Last week I arrived back in Beijing from a 3 week trip to Yunnan Province on China's southern border. It was a really long trip, but still quite fun, and allowed us to escape the cold weather for a bit. We first flew into Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan. It was in the 70s during the day and 50s at night - almost perfect weather. Kunming is a city of approximately 2 million and reminded me very much of a Chinese Florida. Palm trees lined the roads, flowers were in bloom everywhere, and the street food was delicious. It was surprisingly modern, which seems to be the case with every city I have visited in China with a population of over a million people. Mcdonalds, KFC, and even Best Buy had snuck their ways into the city, and we happily ate our last meal in Kunming at Pizza Hut, before heading into rural Yunnan to stay at a Dai Village for one night. Yunnan is famous for the large variety of ethnic minorities that live within its borders. Among them are Dai, Akha, and Yi. We visited a total of 5 villages, each of which was inhabited by one of these ethnic minorities. China treats the minorities specially, allowing some families to have 2 children. In the last year of high school, each student in China takes an enormous test to qualify them college. The minority students have 20 points added to their scores so that they can more easily be accepted to college. Anyway, at the first village, a group of about 30 lady dancers gave us a traditional Dai dancing performance. We were told that each of their outfits took 2 years to complete. Many of them had been to America to perform even - which is obviously extremely unusual for rural China. They were very hospitable people, and besides having an extremely bad cough that kept me half the night, our stay at the Dai village was pleasant. The pictures are of the Dai dancing ladies, a view of the Dai village, Tulips blooming in Kunming, a sidewalk in a park in Kunming, and a newspaper article in Chinese about Obama that I saw posted on a bulletin board in Kunming. All Chinese people know about Obama, It's very interesting. My host mother even knew his entire family background. That's more than most Americans can say about Hujintao. Most people reading this blog are probably wondering who Hujintao is. I'll post another segment about the trip tomorrow! Toodles.
苏娥俐
3 comments:
Here's a stupid question...what makes them ethnic minorities? Is it their faith, where their ancestors come from (how long ago)? What?
Thanks Teach,
ellie
Mitch & I went to the Hong Kong buffet for supper tonight, and I listened to them speaking Mandarin after we sat down. One guy was cooking in the kitchen and one guy took our order. I thought to myself, my daughter could probably understand what you are saying and stun you by speaking some Mandarin in return. These little things give me pleasure.
They had a little square, layered orange-colored desert that tasted like a combination of orange and pineapple and reminded me of the desserts I saw in bakeries in Beijing : ) only without the fancy little garnishes on them and probably considerably sweeter than what you'd get at a Beijing bakery.
I'm glad you're getting settled back in with life in Beijing and had the opportunity to see China's version of Florida - a funny thought to me to think that China would have anything much in common with FL. But hey, they are both tropical at that longitude, and it is good to see the similarities!
I love your pictures and of course, your words to go along with them.
Mitch said you showed him your guzheng tonight, and he was impressed with how it looked. He asked if you were bringing it back when you came, and I told him you'd be checking with DHL (is that the acronym?) to see about shipping it back safely when the time came.
Well, I better get at you know what : ) Thanks for sharing the first chapter!
It is good to hear from you again. You are never on facebook nor do you call to give me updates! i was very worried for the last three weeks you know!
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