into Wenshan Yunnan

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15/05/05

I really pressing for Yunnan today, from 8 to 9, more than 400km in 13 hours, I finally stepping on the Yunnan soil again. said goodbye to GuangXi as I didn't really enjoy it there. FuLin is the entry point whenever I came into Yunnan by bus, from here I will travel along the Vietnam border, I did seen a bit of that part before but I didn't had the market schedule on me, and nobody seem to know anything about market date here, guess I would have to wait for tomorrow morning and check with the bus drivers.

16/05/05

Weather was still hot, I tried the first bus driver I had seen in the bus station and he sort out all my questions. so... it was market in MuYeng today, I was there couple years again and it was a good market as it was today again, I got there rather late, but not my fault, our driver choose to tried the new road which was still under construction, of course I couldn't recognize it as all the road look the same as it seem to be in all this part of China... under construction! after we had be on that road for more than 45 mins then we find out there was road block with many stone in the pass way, a no through road... at least for today! no other choice but return, all the way almost back to FuLin and we turned right to the old road where I saw the sign written "no passage further on for road construction". see... that was Chinese mentality, they ignored signs or warnings, never go by the rule or law, they would go for any shortcut even it was forbidden, now we wasted almost 2 hrs just because of ignorance. and the driver didn't think it was his fault while he stopped and exchanged info whenever he met any coming buses, he sound like it was the road constitution mistake which made him travel longer route, he was the victim... haaa... perhaps he really did missed the warning sign! anyway... MuYeng market was crowded exactly the same as I had seen before, the Yi had more number here, typical right lapel clothes and long cotton skirt, head turban decorated with couple of strings with beads. and there was a lot of Yao too, long indigo dress open in the middle, with couple of red cotton ball on both side of the lapels knot with a silver plaque, a geometric figure cross stitching on the back of the dress while the long sleeves were ringed with many color stripes, there was a yellow color long waist belt knot on the back, and dark head turban wrapped round in disk shape. there should be another tribe of Yao with different costume but they mostly live in LiDa back 28km. Miao had the usually costume which you can see in this part of Yunnan, tight clothes and plaited skirt with lower apron, but here they tend to used the more shining material with many round sparkling buttons on their dress. a small number of Luo people in the market too, I think it had been assigned into the Yi group. I hadn't seen anyone in full costume but their trousers and the large back apron are beautifully hand made and full of colourful embroidery and cross stitching. I was totally absorbed by this market once again then bus horn behind, I look back and it was the DongGan bus which only run one a day, and it arrived early! no choice... said good bye to MuYeng. I also went to DongGan last time but didn't had chance to visit any market, why??? because the ignorant military refused my stop over there and ordered me to left on the first bus the next morning, so today I was still worry about the situation before I got there, but... it was a different town(small village)... a bus station even it was just a open ground inside the gate, a new street full of guesthouses, even a karaok bar which I couldn't imagine back few years ago, there was only 1 or 2 guesthouses back then and electricity was hardly provided full day, look at it now and I wouldn't need to worry about any prohibitation. DongGon is next to the Vietnam border and I knew from before there was couple of markets around here, should be interest with some cross country tribes. let's see for tomorrow.

