Hello Everyone,
So this is my report of our trip to the Guizhou Province plus a few other timely comments. It seems my “free” time is spent cooking, washing, cleaning, and I find no extra time for writing. I really want to type this up so I can remember what my notes mean.
Monday -- Lengde Miao Minority Village. This means “village close to the river.” This area has the most minority groups living in it. There are 48 of the 54 China minority groups in this area. The purpose of this trip is to see minority areas. We saw mostly Miao (meow) branches. There were some Dong and Bai people also. Miao called themselves Mong at times. The Han Chinese are mostly descendants from the Miao people but eventually lived in a different area and became known as Han’s. During the Qing dynasty the Miao had high taxes and couldn’t make a living, so they rebelled and their village was totally destroyed. Most of the villagers were killed, houses were burnt. These homes were restored and rebuilt to become a National Preserved Village with over 1000 Miao families living here. After the Miao were defeated in battle, they were forced to leave the river area called the Mother River (Yellow River) which flows into the yellow sea. They went into the Guijhou Mountains to keep away from the main government which was taxing them and causing them trouble. They called the mountainous area fairyland. They also migrated into Laos and Thailand. The guide compared the Miao to the Jews— both groups had to immigrate, were tortured, and persecuted. The word Miao is a Han name and the Chinese characters mean strange, stupid. They were hard to communicate with because they had their own dialect. If someone says another person is “a little bit Miao” they are saying he is strange or stupid. Miao language had no signs, but they had their own dialects. There are many branches. Some speak only the local dialect, some mandarin, and some no mandarin which is the predominate language in China.
There are five branches of the Miao Minority: Black, Blue, White, Red, Flowered Miao—and is the predominate color of their native costumes. This village were the long skirt flowered Miao. They have beautiful head dresses made of thin sheets of silver, silver necklaces, and other silver adornments. Very beautiful.
We were greeted in this village by the men in the village playing long flutes that were as tall as they were. The older you were the longer your flute. They had a rather deep mournful sound and only a few notes. We walked up some steps and were offered rice wine—10 toasts in all. It is a welcoming custom (of course someone paid them to dress in their costumes and do this for us.) The wine is 18-20% alcohol and is considered a soft taste. (I would hate to taste the hard stuff) Anyway we just said thank you and wouldn’t drink. They seemed a bit confused by our refusal, but the other tourists didn’t seem to mind at all! They performed dances in the center of their village for us with the accompaniment of small hand drums and of course more long flutes. The girls wore long red skirts 
that hang from the waist in 3-4” wide strips 
with a black skirt underneath. The red strips are flowered and embroidered. Toward the end they would invite the audience to dance with them. Immediately after the dance they lead you off to buy their souvenirs on the side and a group of older ladies rush down with baskets of silver ornaments and trinkets to entice you. They are extremely persistent and follow you all over town. This area is known for silver. We bought some bracelets and some 
local embroidered pillows—some were hand done and some machine done and brought in to sell.
The architecture here had wooden houses 60-90 years old that had been restored. They had roofs that had curled corners on them. The houses were very close together—maybe 3 feet alleys --more like a long hall. Most of these villages are built on steep hills. In the center of the village is a village square where they have festivals, and a warning bell if there is any danger. So the center square is surrounded with these streets spiraling off to homes.
Tuesday: We visited the Langde Miao minority village and spent the night in a family’s home. This village is a larger Miao village and is known as the gateway to surrounding minority villages and the silver culture. It is surrounded by race paddies and has wooden houses rising up the hillside. We arrived here toward evening. We are met by a local woman who looks more like a young girl of about 15 but is not. She leads us (uphill again) to her home for the night. As we approach the door, a lot of fire crackers go off in welcome. Firecrackers are used a lot in celebration in China for weddings, holidays, funerals, and welcome. Her aunt and mother greet us at the door with a rice wine toast. Here they have only one toast and put it up to your lips and practically pour it in your mouth before you can refuse—Wow! Is soft alcohol STRONG like it stings your lips—I got just a sip and had to spit it out it was so strong. They grow up on this stuff. Then we are assigned rooms for the evening and rest until dinner. This hike up to the house is about ¼ of a mile on cobble stones.
