Back into Mengzi I of course check out some market, but the Yuguopu market was not that interesting, most of them were Yi whose only kept kind of headdress, an ready-made towel with some feather pompons on both ends. The worse was not any desirable snack could raise my appetite. Also I cross the border into Pingbian for Xinhua market, as I heard there should be some Puyi like in Laozhai market, but again...was disappointed, only Miao and Nong-Zhuang there. Anyway...the journey from Mengzi was rather pretty with valley of karst hills, nice village setting. I caught up with Cai, my friend from Maande, he just brought a mini-van so we decided to do something different, we went looking for minority villages and asked them to show us their costume, with Cai...he spoke the local dialect ... read more

Quibei was famous for its karst landforms, and Puzhehei lived the reputation. The last time I had been inside the site was 11 years ago, and the village was almost deserted, but now...the Puzhehei village had been expanded and many guesthouses spouted provided better accommodation. It would be a nice place to hang out, only not on any holiday or festival time. Now you could see all those fun-fair activities around the park entrance, more like a childern park. I only spend time to trail the old route(now a well designated trail) up the Qinglong hill for the splendid view of the area, still lovely, if I could compared the photo from 11 years ago...nggg...only more houses dotted this picture of landscape. Instead of staying at Puzhehei I choose to sleep in Qiubei town as it ... read more

News about flooded could still be hear everyday from tv, it became an yearly event in China, and seem like the affected area and duration persisted bigger and longer this year. Luckily it didn't got into my route, the closest area was a village in Guanleng township, where a landslide had kill and injured 100 of people. Most of the rain I had caught was in the afternoon while I had finished my market trip, lucky I guess. Since the world-cup had been completed. So I could boarded the Yuanyangbound express and forgot about tv again. But still I checked out couple of market on my homeward journey. Huashan and Ahlu market in Luoping county. Huashan was small with only Han, but again...they kept to their costume, dressed similar to any Zhuang or Buyi, front apron ... read more

28/6/10 Xinglong and Bapu was another disappointed market, hopelessly lack of dressed hilltribe. The Miao in this area wore knee length plaited skirt with one row of indigo pattern at the bottom. Front apron, no idea what their jacket would-be like as they all wore normal shirt. Hair was shiny gelled and knotted with plastic comb. Further my market hunt I made a detour into Bijie area, hoping for better luck in Ahshi market. There lived the same Miao like in Bapu but...with a little bit more detail, same...still no sign of any jacket, hair tied with red cotton thread and wrapped up by black turban, same knee length skirt but instead of the kitchen style apron, here they put on the typical Miao style front apron full of stitching patterns. Together with the pissing weather(perhaps ... read more

Lud need to get new visa for China in Hongkong and Dong need to pay compensation to his wife by accompany her to Shanghai, so we split and I went for a short market hunting in Wenshan by myself before heading back to YY. I picked Guangnan Prefecture and I landed myself first in one of its township Heizhiguo(@1550m). I wasn't expected the town would be that big, it was just a spot in the middle of nowhere in my map, so it was quite a surprised to see so many buildings when I arrived, it gave good choice for accommodation though. But foods offered only the general boring staffs here, especially after well feed with good cooking in Funing, they asked for the same price but offered junk foods here. The market was busy ... read more