nanamoose

Japanese Influence in Yao Culture? (or Vice Versa?)

After an action packed day in Yangshuo we set off to Lonji Titian. Dragon’s Spine Rice Terraces, as they call Longji in English, is an area a good 4 hour drive north of Guilin and populated by the Zhuang and Yao minorities. On the way we passed by Baisha market and decided to experience the hustle and bustle of a typical Chinese market. Baisha offers almost anything you can imagine, and in the largest scale I have ever seen. Every service, or product, is offered in row-upon-row –folds. There are the prêt-a-manger food stalls offering dog meat, cat meat and rabbit meat and occupying a semi-open air space the size of big delinquent warehouse. Then there are the dentists, a handful of them operating on patients from a single display table (one with a promotional display saying “咳声脱牙”, something which I do not understand to this day. Do dentists in China deal with coughs as well?) and chair on the sidewalk side by side with the chicken vendors. There are the barbers who line the park while men get their shaves sitting on single wooden chairs, and the glutinous rice cake makers by the dozens, all rubbing and churning out the exact same food. Even the patrons shop in the exact same way, live chicken in hand albeit grabbed in slightly different ways, some by the feet and some by the wings.

Arriving at Longji we had to choose between visiting the Zhuang minorities in Ping An or the Yao minorities in Jinkeng due to our time constraints. Being adventurous backpackers as we are (no doubt about that - we left our luggage to the poor village women who charged us RMB20 to carry our suitcases in baskets up for us) we decided to skip the more popular and more easily accessed Ping An and head further inland to the Jinkeng Yao Village.

As we watched the black turbaned and pink jacketed Yao women disappear swiftly uphill with our 15kg suitcases on their backs, we processed slowly up into the Yao village perching alongside the rice terraces. Jinkeng reminded me, much to my surprise, of the set for the Tom Cruise movie the Last Samurai. Even the Yao houses and the cobblestoned streets looked oddly Japanese. The rice terraces, each only a few feet wide, are painted an autumnal golden yellow. Smoke rises gently from some of the houses. I realize it is perhaps inching towards supper time. The only noise that is breaking the quietness and stillness of the valley is the sound of schoolchildren shouting and laughing in the local school playground. Jinkeng seems almost idyllic, an existence that is increasingly hard to find in modern day China.

After a leisurely 3 hour hike we arrive at our hotel, Meijinglou, or Beautiful Scenery Mansion which occupies a typical吊脚楼 (literally - “hanging feet structure” - the sizes of each floor increases slightly as we progress upwards to reveal “feet” – or extended wooden pillars - hanging from the four corners of the floor above). Outside the hotel, where our luggage is being offloaded, gathers a loose crowd of around 20 Yao women selling their wares in various forms. I decide to buy from our porter in acknowledgment of her hard work and paid RMB100 for an extensively embroidered bright pink jacket and RMB20 for a hand woven belt. I will probably never get to wear them but such is the magic spell a beautiful place like Jinkeng casts on its visitors - you feel like you become a Yao, living high amongst the mist, care free.

Impression – Li River

The introductory pamphlet on our “luxury” cruise for the local Chinese describes the dramatic karst peaks which envelopes the winding, emerald green Li River that runs, in part, from Guilin to Yangshuo as “grotesque peaks”. Cannot really blame the cruise company. After all, what better word to describe these oddly shaped and bizarre-looking mountain peaks than the word “grotesque”? The Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu described them as blue jade hairpins running through a green silk belt which is the Li River – and if you imagine blue hairpins plugged on top of a piece of green silk the image isn’t particular that poetic either.

I have visited the Li River some fifteen years ago with a Hong Kong tour group and did not have such fond memories of it. All I remembered from the trip was the tour guide’s continuous reminder of how beautiful Guilin was with the saying, “Guilin’s landscape triumphs heaven and earth, Yangshuo’s landscape triumphs Guilin” and waterway caves lit up with tacky rainbow-coloured lights. I had left thinking, “So, this is all there is to the world-renowned Guilin!” I learned a couple of years later that when you travel with tour groups from Hong Kong, “this” would be all there is no matter where you go. I vowed soon after this realization never to travel with a Hong Kong tour group again.

My impression of Guilin was therefore scarred for a good fifteen years, to be redeemed only until the recent film The Painted Veil, which was set in the ancient town of Huang Yao along downstream Li River. Intrigued by how beautiful the area looked with Edward Norton in it I decided to take a trip to Guilin to see for myself...