17/05/05

"the truck is leaving"! the owner banging on my door, it was 5 am and we was going to MaBun market about 10km from DongGan. still we need to collected more vendors with their merchandise, sky was still dark of course... but already I saw a kid on the street ready for school. The road to MaBun was surprisingly well paved with cobble stone, perhaps because it was the passage into Vietnam. the surrounding got brighter and I could see more people on the road, kids going to school, villagers out to their fields or even... walking to the market! MaBun is about 1km before the borderline, and we arrived there before 7 and already there was many people, the market was totally dominated by the Miao, they all dressed in the same way but came with different color, be it white, black, yellow, pink, green, blue... and the Miao seem to crazy about the shining material here, or perhaps all the Miao in this part of Yunnan had chosen this metallic colour material to dress up themselves, as it was only the second market for me in Yunnan after 2 years, will find out later. so... long sleeve shirt which buttoned in the middle, girdle with front and back apron over the long plaited skirt, only few old women still wear leg dress, head wrapped with towel or scarf in whatever colour of material, some had couple layers of scarf which made their head as big as a basketball, they had big round neck ring but wear no ear-rings. there also some Yao which they said was coming from Vietnam, they wear the same disk shape head dress, almost the same costume as the one I saw in MuYang yesterday, only they use the machine made material which covered with printed figures. market in Yunnan did start early, not like the market in GuiZhou which not start until midday. here I saw the familiar bamboo basket, the smoking in water-pipe. the main trading are cloth material, rolls of rolls of polyester in different colour and prints, also there was handmade hemp cloth, ready-made costumes for woman and man, yes... for man and that was why almost all Miao men wear dark shirt and trousers. The only sign of Vietnam was the hat, the green round top wide rim hat was typical Vientam, and with counting of the Vietnamese Dong from made-shift money changers that you would aware of the present of foreign element. the market finish early as well, it was all cleared up before noon, our truck was the last to left MaBun and I was already thinking of a good siesta.

18/05/05

DongGan market today and it was big and busy. it was totally dominated by Miao, you can see the Metallic Miao which I saw from yesterday, also the Flower Miao which was similar to the Miao in HongHe region, some women dress more in white color material guess they should be White Miao, anyways... it was as colorful as yesterday market, but the atmosphere are bit different, here they came more for business or shopping, but the MaBun market was more relaxing, alot of people came to drink, no matter men or women, they gathered in different quarter in the market place, drink and smoke, chatted with friends and relatives. but here in DongGan, everyone are in action, I noticed that because I couldn't made a good picture today as they seldom sit down, they kept walk from store to store then... left! beside... I didn't felt like taking picture today as I got more than enough from yesterday. or was I fed up with market... no way! I guess it was the suspicious look of the people, it was different from MaBun, there was curious look and they would smile back. to be honest, I wasn't really enjoy my stay in DongGan, mostly because of the past experience with the unreasonable local police, so I kept myself inside the room most of the time, trying not reveal my HK identity to avoided unnecessary incident, so there was no chance to wondered into the surrounding area, beside it wasn't a good idea since it was the border area. and no intention to meet the local, see... in such mentality how could I enjoy it. so I left for MaLiPo in the afternoon.



19/05/05

Just for an overnight stay in MaLiPo then I move on to MaGuan. actually there was quite a few good markets in MaLiPo area, you could see different kind of Yao, Zhuang and Yi, but I had seen it before and the deadline for the appointment in YuanYang was near, so I better move on. both MaGuan and MaLiPo had been up graded since my last visit, cleaner with more buildings and getting bigger. and it wasn't dusty anymore. but I prefer something smaller so after a quick required and my destination for today revealed, 40km away on the direction to HeKou is MuChang has market tomorrow, with the bus driver promised "many minorities and wear costume"! trust 50% and still there would be some dressed tribe in the market. because many times they said it just to made you ride on their bus. MuChang is a small village in a green surrounding, almost every inch of land are crops, and the main agricultural product is a herbal plant SanQi which could sell good price. and the area are the dweller of BuYi people and the local told me I could see BuYi , Miao and Zhaung in tomorrow market, sometimes there would be Yao as well, woahhh.... seem like the bus driver was telling the true. In the Yunnan news today mention about the weather in YuanYang, the heat wave in southern China is still on, said in NanSha(the new town) temperature went up to over 40 today and fainted many people. just hope it would be over by the time I arrive there, luckily I was always on the altitude over 1000m so far.

