In the spirit of Mikala's blog, I'm going to begin a blog-a-thon, which in my case is a fun way of saying I'm going to write a post everyday until I'm caught up.
That said, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from China. This was definitely one of the more memorable trips I've been on, and so despite the fact that most of these pictures have been hanging around Facebook for awhile now, I want to take the time to go into greater detail on some of our experiences.
Our trip started out in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou (a province located in southwestern China). For those of you like me who are not quite up to speed on Chinese geography, here is a visual reference:
It was my first trek outside a big metropolitan city in China, and Guizhou happens to be one of the most underdeveloped provinces in the country. Crowded, neon cityscapes gave way to endless picturesque stretches of lush, green hills, rice paddies, and livestock - as evidenced by a quick glimpse out the car window.
Our first stop in Guiyang was at Guizhou Normal University. A few years ago, Patrick stayed on this campus for a week while collecting research and conducting interviews for his graduate thesis on intellectual property rights in China's underdeveloped areas.
Here we met our guides for the week, Betty and Rebecca, who were kind enough to pose with me in front of this looming Mao statue.
Before dinner, they took us on a quick tour of the campus. Right away I noticed some striking dissimilarities between this university and one you might find in America, one being the colorful cascade of laundry dangling casually from each dormitory balcony (dryers aren't common in China). Patrick also informed me that most Chinese dormitories squeeze up to 8-10 students into one room!
Another interesting observation was the cluster of thermoses lining the wall of this building, which I later learned was for the students to collect boiled water for their rooms (since they have no potable water in the dorms).
Following our tour of the campus, we walked a couple blocks to "Happiness Restaurant" for dinner. (We returned to this restaurant later in the week for a big banquet dinner, but our camera ran out of batteries that night. Oops. Looks like we'll be relying on mental pictures for that one.)
Here we were introduced to several Guizhou specialty dishes. Please excuse my vague descriptions, as I am still unsure what half the stuff I ate on this trip was.
Stir fried beef with hot peppers
Beef and radish stew
Stir fried pork belly with spicy peppers
Fried tofu - you tear it in half and spoon the hot pepper sauce inside.
While in Guiyang, we stayed with Zhang Laoshi, an associate of Patrick's who he met through his graduate program at OSU. She was an integral part of the group responsible for promoting the movie Close to the Sun (which I wrote about here).
During our stay in Guizhou, she and her husband, Zhang Xiaozhang, as well as another professor who worked at OSU, Yang Laoshi, were exceedingly generous and thoughtful hosts. From the moment we stepped off the plane, we were taken in and treated like family.
Zhang Xiaozhang, Zhang Laoshi, Patrick, me, and Yang Laoshi
For breakfast, we dined on the likes of noodles and pork, fried eggs, steamed buns, and Coca Cola.
The first couple of days in Guizhou, we wandered around popular tourist spots, starting with the Longgong (Dragon Palace) Cave. We hired this girl on the right to guide us and recite memorized facts about distances and sea levels.
The path leading up to the cave was very scenic. Workers roamed around in minority clothing, adding a nice, touristy touch.
The actual cave tour took place on a boat. Unfortunately there was "no eating between meals on the boat" as it was one of the "three forbids."
From afar, the entrance to the cave was rather imposing. The boats looked as though they were being swallowed into a deep void.
When it was our turn, we wobbled into our boat and donned these flimsy life jackets. Not sure how useful they would have been if our lives actually depended on it.
Once inside the cave, we were engulfed by these bright, psychedelic lights. Apparently it's a popular Chinese thing to make caves look as unnaturally colorful as possible.
The entryways between caverns were rather narrow, making it tricky for our assigned rower guy to navigate around. We kept banging unapologetically into cave walls and other boats. Gotta love China.
But we made it out happy and unscathed.
Following the cave tour, we stopped to admire some gorgeous scenery...
... and also grabbed a quick bite to eat.
Me, Patrick, Rebecca, our driver (I forgot his name)
Our spread
Egg pancake?
Smoked pork strips with garlic chives
Mystery dish I didn't even venture to try
You don't even need to read Chinese in order to know what this is :)
After lunch, we headed to the Huangguoshu Waterfall. We were warned that the water volume wouldn't be very high due to the lack of rain this year, but we found it breathtaking nonetheless.
And the best thing about this waterfall is that you can go behind it.
In this shot behind the waterfall, you can just make out the path we walked leading up to it.
Here we are catching some residual spray from the cascading waters. So idyllic... if it weren't for the throng of overexcited Chinese tourists flurrying just beyond the camera's lens.
Later in the week we visited this museum celebrating Chinese minority culture.
In China, there are 55 ethnic minority groups (in addition to the Han, who make up the majority of Chinese people). Each of these groups has its own unique culture, traditions, language, and clothing. In Guizhou, there is a high Miao population. (Later in the week, Patrick and I were able to spend the night in a Miao village, but more on that in my next post.)
Here is one example of traditional Miao clothing. Everything is handmade, from the intricate embroidery to the elaborate silver headdress and jewelry. One dress can take up to ten years to complete, assuming that the woman making it still has other work to do.
Also near the museum, we came across this craftsman chipping away at some silver with a hammer and nail.
His shop was brimming with his beautiful handiwork.
We couldn't resist taking a piece back with us.
On our last night in Guizhou, our guide Rebecca invited us over to her parent's house to make dumplings. According to her, it's a Chinese tradition to say goodbye over dumplings, since they are shaped like little boats.
Though Rebecca grew up in Guizhou, her mother and father came from Shandong where they are famous for their dumplings (much like New York with pizza or Philly with Cheesesteaks). As such, we felt fortunate to be in the capable hands of experts!
Of course Rebecca's parents made dumpling-making look effortless with their quick and nimble movements.
But as Patrick and I soon found out, filling dumplings is a lot trickier than it looks.
You have to hold your hands a specific way and apply pressure in different parts of the dumpling to give it a nice round shape that still stands up on its own.
At dinner, you could definitely tell which dumplings were made by Rebecca's parents and which ones were ours, but in the end they all tasted amazing! We dipped the dumplings in Chinese black vinegar as is the custom.
It was the perfect way to end our trip to Guizhou. I am already awaiting my return so I can learn to make more Chinese specialties from Rebecca and her parents.
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You may make dumplings for me upon leaving LA :)
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