Lunar new year trip 1 - Weining

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11-01-2011
Today in the Lunar year is call La-Ba, the "8th of December", where many region in China has a tradition to eat cereal congee, and many temple also will open their kitchen offered congee to any devotee that came to the temple, also here in Yuanyang they did it as well. I never knew they got this tradition here only when I saw the poster in town then I realised it. but...with the shitty weather weight down with heavy fog, and the coldness really got us, the news report said the area in Mile and Luxi already got snow. we were all waiting the white cron-freak will coming down from the sky and with our camera ready(but it dosen't happened), so...faiths seem not very rooted in the local people heart, I didn't see many people up in the temple today especially the food was free. but...perhaps nowadays people were wealthy enough or there actually not many believers in town here. The 24 years old temple used to be a shrine for nun, but now there is monk inhabited inside, seem like more people need to made a living.
today also the long table festival in Habo, and it striked the first celebration in Yuanyang area as from today on, there will be many more long table festival in different day in different villages, it will go all the way until early March, all you need to do is ask around to find out where it will happen. The Habo one is big but I do prefer though in the small village, more authentic and less commercial. I didn't go to see the festival in Habo this time, as....1-the shitty weather with rain, 2-I had seen it 3 times already, 3-the long bus journey and high fare. but reported by other people came back today, yeah....rain and they setup umbera and canopy above the tables, so...no scene could be captured, also said beside those government people, there wasn't many tourists there. it wasn't surprised me though as I always thought the Long table festival(especailly those commercial one) is one of the most stupid and non-eco friendly event that had happened. to see one time would be fun but...you find it boring when you attend it again. no wander there wasn't many tourists came to see it this year, beside...all these festival only celebrated for couple minutes, once the honorable guests arrived and got their drinks and prost then...left, and the festival should be finished, and all of the foods would be empty into garbage bin, what a wasted!!! and with their tourism developing idea, in whatever occasion should help a long table festival to entertian our guests, so...soon it will be fed-up, and the end for the so-call Long table festival!!!

21-01-2011

"Sun City"...woahhhh....Weining said to be the Sun City in Guizhou, "even in January the temperature is still over 10 degree" ,that was what I read from internet. so...it won't take me more than an hour to decided to packed! and I abandent the rain fog and freezey Yuanyang behind yesterday. Another long and tiring journey to Qujing again, once left Yuanyang the sun came greeting me with no charge...free!!! what a blessing!!!
Arrived Qujing in the drak after 8pm, but I knew where to find guesthouse as I was there couple of months ago, and that was the only direction I knew in Qujing, so I decided to checked out a little bit about the town after unloaded my bag. actually...not much of interest there, but at least you could see people out in the street after dark. They claimed to had the longest street in Yunnan, 10.6km they said, it is the Qilin Street run right across town from south to north. not many town in Yunnan has night market but here in Qujing, same like those in Guizhou, people setup mobil-store after 7pm and off before 10. I tried the Qujing local speciality, the steamed ersi, kind of rice noddle. kept inside a steamed basket, I aways mistook it as steamed bread before, served without soup, only mixed with diferent sauces and mince-meat, taste was ok but nothing special. for local food so far...I will always remember the noodle in peanut sauce or soy bean sauce from Simao, they were lovely. and the grilled fish and egg-plant in Banna area.
Carry on the Xuanwei this morning and surprised me by the snow land once out from Qujing. the land were totally coverd by an icy sheet. and I was told it had been snow for about a week now, and today it began to melted. ohhh....not quite the right time though, and it cause walking around a bit difficult, it was wet and slippery. Xuanwei was a bit disappointed to me. as I was picturing a great food scene before I came here...everywhere should be food stand for the famous Xuanwei Ham, but...I couldn't even seen any place that sell it, not mention trying to eat some!!! but I did saw a sign written "Xuanwei Ham exchange center" before coming into town by the highway, perhaps now the name was much more popular that you need to purchase it like in the stock market by a lots! Xuanwei was another uninteresting town which I should just made a transit. ok...just one night and I will heading into Guizhou for my new year journey.

