China

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Hello,
Here are some highlights of our time in China - mostly Yunnan province - in the month of June.
Our first day in China and going through the border was not much fun (I was still recovering from a nasty "cold") and that day I just wanted to "go home". The officials on the China side of the border (crossing from NW Vietnam) confiscated our Lonely Planet guidebook for China (a huge book) of which I had painstakingly torn out the sections we needed knowing it might be taken. When they x-rayed our luggage they were mainly looking for books and this specific book! A woman official flipped through the pages trying to determine which guide book it was...unfortunately, I made the mistake of leaving the front cover of the book stuck in the pages so they were able to identify ýt. In the end when I asked her why she had to keep it she said "it was her duty" to do so. The problem is that this guide book says something about Taiwan that the Chinese government does not agree with or approve. (The Chinese Govt. considers Taiwan to be it's province though Taiwan has had it's own separate government since 1949 and Taiwanese who are basically Chinese think of Taiwan as its own country. Taiwanese can go to China but Chinese cannot very easily go into Taiwan. Interesting info that sheds some light on the nature of the Chinese government.)
You can buy the L.P. for China inside the country but the offensive "incorrect" info is blacked out. We met some people who walked across other borders and did not have theirs confiscated. We later learned that only at the Vietnam borders are they militant about it. Well, if I had known that I would have done more to disguise the book but we managed alright without it. Fortunately, we did not spend much for the used book which was only a copied version - new, original Lonely Planet guýdes are quite expensive.

Right here I must say to those of you who felt we should boycott China (by not goýng there) in protest of their treatment of and actions toward Tibetans now and over the years that we considered this. We are concerned about human rights violations of this sort and the potential of any government to act this way toward a particular group. But then, we were an hour from the China border and we felt more good might come from our getting some first hand experience of the country and the people than to stay out. We did learn some things about this particular issue and gained some insight into the (somewhat twisted) way the Chinese people look at it based on how their government frames it. Also, if it makes any of you feel any better, we did not spend much money in China that would pad the government's coffers. Except for visiting one park which was expensive we stayed away from tourist attractions, museums and even parks because they charged SO MUCH for them.... it was ridiculous! Otherwise, the guest houses, small restaurants and even bus companies we used provided livlihood to Chinese people and we don't feel bad about that. And Yunnan as a province has been one of the least cooperative, most difficult region for the Chinese govt. to control so it has more of its own flavor and less conformity. Besides all this we do see the difference, just as we would want from them for us, between they as people and their government. As far as how "programmed" they are by their government's propaganda (and they are) I don't think we can say much about this until we get how programmed we also are and see the misinformation we buy into from our own government. But political discussion this is not so!...

Back to the story....
In the border town we found a reasonably good bus for the trip to Kunming which turned out to be a rather grueling 11 hour journey. One section of road -about 25 miles- was brand new highway and much of the road after that was bumpy, pot holed dirt or poor pavement. It was a bit warm as they didn't run the air conditioning much on the bus and the "bathroom" stops would send many westerners running never to return... stinky and basic. Many public W.C.s in China (men & woman separate) are a long tiled or cement channel, which may or may not be divided into sections by a low tile wall where you squat over. Some were individual channels that slanted down a hill. Some had water that would wash through from time to time. There was no place to wash your hands after. This as my first peek at China made me seriously reconsider how much I cared to see China!
Except for the younger "backpacker" group who don't mind traveling the budget way, the majority in our age group travel the more touristy, lux way. They go to all the tourist places and stay in regular hotels (this isn't the best way to actually experience a culture....)nevertheless, sooner or later everyone is going to run into a yucky public B.R. in China. The unfortunate thing about the new highway being built is that it will change the lives of the the people who live in the villages along the way forever and will bring in changes like prostitution as a money making enterprise and more dependence on tourism as well. This insight came from a British man who had been living near Hong Kong for years. He and another woman also remarked about how much Hong Kong has changed and no longer has the charm it did just 10 years ago. But China continues to grow and build up their tourist industry like so many other countries in this region.

