Winter break

I think we have been everywhere. In about 5 weeks time we have been to beijing, kunming, xishuangbanna in southern yunnan, xi'an, southern shaanxi, hua shan, guangzhou, guilin, yanshou, nanning, changsha, nw hunan, and back to kunming today. We have been lost in the chinese countryside amidst rice terraces, bicycling through banana groves, climbing fig trees, exploring psychedelic technicolor caves, climbing taoist mountains, celebrating the chinese spring festival the traditional way, in the countryside with a big chinese family, drinking too much baijiu (the white chinese liquor, about 52%), eats lots of great food, bamboo rafting, walking on city walls, playing with chinese fireworks( legit fireworks, none of that weak stuff you get in the US...when they go boom you feel it and it sets off nearby car alarms).

Our time in southern yunnan was great. we took local buses on windy dirt roads (windy enough to cause havoc for those with weak stomachs). After three transfers we ended up in a place called yuanyang 元阳。 the place is famous for its rice terraces. from the top of the mountains you can look down the slopes at endless expanses of mirror like rice fields. all reflecting the sunlight and the nearby landscape. we started wondering from one town, intending on coming back in the afternoon for a late lunch. whilst wondering a friendly local hanyi guy started talking with us. i was surprised because most of the people in the area are minorities(hanyi and bai) and do not speak mandarin. this guy had worked as a migrant laborer for 6 years all over southern china starting when he was 15, and had learned decent mandarin. we talked and walked, and he offered to show us the way back to his village for lunch. lunch in his village was great..although his time estimates how how long it would take to get there were about 2 hours off.. we had lunch with him, his niece, and his pig (the pig was enormous and only had a few weeks left to live before being slaughtered for the spring festival). we ended up walking on the terraces themselves..or rather on thin strips of earth separating the terraces for the entire day. we arrived at another town some unknown number of kilometers away just before dusk. we caught a local minivan bus back to the main town. on the way back we met an enormous traffic jam on the one lane dirt hillside road. Three large logging trucks had met some smaller delivery trucks at an unfortunately narrow section of road. rather than backing up to a wider spot, the trucks attempted to squeeze by at snail pace, while cars began to back up behind them. by they time they decided they couldnt squeeze past, there were a good twenty cars and trucks backed up in both ways... new dilemma...how to organize 40 cars to all back up to wide spots in the road to let the logging trucks by... they whole thing took about 2 hours to resolve.

we caught a couple more local buses and made our way back to a a bigger city where we bought tickets for a 15hour sleeper bus to jinghong 景洪。 strange enough the distance for the sleeper bus was the same as a 10 hour bus from kunming to jinghong.. we spent about 6 hours on a narrow winding road driving 20-40km/h before finally getting on the main highway south. we didnt mind the slow driving or the extra time though. we got bunks on the upper level right at the front and had a great view out the enormous windshield and side windows. the sleeper bus did have a problem. the bunks...there were more like recliners that reclined back to 45 degrees which is fine, except they were convex, hard and caused great discomfort for us. others riding the bus were able to curl up on the 3ft flat portion to sleep. not really an option for those over 5ft tall...

in jinghong we spent some time bicycling the countryside, through local dai villages, in and around banana groves, through numerous fields, and some rubber plantations. it was pretty great overall and we found an enormous spider. we took a trip to china's largest botanical garden, and did some more biking around a dai minority park...which turned out to be a normal dai village with a fence around it and an admission price.

we made it back to kunming for the beginning of the spring festival. we made a large feast of pork roast, roasted potatoes and garlic, squash bisque, salad, and stir fried pressed rice squares which was all delicious. the fireworks that night were amazing. large mortars all over the place and the firecrackers didnt stop all night. at one point we were surrounded by at least 4 different strings of the loudest firecrackers i have ever heard. even with my fingers jammed in my ears the noise was immense, but even more impressive were the shock waves felt all over my body. whilst in kunming, we bought a pair of amazing chinese bikes.. paid 17 dollars for the pair and got one bell and two locks thrown in for free. We rode them for the 5 days were there and they are waiting for our return this week.

from kunming we trained to guiyang for a day stopover before flying to xi'an. in guiyang i saw one of the most depressing zoos. there were lots of different animals all in square featureless concrete cages. one of the more depressing portions was a small bird cage with two owls in it. there were two little boys with sticks poking the owls for who knows how long. all the while hundreds of chinese walked by and enjoyed seeing the different animals, but never commenting on the squalid conditions or scolding the little boys.

In xi'an we first went to song lailong's (jonah's) house to grab some snacks before leaving for his father's family's ancestral home in southern shaanxi, hanzhong 汉中。 the city is a famous historical city in china during the three kingdoms period(3rd century). we stayed at a hotel in hanzhong, but everyday went to a different relative's house in in the countryside for lunch and dinner. the 4 days spent in hanzhong are unforgettable. everyone was very friendly, but more than anything it was apparent they were all happy to back together as a family for the holiday. each day there was 20 or so people present and we all crowed around little folding tables to eat delicious selections of meats and vegetables. also at each meal there were several bottles of the 52% baijiu. the males of the family all set together and drank baijiu, while the women and children sat together and escaped drinking the fire water.

back in xi'an we wondered the streets, caught a light statue exhibition on the city wall, eat some great street food, and took a two day trip to climb the nearby huashan. hua shan was a 1500m accent all on concrete steps. the guide book and the ticket office said it should take between 5 and seven hours to complete the climb, we did it a little faster at 2.5. once the sun set we saw a brilliant array of stars(stars are virtually nonexistent in chinese cities due to light pollution and constant haze). we awoke at 6 the next morning and made a 30min hike the the east peak of the mountain to catch sunrise over the peaks in the distance and the cloud sea beneath us. it was pretty amazing, aside from the chinese tourists...especially the dude who thought it was ok to pee on top of the rock we were sitting against... unbelievable. there is a very different view of nature here.

from xi'an we caught a plan to guangzhou, then transfered and flew to guilin were we met up with two classmates from the states. we took a bamboo raft down the river to yangshou where we took an epic 60k bike ride through the country side, and had an interesting tandem bike race. yangshou itself was rather repulsive due to the number of tourists and touts trying to sell guide services, goods, and tricks. the surrounds were very pleasant. slowly meandering rivers surrounded by the strange and famous karst hills seen in chinese painting.

this weekend i am in nanning to meet with some forestry folks. next week on the road again in yunnan for the last bit of winter travel. then in kunming apartment hunting before heading off to hong kong the first week of march for a conference.

pictures to come in a week.