24-01-2011
Where is my sun city??? where???again I arrived Weining(@2200m) in the dark, top the most worse...the fog and chilling air. I was much more comfortable few hour ago when our bus came over into Guizhou, the sky was blue and sunny, although the land was still covered by sheet of ice but the warming sight was welcoming. accomodation also not very appealing in town, so I just crashed into whatever hit within my budget. did a full hunting the next morning and more bad news appeared. as the cold weather was rather severe than ever this year, many water pipe had been cracked and there was no water supply in many area in town for more than a week now, and no idea when the water will come back, everyday you could see truck carried water to different location in town for the inhabitants. well...not feel like taking any shower yet, but...the public toilet was hell!!! said the cold weather would last for another week, look at the town with icy ground, powder snow falling once in a while, I don't think I would see the sun-city any day soon. but Weining still live up to another reputation...the potato country. said there is more than 2 million acre of potato in the county, and you could see women baking potato along the road side everywhere in town, the taste was lovely with coated shred dried pepper, they are not spicy but with a special kind of favour. One of the special snack in Weining is the xiaobaba, a stuffed dumping with tofu and ham, fried in a huge flat plate with red sauce, once the underside became crispy and it was ready to eat. great treat!!! but the over all food scene was rather blend in Weining, soup noodle or hotplate dishes, some bbq stands show up after dark, and there wasn't much restaurant in town. the worse was there didn't even had chinese fast-food stand! it was the kind of place I would sponsor when traveling alone, as you could choose more different dishes in one plate.
After some researched in the bus station, bad news again, because all the road in the county had been coated with ice each morning, so there will be no services during the day, until the authority gave the go-ahead signal, so now there were no schedule, buses run when they want or when they can, and top with the new year period human flow, you never know when you could get on a bus, or when there is a bus or where will be the bus...it really jeopardized all my plan, as I had hoping to do a lot here before new year day, but looked at what laid in front of me now...I couldn't go nowhere. need to come up with another plan quick and....with the hasseling and inconvinence, unreasonal price and bad services...I voted not spending anymore new year in China again in the future.

25-01-2011
"...are we worth saving?" that was the last audio sound at the end of the movie. I spend most of the time watch TV indoor after dark as there wasn't much pleasure to walk outside in the cold. luckily the signal was good here in the guesthouse, no snow flake no double images! ok ok...what about that movie? it was about us, the human being, an future movie said in 2050 our planet had been mostly under water, what left is an concrete archives that kept all the infomation of our human activities for the last 100 years. so our future generation(if there are still any left behind)would know what had happened to our planet. anyway...the point was...since the year 2000, our world knew already what will happen to our planet if we didn't start to change our life style and do something to preserve it. but still...human being kept behave ignorantly. just like the reporter said, " human being not the first living species that disappear in the planet, but they were definetly the first species that had wiped themselve off !" so...at the end of the movie, it said...human being still had time to change and stop what will be happen to us, but we choose not to save ourself....are we worth saving?" aren't we? Suddenly most the news or program on TV was about the environment, "scientist said 2010 was the hotest year since we had recorded history...", "report said 2010 was the most happened natural disaster year in our history..."! aiyaaa... life still has to go on, beside...we still got 50 or so year right? I better looking for something to keep myself out from those despair announcing, and I think to eat isn't a bad choice. I decided to go through all the name that was on the menu in any restuarant which I had never try before, so...goat meat with burnt skin noodle(not very special but only spicy)...goat meat with preserved egg noodle(nothing to write home about)...hot and sour(glass) noodle(hot but not sour, when I asked why no sour taste, the owner pointed to the bottle of vinegar on the table!!!!)...bean soup noodle(not bad with mild soup top with soyabean and shred meat)...deep fried dumping(taste good with stuffed potato)...redbean paste baba(street snack and tasty)...buckwheat cookie(Weining speciality, acceptable). see...that was about enough for the last few day for my stomach.