Since that first day things did improve and we have been enjoying the place and the people. Yunnan province has the most diverse population with more than 50 different ethnic groups who still can be seen in very colorful dress. The Bai people here (but I suspect other minority groups and the Chinese may also) have this traditional "3 cups of tea" ceremony which we experienced and got the "flavor" of. It's a gracious hospitality and friendship ritual. Many Chinese did indeed seem interested in extending this friendship, even comraderie to us. Many kinds of tea and medicinal plants are grown in Yunnan province and everywhere you go you can find tea shops where you can go in and experience the tea ritual they do when making tea. You can try one kind or have a blend made up. Yunnan is a very Ag oriented part of China and seemed unpolluted, though we do not know to what degree they are using chemicals on the farms. However, agriculture is everywhere in China that it can be and there seem to be lots of farmers wherever we went in the countryside. Even so, the majority of Chinese seem to live in and prefer the cities. Except for some unpleasant public bathrooms, the parts of China we saw were quite clean. In Kunming (a small city in Chinese terms of about 4 mil) all the scooters people ride are electric. Our first day in the city, Sunday, was very quiet and the lack of vehicle noise was really noticeable after Vietnam. China also has a lot of infrastructure, so city traffic was regulated and unchaotic. We spent several days in Kunming orienting ourselves to China. I had to buy some new walking shoes there and had fun looking in the MANY shoe stores! They know how to make shoes very well! but they weren't that much cheaper.

Our first day in the city we walked to a wonderful lake where we found many people playing musical instruments together and usually there would be someone singing. Some of the groups of people also had dancers doing an informal performance (no costumes). I really enjoyed this. The first group we saw there was a man dancing with a fuschia pink fan that had a feathery fabric end. In another area a couple danced together and as soloists and the woman used a similar pink fan. I was really hoping to find a fan like that to buy and dance with but never did. The dancing of the couple was wonderful to the live music and I was really impressed with the whole scene. It was inspiring to me and made me think I should do more informal public dancing like this. But, the live traditional music really made it. I'm sorry I can't really describe the music to you. The atmosphere in the park that day was really wonderful but not necessarily unique to Sunday we learned. Before we left Kunming for northern parts of Yunnan we visited a hug park called the Stone Forest which we walked all around. This was a unique geological area full of huge interesting rock formations some which could be climbed on, over, in or through. This was a really fun and interesting place to spend a day and we enjoyed getting to know a young Norwegian woman who rode there in the same van. The weather in this area was perfectly comfortable and Kunming has mild temperatures all year.

From Kunming we took the train to another city at a similar elevation (6,000 ft) but in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains and beside a huge lake. There was an ancient section of the city with a fat stone wall surrounding it and beautiful Pagoda like entry points on four sides. But this was all renovated and mainly was a tourist area with many shops, restaurants etc. One area inside the walls was more for the locals. We had a wonderful fish dinner one night where they pulled the fish of our choice out of the tank and cooked it up along with the veggies we picked from their produce laying out front. It was delicious and inexpensive. This city is called Dali. The weather here was overcast and rainy so we didn't stay long but before we left we spent a day with a friend we made in Kunming from Holland. He is an M.D. acupuncturist who came to Yunnan for a month to learn more Chinese and see how some of the medicinal plants he uses are grown. A common feature of our travels is always the opportunity to communicate and learn from interesting fellow travelers. And in China we have met a number of foreigners who work here, or are or have been students for a time in Shanghai such as the Norweigian woman.

Moving farther north we progressed to another small city - Lijiang - also in a valley with mountains around and a similar scene with the old walled town. It was very charming with winding cobbled streets situated on a hillside but similarly very tourist oriented. But in China the shop keepers just sit there and do not try to get us in their shop so we didn't feel like targets. On the bus ride to Lijiang we connected with a few Chinese - especially one who had been to the U.S. for some college and spoke quite good English. They invited us to tag along with them to the family guest house they were going to and see if we wanted to stay there. This group was convening in Lijiang with some other old friends for the occasion of the Olympic torch coming through the town. We found the guest house to our liking and so stayed there and felt part of their group as they made efforts to include us. We had not planned to stay 4 nights till the torch came as we didn't know about that till then but we decided to change our plan to accomodate this. William was offered to hold the torch so he went to the torch ceremony with everyone early on the tuesday morning it happened. As it turned out there were many torches and people who participated in carrying it got to keep theirs. Its done differently today than it was in ancient times in Greece as I had pictured it. But still the torch carrying and passing was an exciting event and this was a really BIG DEAL for many Chinese as is the Olympics coming to their country so an occasion for much celebration.

