Baobo Carnival in Ruili

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"Baobo" in Burmese mean brotherhood. Legend said the Chinese and the Burmese were the offsprings of the Sun-God. And 11 years ago the Chinese government start Baobo festival using the specific location of Ruili being right at the border and to boot up the border trading in the area. The Sino-Burma Baobo Carnival had been created! It was set on the 1st of May holiday at the beginning, but in recent year together with the jade and precious stone tradefair, the festival date finally confirmed on the 2nd October for 3 days every year. Beside the buffalo cart beauty queen parade, new events had been add into the program...beauty contest, performance show, conference, sport games...After a long bus ride from Nansan I land myself in Ruili for the first festival in this trip. The city of Ruili spread wide and without much character, kind of like a China town in any Asian country, only this China town is actually in China! Hotel price rocket high during the holiday, so I based myself in Zhangfeng about 30km to the north, only 45 minutes by bus. I skipped the opening program on the 2nd October, my main interest were the parade on the 2nd day. First was the parade of different minority in the area...The Dai, The Jingpo, The Achang and The Lisu, also brother member from our neighbour in Burma...Deang and Keran. The whole troop druming through town center followed by the Queen on buffalo cart with their first show-up for the judge and the public to rated, and the winner will be present on the last day. In the afternoon by the Ruili river, a rattan ball championship and a fun game of "running with pomelon" which actually attract big crowds as you could won 5 pomelon if you could run and win while holding 5 pomelon without drop any of it with 5 other people. you still got one for souvenir as long as you participated. great fun anyways!

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