China - Autumn 1996

31 Oct	We arrived at 05.20 am at Jishou. Now we are in the heart of the tribal areas, far from the East Coast - and from Beijing. Jishou was waking up slowly as we arrived, the first fires were being kindled, and the atmosphere was distinctly smoky. We walked across the station square looking for a restaurant that was open. We finally found a place serving very peppery noodles. Hunan province is together with neighbouring Sichuan, the "pepper belt" in China. It was a short rickshaw journey to the bus station where we caught a bus at around 7 am for Fenghuang, arriving at about 8.15 in time for a second breakfast. We climbed the steps to the Fenghuang hotel (as we had in 1994) and we walked through the narrow streets and down to the river - it was nice to see the town in sunshine, compared to the perpetual drizzle in 1994. Fenghuang is situated on the banks of a wide but shallow river, it can be crossed by a big road bridge, but further down the river can only be crossed on a long and totally unenclosed bridge consisting of two planks beside each other, normally easy tio cross, but meeting someone carrying a huge load on their head is not easy. After lunch (smoky local sausage, pork and vegetables) the others walked off to the cave, but I preferred to explore the old town a little better and discovered a small temple where some kind of funeral rites were going on. No-one seemed particularly unhappy though, and seeing a curious stranger they were unanimous in wanting their photos taken, and they invited me into the body of the temple to offer me tea, apples and pears, and even some liquor. (The celebrants invited me to come back in the evening, so we did all go back later, but Mr. Hua seemed embarassed and we didn't stay long.) We ate dinner at the same place as lunch, Fenghuang is not exactly bursting with restaurants, and it was good again, pigs liver, chicken, small (local) fish and plenty of veggies, all well spiced. In the last two years karaoke places, pinball arcades and video parlours have sprouted in the streets of Fenghuang, so obviously the economy must be improving even here.
1 Nov	It rained all night, thunder and lightning, and so I didn't accompany the others on the trek they made today (I had made the same trek two years earlier in cloudy and wet conditions). I saw them off through the muddy streets and returned with relief to the hotel where I discovered a huge hole in one of my tennis shoes. So I went shopping, the selection of gym shoes was pretty good and I bought a nice white Chinese-made pair for 95Y. The rain eased off quite soon, so the trekkers didn't have a bad day. Cloudy, and muddy underfoot they said, but no rain. There is a well-known calligrapher living in Fenghuang, who Jörgen from "Läs och Res" knows quite well, Annette had ordered some calligraphy earlier, and I said that I would collect it. The calligrapher lived along the river not far from a small gazebo-like building in a charming oldfashioned stone house with a pretty garden. He turned out to be a spry-looking 80-year-old who was happy to try to talk to me for a while, he insisted on painting two calligraphies for me too. I did some more errands, lunched by myself at our "usual" place, sausage and mushrooms for 20Y, bought some stamps, visited a Buddhist temple, and generally poked around this interesting Hunan town, which used to be fortified as the last Han outpost against the surrounding Miao tribes. An interesting street trade was that of the popcorn-maker, he pours the raw grains into a stout metal canister which is heated until the corn pops, he unseals the canister and fresh pop-corn is for sale. Down by the river I met an art-class, Fenghuang is so picturesque that it is a very popular excursion for Chinese artists, these students had come from Changsha and intended to stay for two weeks. And we had dinner at the same place when the others turned up. They had had no more rain, but had gone a very long way (20 to 25 kilometres) in very muddy conditions and stopped for lunch at a Miao village and were back just before dark at about 7 pm.
2 Nov	We left Fenghuang early and at Jishou Mr. Hua wanted to collect the tickets at the station before 9 a.m. and so we booked a room in a hotel so that we could leave our bags. Jishou was also much as I remembered, a big city, but long and narrow as it lies in a river valley. There were lots of interesting market stalls, no foreigners at all. I insisted on eating the local hotpot speciality at a food market where all the stalls were selling this, a huge cauldron in the centre of the stall surrounded by plates of edible items - vegetables, bean curd, meat on skewers, eggs, chicken pieces , and other less easily unidentifiable foodstuffs. Some were ready cooked but re-warmed in the hotpot. Customers pointed out which items they required, and these were placed in the hotpot. All these were eaten with bright green, sweet potato noodles. Even here there was a great deal of construction, most of the commercial centre was under scaffolding and surrounded by huge holes, and there was a very clear wild-west atmosphere. After lunch (luckily) we came to a market where dogs and cats were sold in cages. This trade seemed a little suspect, as the salesmen weren't very keen on having their photos taken. We left for the station at about 16.30 pm and the (Beijing) train left at 17.30 pm. For some reason the dishes in the dining car were very expensive (around 28 Y each); this is very expensive for Hunan. And the quality was only so-so.