We both enjoyed spending time with these Chinese people and getting an experience of the culture from a more inside perspective. It was due to the efforts of our main English speaking guy that we learned many things and had some interesting discussions, including political and spiritual topics. Most of the other Chinese in the group did not speak English yet this did not stop them from relating to us and having some wonderful interactions as you can see from some of the photos. Our first night in Lijiang we went to dinner with a group of 10 and experienced our first Hot Pot dining which is very popular with the Chinese. We all sat round two low tables on little stools where two big pots of broth with Chinese herbs, ginger and in one, some hot peppers sat in the center. Then the servers came and put in the meats that were chosen and carts of veggies were placed by the table to cook in the hot pots. It's sort of like an oriental fondue pot which actually originated from Mongolia. Everyone uses chop sticks to take items out of the boiling community hot pot and put them in their little bowl. Everyone also gets a small bowl of condiment which is usually something like chopped green onion, cilantro, garlic, chili etc. It was really delicious! We were their honored guests for the evening so we didn't pay and one guy ended up paying for everything (some fought over this) around $100. for the group of 12 including the alcohol. And boy do they like to drink! It becomes somewhat of a fun contest with the men. While the women stick to beer, the men are drinking shots of hard liquor and smoking during the meal too. At the end it looks like a disaster area around the tables as they just throw waste and cigarette butts and anything on the floor.

The night before the torch came to Lijiang the owner of the guest house, a single woman (her parents and grandparents also live there) threw a party for everyone there and it was a similar hot pot meal in the courtyard. This was very fun too and some of the people got quite drunk. They have a habit of going overboard to make sure there is more than enough food for everyone and at this party there was so MUCH! The animal foods for the hot pot were some unfamiliar things like stomach (of what we didn't know) and esophagus of something, I forgot what.
It was white and the stomach was like a thin dark piece of muscle with a slightly bumpy texture. I tried a little and it was o.k. but not something I wanted to have much of. There was also lamb skewers and fish pieces with bones to make the broth fishy, many vegetables, bean sprouts and some other things I don't remember now.
Later in the evening we had some performances - William sang then I danced, a Chinese woman danced a bit and then we danced together. Though this woman didn't speak any English I had felt drawn to her from our first meeting and enjoyed her energy and spirit on a couple of different occasions, so it was a fun surprise to dance with her. Our dancing matched well as we exchanged following each others movements. Most people at the party enthusiastically enjoyed all the entertainment. I explained to them some things about my dancing as they were not familiar with middle eastern style dancing.

With the translating efforts of our main English speaking Chinese guy we had with him and others some very interesting conversations about governments, politics, peace, music, Taoism, the U.S., China, and the presidential election. Quite amazing it was! Lijiang is a wonderful town at 7500 ft, very green with a mild climate and rain throughout the year. There are more Chinese, and Asian tourists than western. How Serendipitous that the torch came through around when we were here! In one of the above mentioned conversations William made a comment about how most Americans want peace in the world. Someone came back to appreciating this comment as being very significant because generally Americans have been perceived as being aggressive and controlling (like the government). They then expressed that Chinese people also want peace. This group could then see that Americans have different desires and positions than their government. There was a really great connection of people in the room that night. We also learned that most Chinese people are Taoist (not actually a religion), not Buddhist like the Tibetans and they study and contemplate the principles of Taoism which is sort of a study of nature rather than look to religious rules to determine their approach to life. In various areas of China though there are also Muslims, Christians (from missionaries in the country) and the more so called "animistic" spiritual approaches of the ethnic minority groups.

Moving on from Lijiang we considered the possibility of going east to a lake where Bai peoples live still in their most traditional way which is based on a matrilineal, matri-focal (female and mother) based lifestyle.
Quite different from the patriarchal Chinese. Here the property and family name is passed through the women and the men even after marriage continue living with their mother while the wife preserves a measure of her independence and keeps the children with her. I forget other details. I thought it would be interesting to visit this area and see what might be observed of this culture but we chose instead to head straight for Tiger Leaping Gorge which was certainly a highlight of the time we spent in Yunnan.
I'll let the photos and captions tell most of the story of this place. I'll just say that it was really grand and breathtaking to hike here but also challenging indeed with the high elevation. That's why you see me riding a donkey for the most steep part of the climb! We spent three nights above or near the gorge, the deepest river gorge in the world so they say, can't remember the elevation exactly now, but something like 10,000 ft. and we climbed a thousand feet on the hike.

