Monday, April 23, 2007

Yunnan Province



It's been a few days since I've written and lots of things have happened! We wrapped up the congress with some excellent final lectures. I explored Wuhan some more afterwards. We took a ferry across the Yangzi and found the old part of town with one of the oldest markets still working in China. It was beautiful. We definitely stood out in this area, as there were no other tourists around.

I said goodbye to some new friends that I made in Wuhan and bright and early the next day we flew to Kunming in Yunnan province. This is another pretty large city. After a delicious dinner we saw a show that featured many different types of the Chinese minority groups that live in this provence. This has been so interesting to learn about. Not only is Yunnan province one of the most biodiverse places in China, but it is also the most culturally diverse. The Stone Forest was an absolutely amazing landscape. It is a natural wonder that has really bizarre limestone pillars throughout a very large area. This area was underwater about 270 million years ago. The shapes and placement of the rocks gave me a different perspective on Chinese gardens and the use of rocks in cultivated spaces.

We flew to Lijiang and visited a beautiful park called Black Dragon Pool. We also visited a museum of the Naxi people. The Naxi people are the largest minority group in Lijiang. They are a matriarchal society, with the women doing all of the work and taking charge of the family. Their written script, Dongba, is the only hieroglyphic writing system still in use. It's been facinating to see the different traditional costumes of many of these people. This part of town has lots of shopping and tourists. We were commenting that it was a bit like Chinese Disney World! But after we got away from the crowds, we explored another part of the town where people live. We watched firemen practice drills and a kindergarten class be let out for the day. We shared some tea with a wonderful man in a tea shop. Then off to dinner and an evening in Old Town.

Joseph Rock was a famous botanist who lived in Lijiang from 1922-1949. He gathered over 80,000 plant species and contributed many reports and photographs to National Geographic. While living with the Naxi people, he created their first written dictionary and allowed the rest of the world to see the way these fascinating people live. In 1996, Lijiang was hit with a terrible earthquake that destroyed thousands of people's homes. After this earthquake, however, the city built a new section called New Town. Our tour guide, Jack, lives in New Town. He invited a few of us over to his apartment one evening and it was such a treat. His apartment that he shares with his wife was huge! Not at all what I would have expected. He and his wife are both tour guides and speak very good English. They are also both Naxi and speak Naxi, Mandarin and English fluently.

The absolute highlight of my time in China so far came the next day. We drove to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, named so because from the air the 13 peaks of the mountain chain resemble a dragon. The highest peak on this mountain is a virgin one meaning no one has ever gotten to the top. We took a chairlift up and a few of us went off the beaten path and hiked over several valleys to get the best view we could. We got to about 12,000 feet. The altitude hasen't affected me too much except for a little diziness. The air was clean and crisp and beautiful. We all felt glad to be alive after that day's hike.

We visted the local market in Lijiang, where the locals buy fresh meat, produce and handmade goods. It was fascinating! It does not even compare to the farmer's markets at home. The variety of food was amazing.

We took a scenic drive up to Shangri-La this morning. It is a few hour's drive from Lijiang. Our first stop was Napa Lake, which acutally wasn't a lake at all. During the dry seasons like now, there is no water and the area is a grassland pasture for yak. It is really great traveling with adventurers and botanists. All of the sudden they will start yelling for the bus driver to pull over so we can all jump to the side of the road and take pictures of new plants. On our trip there are several Americans, a few Australians, some from the UK, Czech republic, Russia, Spain, Africa, The Netherlands and a few other places that I'm forgetting. It's just as exciting getting to know these people as it is learning so much about China.

I'm off to a show on Tibetan dance and song. This area has primarily Tibetan people. I might make a stop at the oxygen bar afterwards. The air is pretty thin up here!

1 comment:

Gina said...

Reading about your trip was inspiring. I hope to one day adopt a child from China and this just made my desire grow stronger.

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