3 Nov

We arrived at Yicheng at 5 am in a vast cluster of taxis. We took two to the boat docks where we waited for the ticket office to open. We found a restaurant for our breakfast noodles, a typical working mans cafe where the clientèle were heavily-dressed against the early-morning cold, raw air, and the kettles were steaming away. When the ticket office openedwe couldn't buy a ticket because "the computer was down" - a new excuse for China. But eventually we got hold of some tickets, and traipsed down the quays looking for the "Da Qing" (meaning Great Jubilation). It was a long walk away, and we went on board. As on the Li River, this was no tourist boat, and we were the only foreigners aboard. The four of us shared a cabin (second class), which was reasonably clean and comfortable.

It was a misty morning, and cloudy, but the rain held off until the late afternoon. It was cold enough however, so that I needed all my clothes to stay out on deck. Leaving Yiching we climbed the locks through the large new xzxx dam, which will be dwarfed by the damming of the Three Gorges.

There were at least four classes on board, down in the bowels of the vessel there was a large dormitory with mattresses spread out, it didn't look too savoury. The dining arrangements were, however, mutual and had the appearance of a grubby, lower class masses canteen from an earlier period, you bought coupons, exchanged them for the desired dishes, find somewhere to sit down, spit on the floor, and then throw all the rubbish into the river. Most Chinese (our guide Mr. Hua was no exception) are to our eyes environmentally primitive, and all the plastic containers end up in the river. During the entire voyage we could see hundreds of these floating along.

In the afternoon we passed through the "Three Gorges", and the scenery was magnificent despite the mist and the rain which by now was drizzling down. The dam will create a lake stretching all the way from the gorges to Chongqing, a distance we will take about 40 hours to traverse, about 600 kilometres.

4 Nov

This morning we tied up at Wanxia for an hour, Wanxia is built directly on the banks, and of course is one of the towns that will diappear when the dam is built. Perhaps that will be no great loss, it appeared to be a dreary place with mud in the few streets, and a gloomy looking population. We ate noodles in a hovel along the waterfront, and watched porters carrying loads on their heads to and from the boats. I think the social divisions are becoming wider and wider, even quite small towns nowadays have their "businessmen" with mobile phones and smart suits, while a huge labouring class is still living a very frugal existence, long hours of hard work to earn a bowl of rice. Although many of them now have a TV-set in their hovel.
Today it rained all day and there was nothing special to see on the river. We spent all day reading, eating, drinking and walking around the boat looking at and chatting to our fellow-passengers. From the boat many of the towns and villages look, like Wanxia, timelessly grey.

5 Nov

We arrived at Chongqing at about 9 am. after sailing through interminable suburbs. At the harbour a new form of "rip off the foreigner" appeared, 2 jiao for the lift up to the street was suddenly a whole yuan for foreigners. Mr. Hua was very angry about this, it was unsigned, so we wonder where the extra money went. We took a taxi, driven by a pretty young girl to the Hui Xian Lu hotell (the taxi was 9Y). The room was very nice, on the 11^th floor with an excellent view of a building site. Chongqing is built on hills with the centre on a peninsula opposite the confluence of the two large rivers, the Jialing and the Yangtze. So there is very little room for the city to grow except upwards, which it is doing very quickly now. We were hungry so we found a noodle shop for breakfast/lunch.

After lunch I wanted to explore by myself, the terrain with high cliffs on each side of the rivers is ideal for cable-cars, and in fact there are several in Chongqing, and I wanted to try them. One of the cable-car stations for the line crossing the Yangtze was close to the hotel, but it was difficult to navigate through the narrow, crooked and steep streets, even though the pylons were clearly visible. It was an interesting experience, crowded like all other Chinese means of transport, but with wonderful views down into the river and across the city. Near the southern terminus was a nice market, ducks and spices and vegetables. Then I negotiated the local buses back to the main railway station, which was fronted by a skyscraper on one side, and a huge muddy pool on the other.