After Tiger Leaping we took the bus a few hours up the road to a valley with more mountains where the town of Zhongdian, AKA "Shangri-la" sits. Once again there was a modern (and here a fairly attractive) city built up around an old part with winding cobbled streets and tantalizing shops selling beautiful things- many Tibetan crafts and things like Tibetan singing bows and bells.
We always stayed in guest houses in the old section and here was no exception. We visited the remarkable old (17th century) Tibetan "lamasery" which had a village around it which was being majorly rebuilt. This lamasery was the largest and situated several miles outside the city on its own plateau with great view of the city. We had to pay to get in to the area and it seemed like the money was going to support the llamas here and the improvements to their living conditions. All the art - mainly painted murals covering all the tall walls and ceilings with Tibetan deities and depictions of life here and in the afterlife, if you followed the "way" to get there - in the many prayer areas was so detailed and spectacular! So impressive! There were at least 3 separate, large prayer/devotýonal/temple areas all with tall doorways and huge buddha figures at the rear alter areas with demon and snake deities hovering over the peaceful looking buddhas. I found this very interesting.
The outer hallway of one of these buildings had a wheel of life painted on the wall showing in great detail the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the total picture (of the living Universe) which I WISH we had gotten a photo of but our camera battery died just before. The entrance to the temple from this foyer had a spectacular, huge metal door and buddha which William did get some photos of though it was impossible to do it justice and take in the whole thing while also capturing the details.

In the old Shangri-la town there was also a gorgeous Tibetan prayer temple on a hill which they lit up at night along with a huge prayer wheel that looked golden under lights at night and which a group of people could push to make it turn for their prayers. Staying in Shangri-la was one of my very favorite places in China and had the best "energy". In the valleys around it we could see many farms and traditional tibetan style houses which were beautiful and artful. Some of the older ones were built with wood and earth materials. Yaks were everywhere in this region. Another highlight besides the lamaseries here was the night we ate in a locals restaurant and had some conversation with a Tibetan celebrating a friends' birthday with a group of mostly men who were singing, drinking and making merry. The one who spoke english was apologising for their loudness. We were trying to find out what they were eating so we could order something similar which looked like some vegetables we would like. Someone in the restaurant who spoke engish was helping the waitress so they could get our order just right and help us understand what was on the menu. This was the first time we tried the popular tea of the region - Yak butter tea. They didn't all taste the same and some were better than others. We enjoyed it as a dip for the freshly made barley bread they made here which was a sort of slightly sweet quick bread. There was also another conversation we had through a translater with a group of Chinese from another part of Yunnan (where we weren't going). The conversation was characterized by a wonderful sentiment of friendship and comraderie and some cultural exchange.

Another evening in Shangri-la we happened upon a restaurant (the Sanwen Rainbow Salmon Rest. on Geza Lu St.) that had fresh local river Salmon. This sounded really good so we went in as we were ready for some dinner. The downstairs part of the place was a large room with tiled floor and only a few tables. At the back was a big tiled fish pool and to the right was a food preparation area near the glass window. Upon stepping into this room we saw a man standing by the fish pool with a big mallet in his hand and a good size fish flopping on the floor. He was attempting to kill the fish with the mallet! When I saw this I walked out again for a few moments and reconsidered whether I wanted to eat in there. We did for some reason go back in and after washing our hands were led to an upstairs dining area. We showed them the size of fish we wanted to eat. This turned out to be a hot pot restaurant also so next they brought us the cart of vegetables and other items for the hot pot, tea pot, cups and table ware. Most Chinese would have beer with this meal. Next came the hot pot and the 5 trayes of thin sliced raw salmon that looked like perfect sashimi! When we saw this we were appalled and thought that we could not possibly eat so much fish! Then they came with cut up fish pieces for the pot which was left from the fish fillet slices. This was to flavor the broth which boils and boils as you eat items placed in the pot but at first we mistook it for additional fish which we were going to be eating. Actually I think we did eat some but found it mostly bones. We had seaweed, greens, and many other good things to dip and cook in the pot. The thin slices of perfect pink salmon cooked in just seconds as
we squeezed them mostly skillfully between the ends of our chopsticks. They were easy to gobble up and practically melted in our mouths! We managed to eat most of the 5 plates of it and this ended up being one of the most delicious meals we ate in China. But as it turned out we had many good meals in the country because a variety of veggies were pretty easy to find, though food is often too oily. Compared to the middle east I would say we ate more healthily in China. White rice and rice noodles seem to be less fattening and more digestible than all the white bread we have encountered since!
After this meal we walked from the outer part of the city toward the old village and came across a newer square where many people were gathered and many were doing a group folk dance. We learned later that these are Tibetans who gather every evening in this square to dance together.
We joined in briefly and William took some photos. The music was not live and seemed to be something more modern than traditional.

