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Capital: Beijing
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I was here on business in 1973, I saw Tibet in 1995 and visited most of the rest of China in 1997. I decided to come back a fourth time to explore the South-West where several ethnic groups were forced to retreat before the territorial expansion of the Han Chinese in the first millenium or before the invading Mongols in the 13th century. In the 17th century the South-West was a last refuge for the Ming resistance to the Manchu invasion. Thus, the mountainous Guanxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan were traditionally China's "Wild West", a retreat for dissident or persecuted tribes and criminals far from the central government's authority. It was often controlled by greedy local warlords until the communist took over in 1950. Massive Han immigration and rapid economic development are now changing the social make-up of the region (like in Tibet), but the major ethnic minorities have so far kept their distinct character, customs and religions. That is precisely what I came to observe before they disappear into the Han melting pot. |
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The weather was great when I arrived in Shanghai in the late morning on the 7th December after flying 18 hours and waiting 8 hours in Newark, Anchorage, and Seoul. I took a city bus from the airport to the city center and walked up Nanjing Lu, shown here, towards the confluence of Suzhou creek with the Huang Po where the Pujiang hotel is located.
I was happy to find Nanjing Lu full of people as one finds an old friend. Shanghai had changed again after only three years. There were a lot of new buildings in Pudong on the other side of the Huang Po and a whole section of Nanjing Lu had become a pedestrian mall.
After a few hours of this rediscovery, I went to the Pujiang where, for only 6.75 U.S., they gave me the bed next of the one I had occupied in the same dorm three years ago.
A dormitory is not as convenient as a private room but to find lodgings for so little money in city as big as Shanghai is not bad.
After a couple of days a I took a sleeper bus to Hangzhou to visit some friends there. This is what a Chinese sleeper bus looks like. There are 20 superimposed double beds that are great if you are traveling with a girlfriend but rather awkward if your bed mate is a big stranger.
Here we are strolling in Hangzhou's Wu Shan Park with my yuppie friend Kathy Zhang and her husband John. I was hoping that Cathy could be my interpreter in Yunnan for a couple of weeks but she had just been promoted and could not take the time off. Instead, she introduced me to her friend Lilian who works in Kunming.
This is a fashionable restaurant near Hangzhou's traditional medicine factory. I found all the young Chinese I met in this trip and in the previous one, to be ambitious, hard-working and prepared to make sacrifices to achieve their goal of a good material life.
Lilian's husband Steven joined us and we went for a walk around Hangzhou's beautiful West Lake, exchanging views on all and everything.
China still has a long way to go to catch up to the most developed countries but it is working hard at it. It has wisely invested in its human resources starting at the primary school level. Illitteracy has fallen from an estimated 90% fifty years ago to less than 20% now (India still has almost 50% illiteracy!). The young know what they want and they're out to get it!
Some have got it and are getting more like my friend Victor relaxing here in his modern 20th floor penthouse.
Progress is also reaching into the countryside where the traditional low adobe houses have almost completely been replaced by two and three storeyed brick houses covered with white tiles like the ones seen here.
From Hangzhou, I travelled westward 31 hours by hard sleeper train to get to Kaili in Guizhou province before going to Yunnan. Most of the farms along the way he looked well taken care of and prosperous like this one.
This is a Chinese hard sleeper coach with triple tiered bunks. There is not much room but the bunks are not that hard and sometimes it can be a good place to make Chinese friends.
Kaili is about two thirds of the way to Kunming from Hangzhou. I stopped here to visit a nearby Miao village because there are very few Miao in Yunnan province. Miao is the Chinese name for the Hmong tribal people that can be found in China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. I had seen Hmong before in Sapa on the Vietnam - China border in 1994.
Almost everyone in a city the size of Kaili would have a refrigerator but there still are open-air markets like this one everywhere in China for modern distribution networks and supermarkets have not yet taken over.
The pork sold here is not plastic wrapped but was probably still trotting around this morning.
I like to stay in small hotels where people are easy to meet. In Kaili I met the hotel manager and her daughter who also worked there. When I told them that I had stopped in Kaili on my way to Yunnan because I was interested in minorities and wanted to visit the nearby Miao village of Langde, they proudly told me that they were of the Dong nationality. They looked very Chinese to me at first glance but they took time to point out the differences by calling in Han and Miao members of the hotel staff to show me what was obvious to them. (They don't really have red pupils, I just did not set my flash right!)
The various minorities I intended to visit are of course easier to recognise when dressed up in their traditional national costumes like these Miao ladies who were going back to their village after giving a song and dance show in a local auditorium. Even then, it is not always easy if you don't know their language for some of the costumes look alike and some nationalities have several sub-groups that dress differently.
To get here, I took a bus for about 20 kms south-east from Kaili and then set out on foot on a side road leading up to the village. I was lucky as usual and got a ride on a motorcycle for about 3 kms.
The village is built on a steep hillside to avoid wasting valuable farmland. Every remaining square meter that could be terraced was cultivated.
At first I felt uneasy coming to look at these people without an interpreter but their smiles and open manner quickly put me at ease. The granny on the left with her grand daughter hesitated a little when I asked (by sign language), if I could take her picture but she did stop and pose for me. Younger villagers were not shy at all and everyone seemed to welcome my visit.
The ground floor of these lovely Miao houses are used as storerooms. People live on the next floor that always has an open room-veranda with a great view.
Langde village was quite beautiful with its old houses and rocky staircases and the people were just wonderful. After following this gentleman with his load of rice up the stairs for a while, I coughed hard to make him turn around and he gave me this nice smile when I made signs of taking his picture.
Here is another welcoming smile. What a pity I could not talk with them!
Even the kids seemed happy to see me.
The weather could have been better but not the beauty of the place nor the welcome of its people. I was glad I had come, my adventure discovering South-East Asia's minorities was off to a good start.
The world is getting smaller all the time. Even this remote village had satellite TV! I would not be surprised to see them get a satellite internet connection in a couple of years.