Chongqing is unique among large Chinese cities in that there are almost no bicycles in the city, owing to the hills, which are also too steep even for motorised transport. So most of the streets are narrow, designed for porters and pedestrians, buildings packed tightly together. The centre itself is very small and compact, but according to the latest statistics Chongqing has a population of 14 million. Many of the old houses, as in every other Chinese city are being demolished now and being replaced by modern development. The climate too is not good, one of the "three ovens" in summer, and cold and damp in the winter, drizzle year round.

Ulla and Annette had spent the afternoon shopping in supermarkets and other stores near the hotel. We had dinner at the "Old Sichuan", one of the best restaurants according to LP, but it was good, with spicy dishes, beef and vegetables, rice cake, mashed walnuts.

Afterwards we went up to Pipa park in the drizzle to see the view, it was a slightly sleazy feeling up there, anywhere but China I might have been seriously worried about the gangster types hanging around the pavilions of the park. I had another problem too, I was feeling a little queasy, I was glad to get back to the hotel, it was late and dark, and there was a distinct shortage of rickshaws or taxis. But we found our way.

6 Nov

Woke up sick, a stomach virus according to Annette. So I stayed in bed and ate Premodium while the others visited a temple, a museum and the Peoples Park (which I had passed through yesterday - a good place to admire cage birds, and chat to their owners). But at 6pm we were forced to leave the hotel and since the Premodium were working I went with the others to the "Old Sichuan" restaurant again, to watch the others eat, and to drink tea myself. On to the railway station - early as usual, and noted that one of the waiting rooms charged 4Y for admission, it was difficult to see why. Admission to the platforms was supposed to be one minute earlier from it, but this would only favour unreserved hard seat passengers, who probably couldn't afford 4Y anyway. One of Chinas small mysteries.

The train itself was certainly the best run I have seen in China, the attendants were charming, the carriage spotless, and the berths (hard sleeper) comfortable and we were each given a keyring as a present (à la CAAC). There was however no restaurant car; the train only runs from Chongqing (at 21.47 pm) to Guiyang ( arriving at 07.52 am).

7 Nov

Guiyang means "Precious Sun" and true to its name the drizzle continued as we went to the hotel. But it cleared up quite quickly, and the rest of the day was dry, if cloudy. Our local guide, Adam, met us at the station. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then took a bus to the No. 1 Hospital of Guizhou Traditional Chinese Medicine College. At the hospital there was a good deal of discussion between our guides and the hospital leaders about whether 300Y was a fair price to show us around. But the visit itself was interesting, we toured the wards, and had a chance to talk to several of the doctors and patients. We finished the viit at the herbal medicine apothecary.

Then we took the no. 12 bus to Qing Lia park, the bus that took us there had a modern system with a tape recorder that announced each stop - in English as well as Chinese! However it later appeared that only the one vehicle was equipped with that system. There were also a number of double-deckers operating, very useful considering the huge pressure on transport. Here in Guiyang they were operating on the circular route from the railway station to the cntre and back, I had earlier seen them in Xiamen, Shantou and Guangzhou.

The park was only moderately interesting, we ate lunch at the Buddhist monastery which had a well-known vegetarian reataurant, but the food wasn't very exciting. In the park there were quite a few well-dressed, and obviously fashion-conscious teen-agers, mni-skirts and leather were popular, they were eager to be photographed with us. In the afternoon we returned into the city centre and walked slowly back to the hotel. Guiyang has a lot of modern buildings in the centre, with a surprisingly wide selection of shps and department stores, the main road is broad and well-traficked with pedestrian bridges all along. Just outside the commercial centre was one of the few remaining Mao Zedong statues, in the Peoples Square and overlooking a karaoke palace.

We dined opposite the hotel in "The Bearded Old Man's Restaurant", one of a row of hole-in-the-wall establishments, but as is not unusual in these family restaurants the food was excellent.

First impressions of Guiyang - even greater class differences than before, minority people sleeping in the streets, and looking through garbage cans, and in the main shopping street Paris fashions on sale at (according to Ulla and Annette) higher prices than in Stockholm.

8 Nov

It was raining hard when we woke up, the others had decided previously to go to the Huangguo shu waterfalls, but the rain changed their minds. I had already decided to stay in Guiyang, I had seen a waterfall before. So we spent the day pottering around the city again, and discovered that there was a good deal more of the traditional Chinese building styles and markets spread out around the city than we had previously suspected.