26-01-2011
Still got no plan. but time went by each day without much problem in Weining even there wasn't much you could do, why??? because all the street were coated with ice, it was rather slippery and made walking quite difficult, so...it took me a lot of time to scout the street like a drunken man, but childern were the main beneficiary, you could hear laughter while they gliding on the predestrian. The main sight in Weining is the preserved wetland call Caohai where many birds came to spend winter, the most distinct one should be the black neck crane. The wetland is located not far from town, actually it is part of Weining town, a short walk would lead you to the boat landing place where you could get a boat to cruise on the lake, that was every tourists came here for, but the water way was already frozen up so there was no boat service provided at the moment. but still I walked out toward the water front on the trail that was surrounded by farmland, my shoe got heavier with each step I had advance, because the mud just stuck on my shoes like an expanding balloon. I did saw some birds in different colour but couldn't name them of course, it was difficult to get near them as they just took off all at once when they sensed my existing. later I heard people need to help cracked the ice surface and fed the birds with extra corn because the cold weather frozen the water surface, as the birds couldn't get enough food from the water.
Market day in Weining is busy, action not just around the bus station area, but the commercial quarter in town center. as new year approaching, the shopping scene was immense. like everywhere in China, a new set of clothes is a must for a new year, especailly a pair of new shoe. I still remember how excited I was when I was a kid before new year, waiting for my mother bring me to the shopping market in Kowloon City. I almost could see my own face within the childern in the market today. I didn't expected any tribal scene but I did saw some Miao women in their simpliest white polyester plaited skirt. Han women help build up the costume scene a bit, with their huge disk like head dress, front apron like those Zhuang in Wenshan, some even with small wrapped feet. I also went to Xiaohai market as it wasn't that far and minibus provided the service. a small market but it kept going until well after 2 pm as I saw many people still poured into town, perhaps the icy weather stopped people arrive early, even those vendors only setup their stands by noon. The day hot item in the market should be the tennis rack shape pig-leg, seem like everyone would buy one back home for new year as now is the season to prepared dry ham, in fact...Weining like her near neighbour Xuanwei in Yunnan...has good reputation in ham making.

29-01-2011
Instead of just hang around in Weining I went up to Yungui for the market, hoping to find something new. and the 3 hours bus trip were surrounding by white mountain and trees hanging with icy branch, very pretty. heard there is an old village about 7 kilometer from Yungui town, so I went there under the foggy sky. Majie is the village inhabitated by Yi people, they call themselve Guosu or the Blue Yi, they wore blue long sleeve robe with cross-stitch pattern on elbow and lower arm area, white waist belt and sleeveless vest. they wrapped their head with 2 inches width cloth in dish shape and decorated with colour buttons. this Yi live around Yungui town so you could easily seen them on market day. Most of the houses in Majie village were made with mud and earth, it look very quiet as well, but once I stepped inside the village there were dogs...they just show up one after one, barking like crazy. as usual I just ignored them and started to walk out the village calmly, but suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my leg...the bloody dog actually bite me, 8 of them began their riot, it was scary, I was luck to find an open fence and hide behind someone courtyard. strange...with that kind of noise, no one came out from their houses, I kept waiting for someone to showup but none, perhaps the dogs got bore and they left one after one. I then remember the wound on my leg, looked at my torn trouser, luckily I had double layers of trousers and the teeths hadn't pike through, but still an 3 inches blood line on my torn skin , damit!!! rabies was the only word inside my head, the 2 hours walk back to Yungui was like a life time and find out there was no injection for rabies could be provided in the township, "you need to go to Weining" the clinic told me, but there was no more transportation for the day. The night pass in an uncomfortable feeling....will I died in the night???? I survived the next morning and no mood for the market, still...it wouldn't be heat up after noon time, and after million times falling down on the icy ground(I almost broke my arm from sliding down 13 steps, and one down just right outside the filthy toilet), all I wanted was the first bus depart once the road are allowed to travel. Finally got myself the injection I need once back in Weining, 5 injections totally in a month my friends and it cost me a fortune(more than 2000 yuans)!!!! although I might not got infected with rabies but not worth to took the risk. and it also no guarantee could kill the virus even you took the injection as it was over 24 hours now after the dog's bite. aiya....now I can really try it now....live each day like the last day in my life!!!!!

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