We did venture up higher toward Tibet and some very tall mountains there (the Kawa Karpo mountain range which may be an end of the Himalayas) but stayed only one night as it was rather chilly and the few available affordable lodgings just too dreary and not clean. But we enjoyed the drive up and back from there with varying and spectacular scenery of the various mountain ranges. As you can imagine we did a lot of bus travel in China yet didn't even cover that much of Yunnan province. While there are of course people with cars in China (and everwhere else we are traveling) to travel outside the big cities most people use buses, trains, and planes (last) to get around. Many of the big cities have great metro systems and local buses and trams. In China huge numbers of people rely on the overnight sleeper buses to travel the distances. We did this a couple of times but finally to get out of Yunnan and go to another part of China we decided to fly.

The next place we went was the spectacular region where the city of Guilin and Yang Shuo are located in the South middle part of China - a province near to Yunnan. Here there are big rivers and those amazing karst rock hill formations that make for some pretty good climbing (not us) and a unique ambiance. In a cooler season it would be a great place to climb and there was one climbing outfit in Yangshuo. The whole area is very beautiful and geographically special but in the month of June so Hot AND HUMID! Even walking at 10 am we just dripped! So, even though the guide books say you will want to stay longer in this area.... I couldn't wait to leave! Especially after we had a sticky and dirty day of riding bikes around through the Karst hills on some bumpy dirt and mud paths. William thought it was fun but it wiped me out, and I just hate being that hot! So, we only stayed for one day in Guilin (a small city) and 3 in Yang Shuo booking flights from Hong Kong before we left and making our way ONE MORE TIME on a sleeper bus. We got to enjoy the scenery for several hours before dark but unfortunately it was another night of little sleep with the usual loud, stupid movies blaring till midnight. We arrived in one piece though traveling in the morning through the very ugly city that lies next to Macau with all its condo/apartment buildings so alike built so close together and looking like prisons. We don't understand how the Chinese live like this!
As much as we enjoyed and like the Chinese they do have some deplorable habits! One is that many people, men and women are in the habit of spitting. Yes spitting. And one day I was walking inside a bus station to an upstairs lavatory. It was a fairly nice and modern building. But as I looked down on the floor I noticed that at frequent intervals there was spit on the floor which I realized I would not like to step in! And this I found kind of gross! Another thing is that Chinese (and Tibetans) have somehow been programmed into believing that drinking excessively is a cool and manly thing to do. So many do this fairly frequently, at least when they dine out in groups or have a party. We also find that throughout SE Asia, China and the middle east almost all the men smoke and in China and Turkey many women do as well. This was hard on us at times being non-smokers. It's just amazing to us how many people in the world have this life denigrating habit. We even saw a billboard in China of an athlete in running suit on a track holding a pack of cigarettes! To us, China seemed in many ways to be like the U.S. was back in the 1950's.

But to end on a more positive note, it was amazing to be able to go to China and experience what we did and we are grateful for being able to do so and have many wonderful memories of our time there.
Just for fun here are a few Chinese phrases we learned and used while there: Mei Gwo is their term for the U.S. which means "beautiful land" or land of the beautiful. Ni How or Ni How Ma is how are you - a common greeting even for strangers passing by. Bu Ya means "I don't need it". Chu suo - washroom, and Wei jing - Wu bu is MSG = NO.

Here are some examples of items from a Chinese menu: Sauteed ducks tongue in brown sauce.
Dry-fried chicken toes. Fried thelenota ananas tendon with scallions. Braised hairtail in brown sauce.
Spicy hot goose intestine (do you think this might be an aphrodisiac?) Sliced pigs ear with chili oil.
Cold fileted jelly fish in vinegar. Braised toadstool in brown sauce this usually made with mushrooms or some kind of fungus. Black fungus was also a common hot pot item. As much as we don't really have a taste for eating all these animal parts we really have to hand it to them for not wasting anything. As a side note, though I have seen photos of places in China that sell all the even more exotic stuff to eat like scorpions, spiders and other unappetising stuff - we never saw it in any of the places we went. The ONLY place we saw those items for sale to eat was in Phenom Penh, Cambodia.

Well that wraps up the China stories for now, hope you have found it fun and interesting!
Next chapter will be "More Egypt and some Turkey"!

Over and out and we'll be seeing you soon! Love, W&C

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Photos

Men In Restaurant
A smoke after the meal. Notice bones and discarded parts of the meal go on the floor.

Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike
The 2 day hike with staying at a guest house along the trail was wonderful. A WOW around every corner!

Shangrila
A taste of Tibet