Last days in China

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We left later the next morning on what was to be our second last day in China. Mr Jong collected us and our luggage (which seems to have grown in the last two months) and we drove on the same road that we had travelled by local bus on our search for the elusive Manna'nan a couple of days before. Mr Jong was unaware of the village as well so where the guide book got the information from remains a mystery. Our first stop was in Jinuo Shan, a tiny village where a small minority group called the Jinuo live. The women of this minority wear a distinctive white peaked hood. When we arrived we felt as if we were back in Zhoaxing in Guixhou Province as a pig slaughter was just about to begin. The village was however sparkling clean in comparison to Zhoaxing - they had even placed large plastic sheets on the ground on which to lay out the meat - unlike in Zhoaxing where the raw meat was put on the dirty cement! Mr Jong told us there was to be a wedding celebration later in the day.

The production of tea was the main industry in the village, though the hills surrounding it were also covered in rubber trees. As we left the main square - where the pigs carcasses were quickly being carved into pieces - Mr Jong showed us as much as he could about the process of making Pu'er tea. The tea leaves are fermented, dried and re fermented - resulting in a tea with a very strong taste. Pu'er tea improves with age and vintage teas sell for immense amounts of money. It is dried in flat bamboo baskets, constantly tossed and each leave is slightly hand rolled. The leaves are not shredded but left in their original form. I watched a lady rolling each leave before they were tossed. A very time consuming task...

It was a pretty village - all the main buildings had murals painted on their walls - each mural depicted a community message or warning. Some of them made me laugh! Particularly liked the one of two men, one handing the other (mouth dripping with anticipation) a wad of presumably 'under the counter' money - the next picture showed same man (eyes dripping with tears) as a policeman talks to him. Ironically in China it may well be the policeman taking the bribes - not the other way round! I watched one lady crush chilli in a bamboo tube before frying it up in her wok. There is no way to describe the intense fumes frying bulk freshly ground chilli releases - it literally takes your breath away and both Jerry and I ended up in a spasm of coughing. We often walk down a street and smell it - with the same coughing reaction each time!

We didn't see any traditional dress being worn in the village but a few kilometres further on we stopped in a small town, visited the market (always a great place to see the women ire traditional clothes) and we saw many women wearing the white, brightly embossed clothes. They were mainly wearing the peaked hood - just a white hood edged with red stripes which was not attached to any clothes, on their heads. A black sleeveless jacket is also worn. The back of the jacket has sun symbols in blue and black embroidered on it and is gaily trimmed with strips of fluorescent colours. Most people (men and women) were carrying the white (a highly impractical colour)shoulder bags decorated with braid and woven red panels. I spent some time with a family group - including a young baby who seemed as if he would have been happy for a hug. He kept putting his little arms up towards me! Most babies cry when they see our strange faces...

From there we drove for the next couple of hours through a pristine nature reserve - very different from the hills terraced with banana, tea and rubber we had seen the last couple of days. We actually heard lots of birds singing too. The reserve was part of the large Tropical Botanic Gardens in Menglun which were to be our destination. We left the reserves and spent an hour walking around another Jinuo village - Baka - which was very run down but picturesque in its own way. Wooden stilt houses with no glass windows - the window coverings were simple planks from which shapes had been cut out of to allow light in. There were actually a group of Chinese artists staying in the village as they spent time sketching, with fine black pens, the houses. Amazing talent - they made it all look so easy! The speed in which they filled in the details in each sketch was fascinating to watch. I also loved the sarongs which were being used as makeshift swings under the houses - we saw a group of kids having a great time on them. Under most houses here as well were weaving frames used to make the long narrow bands of fabric needed to trim the Jinuo costumes and for use as baby carriers. They were happy friendly people, again all the elderly folk had red betel stained teeth and lips.

Our trip with Mr Jong ended a half an hour later in Menglun after he had dropped us off at a cheap hotel in the town. The cheapest room (40 yuan - $6 a night) that we have stayed in yet - and not an experience we are in any rush to repeat. It is amazing how much more comfort an extra $10 buys... Very hard beds, furniture that was in danger of collapsing, squat toilet and no water in the shower. We soon realised what the plastic basin was for... However it was only for one night and I doubt there was much better to choose from in town anyway. One advantage of the hotel was hat it was within walking distance of the bus station and the gardens. Though it was threatening to rain we decided to spend the afternoon in the gardens regardless - not that there was much choice of other activities in the town! The countryside around though was lush and green and we had passed some pretty simple little villages set off the road on our trip there. The newer housses all had bright blue tiled roofs and the eaves of the houses were trimmed with gold peacock shapes. The older houses were split bamboo homes. No sign of traditional dress though we passed many local ladies walking on the edge of the road, weighed down under loads of firewood, carried on their backs with the aid of forehead straps.

We paid a total of 130 yuan to enter the gardens - Jerry got a seniors discount again - and entered the gardens via the narrow pedestrian only suspension bridge. The gardens were large - 900 hectares - and were established in 1959 by Chinese botanists to protect the multitude of plant species that grow in the border regions of Yunnan Province. The gardens are divided into numerous sections and they are well laid out with wide paths and signage in English. On site is also a research laboratory as many of the plants are today used in both Western and Chinese medicines. We were there unfortunately when most of the flowering plants were not in flower and the only spots of colour throughout the gardens were the groups of Dai women in their colourful costumes. For some reason each person in the groups seemed to wear the same colour dress as other ladies in the groups. They were all one colour fitted floor length dresses, trimmed with sequins and were worn with strings of flowers falling over one side off their intricate hairstyles. Check out the photo of the hairstyle - never have I seen so many bobby pins used on one head of hair. All the women carried parasols - you couldn't call them umbrellas as they were far too pretty - decorated with lace and sequins. Most of the groups of women were having difficulty keeping pace with their male partners as they were all wearing stiletto heels.

One of the attractions in the park is the 'singing plant' , a grass like plant which is supposed to nod in time to music. We were able to spend an enjoyable half hour watching various groups of Chinese tourists sing frantically over the top of it... It was really funny - some took it very seriously and of course others just did it for a laugh. There was an burst of loud laughter from a group of young women when one of them sang a love song (in English) to it and it nodded frantically. All in good fun...We saw more artists drawing in the gardens - though most of these were painting with big brushes and black ink. It did rain and we did get quite wet at one stage but as it wasn't cold we soon dried off when the sun came back out. We left the gardens by the main entrance which was surprisingly far from where we entered and had a long walk back into town - and we were wet by the time we arrived back at our hotel as the skies really opened up late in the afternoon.

We checked bus timetables onward to Mengla next day and were almost tempted to forgo the luxury of our room for a bus that happened to be going half an hour later. In hindsight we probably should have caught it because we did have a terrible nights sleep and woke up (if we had slept at all..) feeling as if we were bruised all over. Two months and our last night in China and we had slept on the hardest bed yet! I like firm beds but this was tabletop firm. Up early the next morning to go to the bus station and we had trouble getting our bags through the foyer as it was being used as a parking lot for about fifteen motorbikes. Only in China...

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