There was no glass in the windows because, the weather is moderate. In the winter they had glass or heavy cloth to put in them I guess. This was right up in the mountains so I assume it gets cold at times. Mosquitoes were abundant. The main living room of the house was about 10’ X16’. There were short benches (12-15” high) that served to relax and watch television--the 19” TV being the biggest piece of furniture in the room. No rugs. The bedrooms opened off this room. This is also where we had dinner. Our guide wanted some of us to have a local family meal, so we said we would. We went out to the kitchen to see if we could help, but of course couldn’t. We did take some kitchen pictures that are fun. They had a huge--probably 3 foot across-- pan that fit into a brick-stove thing. A brick square was built with a door in the front to build a fire and then a round depression that this huge pan fit into. She was boiling chicken here. Her grandson sat on his heels in typical Chinese style peeling potatoes while the grandmother cooked the rest of the dinner. She used bowls of water to cook and rinse things in. Chinese food preparation takes a lot of chopping and preparation. It was delicious though, more spicy than the foods in the north. We had cooked celery, rice, some chicken with a spicy sauce, mutton, and a few other things I didn’t recognize (and you don’t dare ask!). We ate at a long 8 foot long table by 2 feet wide and 2 feet high. We sat on the short stools and there was one bench regular height fastened on the wall. Very cozy. It was funny to see these tall men like Dondavid trying to slide down the wall and fold their feet under them to eat at the ends of the table. Our guide said that Miao people like sour, spicy food, salsa fish and hot pot. There is a saying here that if you didn’t eat some spicy food for three days, you can’t walk on the road you will be so tired. We enjoyed the meal and then hiked down to the village to wander around for a bit before bed. In the center square there was music and local dancing.
The night itself was interesting. Definitely helped our posture. Our room just holds two small beds with a bedside table between them. The bed is a wood platform with a ½” thick mat with a sheet over it. We did get a fluffy feather quilt to put over us that was slightly used but welcome because it is cooler here. 
There is a 
single light bulb in the middle of the ceiling for light. We felt very fortunate that there was a toilet on this 2nd floor, When you went down the hall to use it, the boards creaked and everyone knew where you were headed. With all of us older people we did hear all the bathroom trips though the night. Oh, this was a Chinese toilet, not a western toilet. Just a “squat pot.” By morning it smelled pretty strong. They told us we could take a shower if we wanted to. I don’t think anyone took them up on it, as there was no hot water, only a garden hose hanging from the wall in one corner. The toilet became the drain. The flush mechanism was to let the water run in a sink and the sink drain goes onto the floor and runs off into the toilet. At least there was a tile floor! Our bus driver down the hall snored so loud that everyone at that end of the house lay awake and listened. We were far enough away it didn’t bother us much, or we were so tired we didn’t care.
In the morning we had fruit and breads that we had bought in town. The people were very gracious and happy and rather well-to-do because of all the tourist business here. This was a good experience and I felt like I had stepped back in time a hundred years. I think of the many things I enjoy at home and am almost ashamed at my wealth. Just living anywhere in China reminds one of how little they really need to get along. The rest is just surplus and luxury.
We next visited a Xijiang Miao short skirt village—and were the skirts SHORT like short, short length. This village was more primitive than the one last night. They are trying to build up the tourist trade here and it has a ways to go. Mostly we walked through the village and just looked around and left. We did learn something about the customs of marriage here. They usually marry someone from another village (for genetic reasons) The groom carries gifts such as pig, pink rice cakes and wine and walks with friends to get the bride. The bride then goes to the groom’s family for one week. The first thing she does upon arriving is get water and help with the housework to show she is strong and can have babies. She stays a week and then returns home to her family for 1-2 years to help them on the farm. If she gets pregnant then she goes to live with her husband’s family. (Han’s do a similar thing but the gifts are not so many. The wedding team is 10-12 people but simple in the early morning 2 bottles of wine, some meats, rice cake, and a piece of pork.) You can have two babies in this minority. They really want a son. If they can’t afford the punishment of the government for having more than two babies, they will abandon their second baby girl to an orphanage. There is a new government policy if the Miao promise not to have a third baby after two girls, then they can get social security money for women at 55 and men at 60 as an incentive to have fewer children. They used to marry at 14-15, now they marry at 16-18.
