Mushan

After Dali, we swung back into Kunming for a night before heading south of Kunming for the southern loop of our study tour. First stop, the town of Mushan, which is home to the Yi minority ethnic group.

We arrived in town and were welcomed in this manner!!  Here in Mushan the students (and us teachers as well!) were provided the opportunity to live with a local family for an evening.

Here's the home in which we stayed.  In this one large building, one family lives on the left, one on the right (the families are related as the families of a brother/sister pair live her) and they share this common area.

Due to illness, I took the place of a student and here is my homestay partner with our "host mom." She has two children, 1 is in college in Kunming and the other is 17 and away at high school.  Her husband was away driving her 17 year-old back to school.

Dinner is served!

No gas stove here, everything is cooked in this fire driven wok!

About halfway through dinner, this man walks in and sits down.  Turns out he's our host mother's father-in-law.  80 some years old and tough as nails.  I with I could have more easily communicated with him, but he, as most older people in these more rural places, speak the local dialect only.  He understood our mainstream Mandarin (thanks television) but couldn't speak it back to us.

The family raises pigs.  This baby, seven months old, is headed for slaughter.  She will sell for 1000 RMB.

Pigs for sale, but one is always slaughtered for the family to eat.  There were drying pig parts hanging all over the place.

This kid in the middle was fascinating.  He's 15 and a high school dropout.  He's from near Beijing, but has been in Mushan (his mother's hometown) since October.  He dream is the join the military and become a sniper (yes, you read that right) and if that can't happen, he is confident that he will be able to find some factory job that will pay him well.  He was fascinated in us and vice versa.

Our host mother in traditional Yi clothing.

During our school visit, we got a meeting with the mayor of Mushan.

In our conversation with the mayor, we learned a number of things.  The Chinese government has done a great deal to improve the lives of these far-flung ethnic minorities.  There is no taxes collected at all and the government subsidizes farming.  Anytime land is reforested, there are major incentives and subsidies.  Within the past decade health insurance has come to China.  30% is paid by the patient and the rest is free.  There is a great push towards solar energy and there are subsidies to install solar water heaters and the like.

In terms of the Yi culture, the mayor feels the Yi people have been successful in keeping alive their culture because of their pride.  The Cultural Revolution didn't diminish the fervor for their culture and he feels that in modern times, ethnic minorities in China are not discriminated against, making it easy for minorities to express themselves and pride in themselves. In addition, the Yi have very strong family ties and so even though many kids go off to University, they come back to the area. 

Lastly, there are benefits to being Yi.  There are extra points added to the score of applicants to Chinese universities and ethnic minorities are allowed to have two children under the one-child policy.

A picture with me and someone important in town, but I forget exactly why he was important.

During the night we stayed in Mushan, we were treated to a performance of traditional dance.  What is awesome is that the WOMEN do the dancing.  These women of Mushan have been all over China and the United States performing.

One of the amazing feats performed by the woman was called the "ants?"   Here's a couple of our boys trying to perform it.  The women were better.

Of course, we had to end with the dragon!

Full moon in Mushan!

Dali

Another stop of the "greatest hits of Yunnan" is the famed city of Dali, which lies between Erhai (one of the largest freshwater lakes in China) and Cangshan.

The three pagodas form an equilateral triangle.  The larger, more geometric one dates from the 9th century.  The two "twins" are more ornate and were constructed in the 10th century.

Legend has it that the pagodas were built to scare away the dragons that inhabited the Dali area.  I think, more likely, it is some ruler/ruling group that built them to display power.

The pagodas have withstood earthquakes and manmade catastrophes for over a thousand years.

The pagodas are simply one highlight of a working and active buddhist temple.

The large worship hall....constructed in 1999.

After a night walking around the old town (not as touristy as Lijiang, which was nice) we took a boat ride on Erhai over to one of the islands in the lake.

We landed on Jinsuo island.

Jinsuo Island has a few temples which represent the religious preferences (Buddhism) of the Bai minority who inhabit the Dali area.