We met up at lunchtime and spent some time walking up and down the restaurant street trying to choose one. Then it started to rain again,and we dived into the nearest one. But it was a good choice and without Mr. Hua I could use my Chinese to order, and the dishes when they arrived were more or less what we had thought we were ordering. In general on this trip we found that the smaller the restaurant, the better the food. Perhaps because all the ingredients were fresh, and freshly cooked in the establishments only wok. It is always fascinating when a group orders a number of dishes how quickly in succession they come to the table. All the preparation, the dicing and chopping and slicing and mincing is done first, and then each dish is cooked separately, in only seconds.

The afternoon was dry and spent looking around the markets, this time the rows of stalls selling consumer goods, small electronic and electrical articles. I bought a very small travelling clock, after some haggling the price was 22 Y, Arne bought one too. Before dinner we returned to the hotel to pack for the trekking, we will be able to leave some luggag on the way, but there is not much I will be able to leave behind.

Dinner again at a small restaurant with excellent kidney dish and chicken dish. And much more. Then we visited a Karaoke palace, an important symbol of Chinese culture of the 90's; it gave a fascinating insight into the customs of the new-rich youth in this provincial city The entrance fee was 18Y and each beer was 8Y, at least for us, quite reasonable. This was in the main room, there were a number of smaller rooms that could be hired for additional fees. There was also a luxurious looking restaurant in the building serving shellfish dishes. It would have been interesting to have known a little bit more about what was going on - what the staff and customers were doing and saying, what all the comings and goings were about. But not a chance. Mr Hua was not very interested in interpreting for us.