The second village we went to today was Datang This village had wooden houses also, but the people were to come out and welcome us but they didn’t. It was a national holiday, so they took the day off. There were some women who had their hair done and some had on local costumes, but they didn’t get up or visit with us at all. The guide told us their hair style was handed down from the last 1,000 years and that the women pierced their ear with T-tree sticks very young and kept adding sticks in the holes until the holes were about as large as a nickel. They then put in a large button type of earring, some dangled, some didn’t. The Men laid on benches in the square sleeping or just watching. Mostly they just 
sat in the shade and stared at us. This village was very primitive, and we wandered around and saw one lady who looked to be about 16 doing laundry outside her door with two little children inside. One of the children about two years old came out and took candy from our guide. Their houses were wooded and built around a large lake/pool in the center. They stored their rice and vegetables in grass-roofed over the water to keep the rats away. (I thought rats could swim and climb up the legs on the houses, but maybe rats there don’t swim.) Very primitive. Very dirty, Very sad. Though the people were happy they appeared a bit lazy. These were also sort skirt red Miao people though we didn’t see any of these here. Later at our hotel we saw one girl in a short skirt and it was really, really short.
We visited another Miao village, but I have lost the name of it. Here their costumes were a little different. Orange stripes going around the skirt. The girls met us and led us to the village center. Their hair was done elaborately to represent the water buffalo horns. The water buffalo is considered sacred. The hairstyle has been handed down for over 1,000 years. In the village we paid several girls to show us how they did their hair. They have normally long hair down their backs, but have also saved hair from their mothers and grandmothers, which is put into long switches of hair probably 8 feet long which they wrap around wooden horns and weave into their own hair. It is then wrapped with white cloth strips to hold it in place. Quite heavy I would think. Many girls clustered around hoping to be the ones chosen to be paid. Some could do their own hair, others had mothers helping them. It appeared that there was some yarn in the switch for extra length.
Well here is Exciting Day 4 Thursday: A nice change! We went to the Tiantai Mountain Dragon temple In Anshun. This used to be a major trade route from the silk road to Africa through to the South China sea. Ching is also known as the Ma dynasty. This town has a population of 40,000 people. They built rock homes and castles . Tialong village has stone houses and we saw the Grand Opera which takes after an ancient military style, not the traditional known opera of China. The actors wear wooden masks painted in elaborate colorful design. They mimic battles, using martial arts moves, and re-tell their history. They don’t sing, they just act out the history to the “music” of drums and cymbals, sometimes a flute and zither-type one or three string instrument kind of like a banjo-drum. The story was of a girl named Shan Miaon Ming, which means little lovely girl.
The Tialong ancient temple is in honor of the sky dragon. The dragon is a holy animal and helps the Chinese in farming, rain, wind, and good wishes. We went to the Changjiao Miao Minority 
in Liuzhi where The Dragon Palace Cave is. It was beautiful here and the town was very touristy. You took a boat into the cave that is partially submerged in water. They have colored lights that show interesting formations. The cavern is huge but narrow in places. In high water, the cave cannot b visited. The entrance begins with rocks they call dragon’s teeth. This was a relaxing day in nature. There is a waterfall from the lake formed by the cave, drops about 150 feet, and at the bottom is an awesome dragon bridge. You can cross the bridge and look up at the waterfall and down the river.