青海的童话世界 Fairytale Land in Qinghai

土族對大部分人來說應該是一個非常陌生的民族 跟許多人說起土族人家還會以為我在說“土著”呢。土族只在中國青海找的到 人口僅二十四萬 他們能歌善舞 刺繡出眾 風俗習慣卻在中國的經濟起飛下漸漸末落。 我對土族的好奇 也因此而更加濃厚。

青海土族主要集中在互助土族自治縣 很少人知道其實南方的民和也有土族。我的“導遊”文先生家鄉在民和，這趟便去了西寧以南的民和縣觀亭的土族村落找刺繡。民和距離西寧市大約2個半小時車程，一路開過來都是帶白帽子的回族人，偶爾才夾雜著些漢藏族的，感覺怪奇妙的。 再聽文先生和友人交談，才知道回族人和土，藏，漢族人均有不淺的疙瘩。友人說試過一個人開車回西寧，悶的發慌時想順路載個人好解悶，誰知一路開過去，路上搭便車的都是白帽子的，也就只好打消念頭一個人開悶車了。文先生從西寧回家更是有直通車不搭選擇分段搭兩趟公車 為了也是怕和白帽子的擠車。這些故事在我聽來都挺好笑 文先生他們卻是十分認真的。“不能不防啊 回族人為了賺錢可是什麼事都做的出的！”

回族人縱使有他們的缺點 不可否認的他們的建築卻是美麗得另人陶醉。從西寧的路上一路開過來左右不時可以看到各種形態的圓頂清真寺 （包括受藏漢文化影響的亭臺式寺廟） 散落在一片油菜花海裏, 背後是此起彼伏以各種不同的綠色拼湊成的小山坡。清真寺此時看上去就如同童話世界裏的城堡一般， 令人產生無限的遐想。

For many, the Mangghuers (or the “Tu” minority in Chinese) are a relatively foreign tribe. Most people know about the Tibetans, Mongolians, or for those with a bit more interest in minorities, the Miao, Yi or Naxi. Myself included had no idea what to expect when I was suggested that I should visit the Mangghuers in Qinghai Province for great embroidery work. I was told that their costumes are famous for their seven coloured sleeves (which I in fact did not have the chance to witness), can only be found in Qinghai, have a small population of 240,000 and are rumoured to be descendants of Mongolians who were sent to battle in the area during the Yuan Dynasty.

Most Manghhuer villages are concentrated in the Huzhu Tu Autonomous Region north of Xining, the capital of Qinghai. However, my “tour guide” for the day was a Mr. Wen from Minhe, south of Xining, and so that was where headed. Minhe is about 2.5 hours away from Xining. All along the way we were met with mostly white-capped Huis, Muslim restaurants and beautiful, even intriguing mosques (some, influence by Han and Tibetan culture, have towers that look like tall slim pagodas) dotted around gentle rolling hills of a green and yellow patchwork. Tibetans and Han Chinese make up the minority in this area. Having the Huis dominate a particular area in China seemed unimaginable to me, and it was only upon further conversation with Mr. Wen and our driver Mr. Su that I realized the tension between the Huis and other minorities, or even the Han and foreigners. Mr. Wen told an interesting story about how a friend of his had was driving back to Xining alone once and longed for some company to talk to during the long journey. He had wanted to pick up a hitchhiker but realized that on the way all those who had put their thumbs up were wearing white caps. Ultimately defeated after a couple of miles, he had no choice but to drive back alone. Mr. Wen on the other hand prefers to take a detour involving two bus rides from Xining back home because the majority of passengers on the direct bus are Huis. I find these stories rather funny, but Mr. Wen and Mr. Su looked at me seriously and said, “You can never be too careful around the Huis. They would do anything for money!”

Six Star Service at Beijing's Hot Pot Joint

I have never seen anyone wipe a table with such energy and rhythm it almost seemed like a theatrical performance, and one too professional and quick for my camera to capture at that.

Turned out that this table wiping performance was just one in many surprises I was going to experience this night. In fact, this was not the first either. Outside Haidilao’s Mudanyuan branch there is (as there is tonight) at least a hundred people waiting to be seated, daily. Hence Haidilao provides its customers, easily having to wait for anything up to one hour, with services from playing cards, tea, fruit to, believe it or not, manicures – all complimentary! Luckily tonight we were under the benevolence of Lai Jie (meaning “Big Sister Lai”). Lai Jie is how the Haidilao staff likes to call my friend Stephanie Lai, a regular customer at Haidilao. Having confirmed our identity as Lai Jie’s friends we were swiftly escorted, past a couple of girls getting flowers painted on their nails, upstairs to where our table was being wiped sparkling clean by the acrobatic table wiper.

After the talented table wiper came the oh-so-friendly waiters who never failed to carry a smile on their faces - from the bottom of their hearts. It is rare enough to be sitting at a restaurant where 100% of its servers provide you with the kind of service that makes you feel, “This person must be enjoying his job!” The fact that this restaurant is a local establishment in Mainland China makes it an even bigger surprise. Two minutes into the soup bases arriving and a few seconds after they started showing signs of boiling the waiters promptly delivered to us: 1.Plastic covers for cell phones which were left lying on the table; 2. velvet wipes for people with glasses and 3. brand new hair bands for girls with long hair. I am not even sure French Laundry pays so much attention to detail.

One can easily order way too much food at Haidilao. Amongst the three of us we finished two plates of meat, vegetables, tofu, winter melon, fish balls, and two big bowls of the freshest clotted duck blood (do not be put off by the sound of this clotted blood which came soaked in liquid blood and was so fresh it looked almost jelly-like). However, however much you order and however full you feel, make sure you save, or make room, for la mien at the end. La mien here is made by teenage-looking kids decked out in hip hop outfits performing various dance moves with the noodles. And if you ever worried about hygiene like I did, do not worry, these kids are professionals. Rest assured that the noodles touch only space as they are hurled around as if in a Beijing Olympics gymnastic feat.