Land of the Minority People - Guilin, CHINA

Our adventure in China began in a "small" city in Southern China.  Guilin is, by Chinese standards, considered a small city - the population is a mere 8 million people.   Guilin is situated in a valley amongst the mountains.  The air quality here is pretty bad, but we set off immediately to a minority village high up in the mountain.  Ping'An Village in Longshou was our destination and is home to the Zhuang and Yao minority people.

The mountains are beautiful!  Still a very rural feeling with homes built of bamboo and dodging large trucks filled with long stalks of beautiful bamboo.  Driving in this area reminds me a bit of Costa Rica driving.  Uneven roads, cars passing other cars on all sides of the road.  Rolling past small village after small village.

We reached the parking lot after which no cars are allowed.  It was quite the scene then as the Zhuang women clamored around us and loaded our very heavy bags into, or on top, baskets strapped to their backs.  Then they schlepped these up the rest of the mountain to the Ping’an Village.  It was a 20 minute walk straight up stairs and narrow passages to our hotel, the Li’an Lodge.  

The next morning we set off for a hike to see the Yao people and also for the spectacular views of the rice terraces.   It was a really pleasant morning and the scenery was spectacular.  Along the way we saw traditional Yao women who are dressed more ornately than their Zhuang counterparts and have their hair worn in a traditional style.  Their hair is extremely long and they wind it around their heads like a turban.  For the women with children, they add a knot at their forehead.  They cut their hair off when they marry, but they keep the long pony and sort of weave it into their newly grown hair when they wind it.  They also cut a piece out when their mother dies.

Elle in Yao cérémonial costume

Yao women weaving their cut-off pony into the rest of their hair

As a mother, this woman added the knot

Rice terraces

Ping'An village from above

In the mountains, there is just one harvest of rice.  The rice was recently harvested.

Zhuang villagers

This area is known for it's red chilis.  They lay the chilis out on roads, walkways, steps...anywhere flat to allow them to dry out.

Our next adventure was a Li River Cruise.  3 1/2 hours on an extremely shallow river twisting & turning through the limestone projections.  Extremely similar to Halong Bay, Vietnam.  The last hour was beautiful (even though the entire day was very hazy) and the final 10 minutes gave us the setting of the back of the RMB 20 note.  

The kids have become quite adventurous in eating local foods...the dish of choice aboard the boat was fried whole fish!

Her comment was "it's like a french fry!"

We then drove to Fuli to visit a fan workshop.  Very sweet women working there and I was shocked to see that the silk they use starts out a very bright blue.  I had been looking for a painting to take back of the Li River and opted to combine the two with a scene painted on a large fan.  The fanmakers grandfather hand painted the scene.  Afterwards, we walked through a market where the girls saw chickens being sold...alive and newly dead.  I thought Katie was going to become vegetarian from then on....but dinner proved that to not last too long.

The "raw" materials

Katie trying her hand at feeding the bamboo rib into a new fan

Our new fan

Woman at the market

The vegetable portion of the market

Local specialty....tiny crabs

Chicken transaction

Nap time!

We pulled into Yangshao by the end of the day and rushed to dinner and then to see the Cormorant fishing show.  The Cormorant are local birds that are trained to dive for fish in the river.  They bring them up in their mouths and then “swallow” them.  However, the fish cannot be swallowed into their stomachs because they have rope tied around the lower part of their necks preventing them from being able to swallow the fish.  They can hold 6 or more fish in their throats before the fisherman pulls them out of the water and squeezes the fish out of their throats into a basket...which he will take to market in the morning.

Although a gimmicky type of activity - it was one that was a true local activity and one that we won’t ever forget.

The cormorant diving down

Checking out the catch

The fisherman sizing up how many fish one of his birds caught

Squeezing the fish from it's mouth

For our day in Yangshao we split up.  Elle and Mike had a private ink painting class at the hotel.  Katie and I had a cooking class.  We started at the local market.  We saw lots of people getting their food for their restaurants there.  Lots of local seafood (snails, crayfish, turtles, frogs, etc.), local produce and then we were give the option of going to the meat section.  We opted not to, and I think it was a wise choice as it wasn’t simply chickens and goats...I heard there were puppies too.  That would have been very bad to see!

Fresh local seafood...yum?

Dried meats

Local produce

Stuffed tofu

Sampling our eggplant - which is now a new favorite!

Work done!

The final product...all excellent!

The eggplant was made with a black bean chili paste which is indigenous to the Guilin region.  I HAD to have some.  The cooking school got theirs from the local market...so back we went!  I smuggled it home in a water bottle and it was SO worth it!!

Elle learning how to use the calligraphy brush

The final product - beautiful job!

From there we wrapped up our day with a bamboo rafting trip down the Yulong River, which runs right outside our hotel.  It was actually very fun and relaxing!  The only thing missing was a nice glass of champagne and it would have been picture perfect!!

"Only he that has traveled the road knows where the holes are deep"

-Chinese Proverb

I found myself completely enjoying Southern China.  It reminded me of Vietnam in terms of the landscape, food and daily life.  There is so much I did not know about China outside of the big cities and I am very grateful we were able to this side of China.  I am also very grateful that we saw this before heading to Xi'an and Beijing....for that is another side of China altogether.  I'll leave that to the next entry.....