However, the Bai, because they are so tied to Erhai, worship a Nature god and are quite thankful for their surroundings as witnessed by the drawings of boats on their temples.

As you might have noticed so far of all these posts of the trip to Yunnan....all sunny.  Three weeks and we had perfect weather!

Hanging with colleagues and fellow chaperones.  From left, myself, Hilde B. (Director), Zhang Tong and Dong Nan (Chinese Teacher), PC (History) and Li Xuedong (Travel Coordinator).  Another Chinese teacher is not pictured.

Myself and Li Xuedong, and yes he is as hipster (a Chinese one at that) as you think he is!

Shaxi and Shibaoshan

Alas, due to the fact that I left my camera, I was without picture taking ability during most visit to the town of Shaxi.  Who's ever heard of Shaxi?  Why did we visit?  Well, we've all heard of the Silk Road, but what about the Tea & Caravan road?  Back in the day there was a great deal of trade between Tibet and SW China/Burma/India.  Because of the Himalayas, trade had to come to the east of those mountains, which is modern day Yunnan province.  One of the best preserved of the famous Tea & Caravan towns is Shaxi, about halfway between Dali and Lijiang.

This one photo is all I have of the back streets of Shaxi, but it gives you a sense that the place has yet to be turned into a tourist haven.

But change is coming....and fast.  Although there aren't yet lots of shops selling tourist goods, the building boom in Shaxi and the number of renovations of buildings into cute hotels is everywhere.  In about 5 years, Shaxi might be another Lijiang. 

The market square (kind of here in this picture) the center of the weekly Sideng market (probably continuously held since the Tea & Horse caravan days is my guess) was put on the World Monuments Endangered Places list in 2001.

What do I love about China?  Street food for mere cents.  Three "baozhi?"  5 RMB or about 80 cents.

Near Shaxi is the famed Shibaoshan.  Here is the Stone Bell Temple from the Nanzhao Era (8th century BC), when this part of Yunnan was its own Kingdom.

Within the stone temple are some very intricate carvings that show life during the Nanzhao era.  This picture was taken without permission.  There was one great carving of a woman's genitalia, which was phenomenal.  Alas, didn't get a chance to get a photo of that one.

The view from Stone Temple

Lijiang

Lijiang, in northern Yunnan province, is stunningly sited right at the base of the Jade Snow mountain, which is covered in snow all year.

The old town has maintained its architechtural integrity and is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Walking through town early in the morning, the streets are quiet and you can get a feel of what it must have been like to live here when the town was inhabited by the Naxi, who are one of the minority groups on China.

Canals, large and small, wind through the old town.

I love how the doors are still panels that have to be removed.  These touches make the town immensely charming!

The town has been continuously inhabited for over 800 years.  This active well was used by the troops of Kublai Khan!

Surrounded on two sides by hills, this pagoda watches over the town.  (Built surprisingly, to me, in 1999)

The Naxi people believe in a religion/mythology called Dongba.

They have their own entire writing system.

The number of masters of the Dongba script is decreasing, but we were lucky enough to see on in the Naxi/Dongba museum.

Also sited in the museum, this banner stating "Mao Tse-Tung, the Dongba are with you"

One afternoon, I was approached by a little boy.  We became friends.

The students and I also got to meet another Dongba writing master (the one with the hat on the left)

And we got a lesson on how to write in the Dongba script!

We painted shirts!  Here's mine that has "North, East, South and West"

The back is my favorite word that we learned.  It's "giving birth to a child"

Lijiang is a BEAUTIFUL place with such a great culture, but, it's problem is that it has been discovered.......and discovered intensely by Chinese tourists.

What does it mean when Chinese tourists start visiting a place in droves?  It means, in the case of Lijiang, that the Naxi have moved out and raucous bars have moved in.  The main street of Lijiang, at night, is a raucous set of bars where each one has a hipster guitar/singer and loud lights.  Every shop sells the same 100 tourist kitsch items.

And worst of all.  The shell of Lijiang has been preserved well, but it's soul, the Naxi people, is gone.  And that's sad.