Blogs from Guizhou, China, Asia - page 7

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Asia » China » Guizhou » Sanjiang April 25th 2012

Woke up this morning and headed staight for the nearby Dong Village. The village seemed deserted, so we hopped in our cars and drove through the mountains from Rongjiang to Sanjiang, stopping off at the Basha Village in the Qiandongnan Miao-dong Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou. The 499 households of Baisha folk live in harmony with nature, worshipping the tree and the sun. They believe their race was born from the stem of the maple tree. They are distinctive from other Miao cultures with the men bearing shaved heads except for the top middle piece which is grown long and twisted into a "Hugun" knot. These are the only people in China aside from the police and military that are allowed to carry guns. More like muskets, they were readily willing to discharge their firearms to the ... read more
Baisha Tribe
Baisha Initiation
Baisha Dance

Asia » China » Guizhou » Kaili April 24th 2012

I’ve combined these two days, as really, our 23rd day was spent on the road doing the 630 km to Xingyi. Really not to much to report. The landscapes were not so spectacular, but I guess that thus far we have truly been spoilt. We passed through Kunming, which on the surface looked like just another grimy big city. Then heading to Xingyi where we observed the numerous pyramid type hills dotting the landscape. Nothing to report from Xingyi, yet another new town that is popping up in the valleys. The following day started off with a piano recital by two team members on the hotel lobby’s baby grand, then we hit the road to Kaili stopping to see the Huanggoushu Waterfall, said to be in the top six in China. Beautiful, yes, but after Jyuzhaigou ... read more
On the road to Kaili
Huangguoshu Waterfall
Huangguoshu Waterfall

Asia » China » Guizhou » Xijiang April 24th 2012

Today was truly a special treat. As fate would have it, the Kaili Ethnic Minority Museum was closed for refurbishing. Leaving Kaili we headed into the mountains to visit the secluded 1,000 Family Miao Village. Access to the village required some real off roading, but fortunately we befriended a govt official who allowed us to drive through the villagers entrance to this magical place. If you ever visit China and could only see one place, I would choose this village. I could easily spend a week here, chilling out with the warm Miao villagers. The Miao women are known for their spectacular costumes and headdresses. Their houses and bridges were very intricate in design compared to the Baima, Naxi, Yi and Mosuo and Bai ethnic minorities we had encountered. And this village of just over 1,000 ... read more
Miao ladies
Miao bridge
1000 Miao Family Village

Asia » China » Guizhou » Zhaoxing April 21st 2012

Once arriving at Zhaoxing I put my backpack in my room and had a look around this large Dong minority village which contains 5 drum towers as well as numerous wooden bridges. It has a wonderful setting at the base of a valley surrounded by many farming terraces. It has quite a few hotels located in the traditional three storey wooden buildings but surprisingly few tourists. Whilst I was in town I only saw a handful of foreign tourists and only small groups of Chinese tourists. There were also quite a few tourist restaurants as well as a lot of local eateries all selling good food. The tourist side of things was kept very low key and the locals just went about their business as if we weren't there. The other thing I liked about the ... read more
Zhaoxing
Zhaoxing
Zhaoxing

Asia » China » Guizhou » Kaili January 21st 2012

I do like traditional folk songs. But I didn’t think I like the folk songs in this area. I prefer the songs in northwest of China, which seems more powerful and primitive. Songs in Guizhou’s minority groups are more resonant by high pitch. I used to think it is a little bit ear-piercing when I listened through TV. But I completed changed my mind when I enjoyed the live performance in Xiaohuang, a small ‘Dong’ village which is famous by its songs. I was late. Every year there is a big singing competition from 13rd to 15th August according to Luna calendar. In that day, many choruses from ‘Dong’ villages come there to compete. It is not a formal competition. The key point mostly focuses on the fun. It is a big party for these ‘Dong’ ... read more
singing
Happy childhood
farming song

Asia » China » Guizhou » Basha January 19th 2012

Lala refused to keep on staying in this lovely family. He left them, with the rice given by the young lady. Young lady and her two beautiful girls were seeing him off. Under a big banyan, they began to sing a song. Lala kept on walking. He even didn’t turn round. He was afraid he couldn’t leave them if he stopped. This is a plot from the film ‘Lala’s gun’. I don’t know why, I consider it is very romantic. The story’s background is in a special village in Guizhou, China. A minority group has lived there for centuries. You may hear of there is a mysterious minority named ‘Miao’ in China. In fact it divided into two groups, short Miao and long Miao, which depends on their length of the skirt. People in this village ... read more
men's performance
their instrument
gunman

Asia » China » Guizhou November 20th 2011

20/11/11 I woke at 0530 and was coming on for a cold. 50p taxi to the bus station. 0640 Tongren-Junko City, the nearest city to the 2.4km high Fanjing Mountain and surrounding nature reserve (with wild monkeys). Junko City bus station had photos of bus crash victims and their bodies. Didn’t know why. I got on a bus identical to ones in the photos and which dropped me at what looked like Fanjing Mountain base camp. A quiet little market of marquees selling either food or gifts. At one food marque a woman seemed to give off a good vibe from a distance. Unlike so many middle aged women in China, she had kept her youthful smile and often laughed loudly and heartily in her hoarse voice. I ate too much and set off on the ... read more
87 Bus crash dead bodies advert
88 Bus crash dead bodies advert
04 Fanjing Mountain from afar

Asia » China » Guizhou » Anshun June 15th 2011

While spending four weeks in Yangshuo (), Coco and me heard a good deal of stories about Gétû, the location of Petzl's Roctrip this year. Local westerners told us that the place is amazing, though, hard to get to. That was enough of a challenge for Coco and me and so we made our way through backroads of Guizhou province and into Gétû. Since the information I'd like to share about directions and the place itself might be interesting to a broader audience, this entry is in English. Coco, whom I met in Yangshou, spoke decent Mandarin, which helped a lot to find the place and talk to the people there. Finding the place was not as hard as I expected or was told, though it does not appear in any travel guide. We had a ... read more
Yanzi dong - Swallow cave
old woman, still smiling
The caves

Asia » China » Guizhou » Zhaoxing April 11th 2011

If that old adage applies to me being like the Chinese I certainly will not adapt as required. At least not completely. You see there are parts of the customs and habits of China that I, being brought up in the west, just could never get used to, not to mention try to adapt to. And this blog will be about some of the things that most disturb our western sensibilities. Let me stress that this is in no way a criticism of these manners, or a way of saying that our morals and customs are better. No it is just that for us some things seem quite disgusting simply because we have been raised in a way to find it so. So what are these attributes? Well probably what most foreign tourist would put on ... read more
Luoyang
Luoyang
Luoyang

Asia » China » Guizhou February 20th 2011

Zhenfeng is a small town like Puding, had an old quarter right in the center of town. But I like it more here for the varity of street snack, beside all those general snacks, the freshly steamed soft rice roll was lovely, the deep fried meat cake...the salted pancake roll...and the famous Zhenfeng zongzi(glutinous rice wrapped in leave), it was actually quite similar to our Cantonese style zongzi, taste just lovely, also the glutinous rice with smoky ham, the rice had been soap up with yummy grease, so soft so smooth, I gotto control myself as it wouldn't do any good to my stomach if I ate too much, because sticky rice was very difficult to digest. But what I like most was the market scene in Zhenfeng, huge and busy, although there was only Buyi ... read more
scene
Buyi woman
Buyi woman




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