We had one village left to visit--The Sugoa village which was very primitive. There was a pig eating in the yard, darling baby ducks and chicks. One had to watch where they walked however. They raise rice, tobacco, tea, corn in this area. Many of the houses had flat roofs with a little ridge around the edge and water was pooled on top of the roof. When I asked why they did this, they explained it was to cool the house in the summer and give warmth in the winter. The biggest problem with this was the mosquitoes. It gave them a place to breed and then of course that caused disease. This is a village of Puoyei People near Anshun. They came here 1,000 years after the Tang dynasty near the Pearl River that goes to the South China Sea. They have stone houses with slate roofs. They like to eat dog meat. They used to kill the neighbor’s dogs in other villages by coaxing them with treats to come out and then they would kill and eat them. This caused contention between villages. Now dogs are raised on dog farms specifically for eating. It is a very primitive village, and you feel you have stepped back in history 1000 years.
Day 5 in Anshun. First we went through the Stone Forest on the water . This stone forest has interesting rock formations that rise in thin sheets that resemble trees, and is mostly surrounded by water. There are 365 stones that they have made to walk though on, one for each day of the year. We took pictures on our birthdays and anniversaries. I wished I hadn’t had to watch where I was going so much because I missed much of the scenery. They had huge banyan trees here, one in which the roots looked like a girl with her arms flung up and over her face. They call it the “fairy tree.” The architecture and art in China is beautiful. They make everything artistic.
After the stone forest, we went to the Huangguoshu Waterfall. It has a width of 81 M and drops 74 M down to Rhinoceros Pool. It is the largest waterfall in Asia and third largest in the world. The first largest is on the Amazon River in South America, then Niagara and then Huangguoshu. On the way to the waterfall was a beautiful garden of Banzai 
Trees. There are over 1000 Banzai trees, many of them hundreds of years old. They are of many varieties, some Gingko, some evergreen, some orchids, you name it. They were beautiful! I could have spent the whole day there! There were paths that meandered through the trees, with beautiful weathered stones here and there that gave it a very ethereal feel. We then walked down several hundred steps to where the waterfall begins. We crossed a bridge and hiked up a cliff to view the 
waterfall as it came down. We first saw it from 
the top and then hiked down to where we could look up at the falls. We had an awesome experience here. We 
were able to walk into a cave that lies behind the water fall. You could reach through holes in the walls of the cave and touch the water thundering down less than an arm’s-length away. Of course we got soaking wet, but it was well worth it. Once you get behind the fall it is a little drier. We bought plastic rain ponchos, but they were really light plastic, and when Dondavid tried to put his on, he found it was made for Chinese sized people, and it tore to shreds before he even started. He got soaked! But it was awesome to hear the roar of the falls and be right behind it. After walking back to the down to the bottom of the falls and over a swinging bridge, we rode the longest escalator back to the top. All told this was a pleasant change from the poverty of the villages.
General Observations:
Note on who works the fields: Because this is such a mountainous area, most of the fields are built in terraces on the sides of the mountains, or in small plots in the valleys. The village chief assigns the fields by the number of workers in a family. Young children and old do not count as workers. So if there is a mother, father, two older children, there are 4 workers. They get to keep what the family needs, sell half of the crop at the market and give ½ to the government. China has 5 years of rice stored for the whole country (sounds like wise planning to me). The women here are very short and an 8 year old looks 5, a 16 year old looks 12. They are very strong people. They carry amazing loads on their back to and from their fields which are not close to their villages. Most have to hike up the mountain to their field. All the work is done by hand. You see no machinery. In fact, I don’t know how they would get machinery to some of the places. They utilize every little bit of land.
Farming: It was fascinating to watch the harvest of rice. All the work is done by hand. The family has fields by the number of workers they have. They carry a large 5 foot square wood box on their back into the field weighing probably 250 lbs. They cut the rick stalks by hand with a scythe and then beat the rice out in the box by hand. This is then put into sacks to be carried out to the road and be taken home. These rice bags are 30-40 kilos in weight (around 65-90 pounds, each.) They will carry two of these on their shoulders at a time. Women and men carry bundles of food, straw, wood, etc on their backs that are so heavy someone has to lift them on. You see them walking up the mountain roads with these heavy burdens. The stalks from the rice are used for mats, animal bedding, roofs in some areas. In other areas the stalks are carefully tied and set up like small teepees to dry and then stacked one on top of the other and eventually burned. In one area in Datang we counted 75 tiers of farm land up the side of a mountain and each tier had rice. These are very narrow valleys and every inch of ground was used. Water buffalo were used in lower areas and as far as I could see they did some plowing but were allowed to graze the area after the harvest to fertilize the ground. After they harvested the corn, rice, peppers, ect, they would spread it out on the roads to dry. Often it would cover a whole lane of traffic, and the busses and cars would have to drive around it. I was impressed that they wouldn’t drive over it, even if traffic was coming. They would stop and wait until the traffic passed, then pull into the oncoming lane to go around it. I guess they realize that this is someone’s life income.