20/05/05

With promises... the market was full of dressed minorities, the town suddenly got bigger than it seen as the market lingered up the hillside into the old village, merchandise are came with number and quantity, first time I saw so many made-shift hair dresser in one market, here came many fortune tellers as well, be it interact with a bird or palm reading, they still out number whatever I had seen in any other market. it was a noisy and busy market, but again the local said it was just half the number of what the market should be in peak season, because now is plantation time for the villagers. back to the minority... the BuYi wear right lapel clothes mostly in blue while there was embroidery on their sleeves, a kitchen style apron with piece of pattern on the chest area, very typical and standard in minority area. wear long trousers and with head cloth. The Zhuang was very similar to the BuYi, only their sleeves was plain with no decorated and they wrapped a turban on their head but still...it was similar. about the Miao... what could I say, they still the most eye catching one, most colourful most serious to thier costume. I couldn't tell the sub-group name of each Miao or they were just one group, so I used to name them according to the colour tone of their dresses. but now with the factory made material, all got fabulous color and design, and most of the Miao used it for their clothes instead of made it according to their tribal pattern, so... they all look the same and not really the same, I guess I just call it Flower Miao then. here they dress in the typical way, clothes open from the right side, plaited skirt with front and back apron, wear leg dress, round silver ear ring and head wrapped with a scarf over a head band. but some had modified clothes which has a V-shape collar. I hadn't seen any Yao show up but there was Dai, what a surprised as I didn't realised there was Dai in the area, and they said there was quite a big community here, said they were the real Dai which came from Banna, and they also celebrated Water Festival but they don't believed in Buddha. only old women wear costume here, but "we wear costume on festival time" a young woman said. they wear long dark dress which over from the side, with an up-right collar which had many small silver buckles on the back side, a long girdle tied with an apron over a long cotton skirt, but the attraction was in the head, difficult to described what it was like, there seem to be a handle inside that kept the shape so up-right, it was a black cotton helmet over head band with many silver buckles. It was almost a full day market as well, it started rather early and well into 3 pm and there still something going on. and today was another happy experience for taking pictures as it was encouraging, they like to adviced who I should took a picture, they laugh, they tolerated me, they gave me space, just feel so good here. I will keep my promise about sending them their photo as I really want them to have it.

21/05/05

They said there was market everyday in the region of MaGuan and MaLiPo,it was quite true and there even couple of markets on the same day. but unluckly there wasn't one on my direction today. I traveled 20km down the HeKou road to ChaoTou where I waiting for the market tomorrow. it was a fretting hot day as we was descending lower than 1000m alitude. and in this uninteresting town, I gave myself a day off stay inside the guesthouse...TV...haaa...!

22/05/05

Another busy market today, it was more concentrated on the trading of young pig, of course you still got most of the other usual merchandise. I saw the same kind of minority here as yesterday market, but as promised there was Yao, they wear long dress and trousers, main color tone are dark blue and pink, they used to pull up the leg of their long dress which held by the girdle that tied around their waist, and this is a typical way the Yao wear their clothes in this area. head dress was composed by a piece of cloth that tied with feather thread and beads. also there was another tribe of Dai who call themselve HeDai, and they dress similar to their neighbour HonDai, only that the HeDai doesn't wear the pyramid shape cotton helmet but a black turban, also there was little different pattern designed on the sleeve and the foot of their skirt. I was heading to HeKou afterward, it got warmer and warmer as we descending the valley, the view was green and open all the way to HeKou, right in time for the last bus to ManHao where I can catch the morning bus into JinPing area. I was gladed because I didn't have to stay in HeKou as I didn't like that place very much. we ran along the Red River up stream, since the road had been up graded from the last few years now that we could speeding on this road, so the wind blew through the window kept us alive under the almost 40 degree hot sun. but than we were stuck when we got near LinFaTan, I thought it must be road accident and it stop us more than 30 minutes, as we slowly got through then I realised it was because it was market day, I could see the GaNieng's Hani, the Miao and the Po people as well. it was slmost 5pm and still many truck parked along the road, it must be a very big market. ok finally settled in guesthouse by the road junction in ManHao where the JinPing buses had to pass through. the last destination before YuanYang.

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