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16/6/07
The Zhaotong I saw today wasn't the same one I remember 4 years ago. Wide streets, city-buses, taxi, big department store, all kind of shops, big stadium that hold concert from Taiwan pop star. big train station and an airport! That's China...things just change! But it lost the small town charm that hit me last time. Zhaotong is the land for potato...if you like it, great baked potatoes are everywhere sell on the street, a huge one for one quai, cut and sandwiched with pepper, yumyum! Grilled tofu was bigger in size compared with in Yuanyang, cut and sandwiched with cabbage and of course...chilli! More tea houses than before and all marjong gambling now. Zhaotong got big population of muslim, so...easy for me to savoured my favourite (la-mien)pull-noddle. Another favourite is rice cook with ham, potato and green pea, it gave me back great memories from homestay in Portugal long time ago. Very busy at night in the town center, but with the long travel from yy in the last 2 days, really need to sleep! And from now on travel northward to Tantou by train could be faster than by bus, because of the road constitution work along
the road.
19/6/07
A long and tiring walk to Shengji yesterday from Tantou, first an almost vertical hike uphill from the riverside, this is the main route for those live up there came for market. A local boy carrying 3 steel rods, balancing it up the vertical slope, he walk so fast that I couldn't even caught up, especially when most of the trail was muddy and slippery," I need to build a new house" he told me, after this he will go back to work in Zhejiang to earn money. It was a beautiful hike, once up the vertical slope and it was another scene, paddy field occupied a small piece of plateau in between two mountain cliff a small village and an uphill trail, couple of waterfall dotted the hillside, following 2 Miao women I had no trouble to find the way to their village, up here they grow tea and it was the main and only income for the local. Came here for the Miao festival today, the Haushan festival in most part of Yunnan will be in Lunar January, but here is in Lunar May. People told me to looking for the village office
for help in accommodation, and they look surprised when I said I was from HK but they seem welcoming and I was accepted, at least free meal and free bed! the festival was no surprised and typical official event, with chinese pop music flowing in the air, long boring speech before standard performance, some local even call this the sport day, as many of today activities are sport game. with their white skirt the women said they are HauMiao, again the visiting dancing team, another Miao group from other village with multi-color cothes called themselves white Miao! Anyway, the local HuaMiao coated themselves with something looked like a cloak which was sewed up by 2 pieces of apron cloth, added a square of embroidery at the center of their back. which made their appearance like the wings of cicada. Even men wear it as well, together with a white long dress, more like the costume of a priest, I suddenly thought could it be....? I did saw a christian church on my way here, was this the reason behind the costume? But the local said it was their traditional costume. I didn't hanged around long to see all the festival
event, as it turn out with pop music and arobic dance right at the beginning, and I still face a long danger walk downhill, better move on, after another 5 hours I back to Tantou with my shoe and my trousers leg laced with clay mud.
21/6/07
Dousha is the main attraction in Yinjin area. The narrow gap of the valley made a natural defending spot lead each empire to fought for, it was the main gateway from Sichuan into Yunnan in ancient time, and the trail still existed till today was part of the tea horse-troop passage. The cliff along the Guan river got some special decorated from thousand years ago. The hanging coffins from the ancient Bo people, no one know how and why the coffin was up there in the middle of the cliff. Mystery still waited to be solve. Dousha got hit by earthquake 3 times last year between July and August, and the town was still under reconstruction seem like it will became another town filled with typical new-old style buildings and arch-gate.
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