A note about travel. We spent a lot of time on the bus in twisting, steep, switchback roads, that were rough. There were a lot of landslides from the rain a few days earlier. I was very glad to get out of the mountains. The landslides made me a bit nervous and I hoped it would not rain. We were lucky, and only had rain one night on the whole trip. At the beginning of our trip, our guide said there were three “nots” you could count on in this area. They said you will not see three days of sunshine, three kilometers of straight road, or three days without spicy food and stay well. We probably spent 5-8 hours on the bus everyday getting to and from these minority villages. There were only 14 people on our tour so we were able to take a smaller bus. Indeed it would be impossible to take a large group on a tour like this because the roads were too narrow and twisty for bigger busses. It was pretty scary as it was, passing other trucks and busses on those narrow mountain roads. In the news this week was an article about a bus that went off the road here and killed a bunch of people.
Note on Education: Children begin education at age 3-4 for Kindergarten for 3 years. (In primitive areas there is no preschool) Then at age 7 they go to Primary school . Most young go locally to school for Primary schools which is 3years. Then they go to middle school, then to high school and onto college if they can pass their test. Villages that are very small 10-50 families walk to primary school about 2 kilometers and have four classes that begin at 8:00 a.m. They walk home for lunch and then come back from 2:00-4:30 for 2 classes and then walk home again. Bigger villages of 5,000 or more go to bigger schools. There is no charge to go to school for 9 years. But you must pay for books. The teachers get paid by the government. In Datang and Lelang they walk long distance to middle school, sometimes 30 km, (20 miles) so they stay Monday through Friday at the school and a local bus brings them back home on Saturday and Sunday to work in the fields. They bring rice with them and give it to the dining hall every week (2 kilo--10 meals) and get a ticket. They can pay extra to eat vegetables or pork, and they stay in a dorm. In high school they pay to go to school. In minorities the first boy has a better chance of an education; the 2nd (and the girls) gets 6 years school and then works in the fields. The government ordered the people to give 9 years education for their children, but they aren’t rich enough and need the help in the fields. There is a story of a chief of Landao and his son got a 300 on his test to go to college. You need to have 420 to pass. However, no one had ever got this high a score in his high school before, so he got special permission to go to college for 2 years, and he is now a tour guide. It was a great achievement for his village. No one had ever gone to college before.
We observed a man being shaved in a barber shop with a straight razor in a chair that looked about like barber chairs the pioneers used. We also saw a dentist fixing teeth on a chair outside on the street at the market. They had a table with a selection of teeth to choose from for implants. Evidently you could get everything done right there in the veggie market. At the left is a photo of a couple of guys butchering a cow alongside the road. I guess this could be called “market fresh!” Of course, you must remember that these are from the poorest rural villages. The big cities are as modern as any you’ll see in America.
I found out why the roofs in China had the pointy tips (upturned eves) from National Geographic. They are generally just used on wooden buildings, and it is to allow the least amount of water runoff onto the wooden pillars below, thus preventing wood rot. I guess most things have a reason if we only know what it is. The stone or buildings with slate or tile roofs are generally just flat like they are in the US. Sometimes they just use it for decoration to give it a “China” appearance.
For my benefit:
Olympic Information: The 5 mascots of the Olympics and what they mean and their colors.
1. Jing jing— black panda
2. Bei Bei—blue fish
3. Huan Huan— red fire
4.YingYing-goat-yak (yellow is ying)
5. Ni Ni –green bird
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