandwiches. At least they had some comfortable seats. Then we browsed the bookstores there and I bought a Sichuan road atlas for 20RMB. CTU-SZX was a new A319. Lunch was served for the 2-hour flight. Again we got buns and preserved vegetables, but at least the presentation looks like a normal airplane meal from around the world. We again got a FA that resembles Kelly Chen! The check-in counter for the direct bus to Hong Kong is easy to find at the SZX arrivals hall, and there's also a separate waiting area. We were called and escorted to the bus at the departure time. At the western crossing, again, there was no line at either the Chinese or HK immigration. Overall, we left our hotel in Xichang at 8:35am, and arrive back at the Elements Mall in Kowloon at 5:35pm. That's as fast one can make this trip. --- That's it for the trip report. Feel free to comment or ask questions. Or email me directly at rkkwan at earthlink dot net. I'm still working on the photos. Right now, I am uploading Day 6... rkkwan.zenfolio.com/f1048124216/ |
I have 7 days of pictures posted now, which covers Leibo and Butuo. The rest will be our fun days in Xichang.
If you're interested in the Yi ladies' dresses, check out the second half of the album for Day 7. I have about 2 dozens of shots of them walking back to their villages from the market town of Tuojue （托觉) in Butuo. rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p252674941/ |
great pics rk. thanks for sharing.
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Ladies and gentlemen - All pictures that I am allowed to show you have been posted. 10 days, 12 galleries, about 1,100 photos.
New additions include lots of ladies in traditional Yi dresses on Day 7 in Butuo , and costumed students dancing on Day 9. The main page containing all galleries is here: rkkwan.zenfolio.com/f1048124216/ Feel free to email me for anything about the trip or about Sowers Action. Thanks again for reading and checking out the pictures. |
very nice photos! rrkwan!
make me want to go visit the area, too. |
Wanted to say I loved your mom's pix too, especially the last 19 by Qionghai Lake, does resemble the West Lake.
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I commented on my page that Qionghai is like West Lake without the crowds. But honestly, it's also without the historical sites and Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong's writings.
On the other hand, I imagine that perhaps 400 years ago, before Kangxi visited Hangzhou, the West Lake may be similar... :) |
Hi RK,
Early this year, I read with great interest of your trip. You brought a personal perspective to this region for us. Do you know the situation of the people/children in this area? How badly are they affected by the earthquake and are the Sowers' Group Volunteers fine? |
Sophia - Most of the schools that received help from Sowers Action are in the SW part of Sichuan, NE and SW Yunnan, as well as NW part of Guizhou. Their regional office is in Zhaotong, Yunnan, which is in the middle of that area.
Most of those schools are several hundred km away from the epicenter, and I have not read of any major problem. However, Sowers recently started to help some schools in the Southern Gansu, which borders Sichuan. There has been significant deaths in that area, but I do not know how much the Sowers schools are affected. The worker who accompanied us on this trip to Sichuan, Fang Ming, is supposed to go to Gansu next week; but her trip is now postponed. |
Thanks for the update. China is one of the richest countries now and I cant understand why the government is not building schools in the regions where your group donated money and built the schools, especially when the Chinese value education in a big way.
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Sophia - The Chinese who value education are the "elites" of the society. They are the one who could and can write, they are the one who have the opportunity to come live in the West.
But of the 1.some billion people, many of them are farmers and live in rural parts of the country. A generation or two ago, many of them are illiterate. Like people who practice subsistence living around the world, "education" means learning how to farm and take over the parents fields and that's about it. And the places I went to in 2006 and 2007 are populated with non-Hans. They have their own languages, and many older people can't even understand Chinese. You can move up the society when you cannot even speak or write the language of the country. As for money from the government, don't forget just over 30 years ago during Cultural Revolution, teachers were one group that fared WORST, along with land owners. One of my cousin was a teacher in China at that time, and it's almost a miracle that she survived. China has come a long way since the 70's, but money is still coming very slowly for basic education. I 100% agree with your criticism. Why aren't more money being spent <b>right now</b> to these poor region? I don't know the answer, but I see organizations like Sowers Action there to <b>jump start</b> the process. Not to take over it, but at least get the local educators involve so they can fight to get more resources from higher up. |
So well put in a few paragraphs, I truly enjoy your viewpoint!
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