9 Nov	After a last shower and shave we left for the Guiyang railway station at 6.50 am. We ate some dumplings en route and met Adam who came running at the last minute, and we boarded the Kaili train at 8 am. We talked all the way with an agricultural technology teacher returning to Kaili. He was interested in Swedish politics, living conditions, food, social system etc. and we tried to tell him about farming in Sweden as well. In Kaili it was a long local bus ride from the railway station to the bus station from where we were going to try to find a bus into the Miao tribal areas where we would start to trek. A hovel in the bus station provided an excellent lunch, lavish use of chilies and garlic, and everything fresh. Warmly recommended. The bus to Taijiang left around 13.20, and it was a one hours ride over bumpy roads before we were let off in the middle of no-where, a hamlet called Pai Yang, but with wonderful views over the surrounding mountains and rice terraces. We started to walk, and climbed up and down and around two mountains, often we followed narrow paths snaking around the paddy fields cut out in terraces in the mountainside. We reached our goal, Kongbai, at around 5 pm. We left our bags at the village chiefs house and went for a quick tour of the village before dusk could fall, accompanied of course by all the village children. Returning to the chiefs home it was time for the feast, in our honour. A bowl of chicken bubbled away in the centre of the table, and it was surrounded by plates of peanuts, fried potatoes, fish (small specimens with not much to eat on them except the roe, cultivated in the rice fields which are kept under water), and chili-meat. Quite good, and the feast lasted about four hours, with interminable toasts in home-distilled rice liquor. After several cups my toasts in Chinese seemed to be more and more fluent, and more and more appreciated by the company. Finally the chiefs wife, and another younger Miao girl sang a number of melancholy songs, the lyrics of which we were told were "we only have one life, live it wisely". After several more gan-bei (empty the bowl) toasts we were all happy enough, and finally retired to the chiefs uncles rather splendid double bed. The standard of this village (about 800 families) is quite high, it seemed higher than in the villages around Fenghuang. The schoolhouse had six schoolrooms and facilities for the smaller children. The older children had to walk to Xijiang to study at the middle school there, living there for the week and returning for the week-end. The "cultural affairs officer" from Xijiang was also present and we discussed the problems of young people leaving the village to work in towns, the village chief hoped that a road would be built linking Kangbai with Taijiang and Xijiang. Today everything has to be carried over the mountains, and throughout the trekking we met people, men and women, young and old, with carrying poles over their shoulders and loads of chilis, sweet potatoes, rice, wood for building and firewood, pigs, chickens and everything else. The Miao appear to use their language today, but Chinese is taught in the schools and nearly everybody speaks Chinese. I haven't seen any books written in the Miao language, but it is said to use Pinyin rather than characters.
10 Nov	I woke far too early, but felt quite fresh despite yesterdays party. Finally the weather is improving, high clouds and no rain, even a few moments of sunshine. We set off at about 9.30 am and walked for about four hours through endless paddy fields, the rice was at various stages of cultivation, from just being planted in water, through to harvesting. Irrigation was genial with bamboo tubes carrying the water gradually down through the terracing through field after field. No mechanical device could be seen, ploughing was done with water buffalo, and sometimes by hand, planting, weeding, irrigation, all was done by hand, and there were always people working in the fields. It was a delightful landscape, the mountains were not high but fairly sleep and close together so we were climbing all the time. We reached Xijiang where a market was being held, along the way people streamed into the road to Xijiang carrying goods to sell, pigs, ducks, chickens and vegetables, all on their shoulders on carrying poles. The track was not suitable for motor traffic, and it was too steep and rutted for bicycles, draught animals were rare. So it was almost a mediaeval feeling to follow the trail together with all the Miao peasants. Adam knows a few Miao phrases and I tried to learn some words. I tried the Miao equivalent of "Please tell me the road to Xijiang" on passers-by, but the result was discouraging. We ate lunch first and then spent an hour looking around the market, one of the most popular items for sale was fire-crackers.. Xijiang is the "biggest Miao village in the world", and there were in fact very few Han Chinese to be seen, most of the Miao were wearing their traditional garments, blue jackets often decorated with flower patterned bands, and red and white headdresses. The village sprawled up the mountain side and many of them were traditionally Miao in style as they were in Kongbai. This means wooden houses with large open rooms for drying grain and peppers, and open balconies where visitors were entertained, a kitchen with open fire and stove where the family lived and ate. We walked up the mountain to a viewpoint and were able to see the whole village sprawled around us. Returning we met Mr Hua who had remained in Kaili with the luggage for some reason. We went to the hotel which was a basic concrete box (Chinese style not Miao) but cheap at 8Y a bed. The toilet facilities were at some distance from the main building, not an attractive prospect at night. We had dinner at the same place as lunch, there was not a wide choice of eating establishments in Xijiang. Curiously enough the restaurant had an English sign announcing "The Beautiful Wine Shop". The cooking was ok, but the variety of ingredients on offer was restricted. Adam asked what we wanted from the market,and I asked for duck, but they were only able to get a chicken. Beancurd, eggs and some rather poor meat comprised the entire stock of foods. No-one else was eating, so obviously Miao don't rank eating out very highly on the list of lives pleasures. Their diet is also not nearly as varied as the Han Chinese. Following dinner there wasn't a great deal of nightlife in Xijiang, however a hairdressing salon was open, and the young barber didn't seem too shocked to be invaded by a quartet of foreigners wanting a haircut.
11 Nov	After a nourishing noodle breakfast we set off early at 8 am to trek up the highest mountain (LeiGong Shan) in the vicinity. We found "an old man" as Adam called him, but actually a very spry 68-year old as a local guide. He insisted on cutting us all walking sticks and then set off at a very brisk pace, but as a guide he seemed a little bit at a loss. Later we found out that it was only the third time he had climbed to the top of LeiGong Shan, the earlier occassions being in 1948 and 1979. When we approached the top he slowed down, and appeared to have no idea of which way to go. Luckily there was a constant flow of pedestrian traffic, carrying considerable loads to unknown destinations (across a mountain ??) and we were constantly asking for directions. We decided to make for one of the "smaller tops" and immediately became hopelessly lost in a densely wooded area, meeting a couple of gun-toting hunters (who looked more like gangsters) they showed us to a 'path' straight up a steeply forested slope, we did indeed come out in the vicinity of the top. At this point it was about 12.30 pm and only Arne and Adam wanted to run to the top. The rest of us found an excellent grassy clearing where we could enjoy a picnic in the sun. Arne and Adam returned after nearly two hours, satisfied but tired, and it was time to descend to ensure being back in Xijiang before nightfall. The ascent out of the village in the morning was very steep, but then most of the climb was very gentle following a small stream, with beautiful close-ups of paddies first, and then the views became wider and wider as we climbed, although near the summit we entered a forest and continued in and out of woodland at the top. It must have been 12-13 kilometres each way; four hours up and three and a half hours down. In the evening Arne decided he wanted to cook our dinner, he is a cook in "real life". After some haggling "The Beautiful Wine Shops" owner agreed, and we went to the market to choose some meat out of the cuts on display, Arne chose a piece of pork, I think that stall-owner made a very good deal that day. So we ate woked sliced pork with chips, green beans and omelette. Quite a change from what we had been eating. The restaurant staff watched in amazement and cautiously tried a chip each.
12 Nov	We ate fried noodles for breakfast, and then an "easy trek" to Xiao bai di. We started out along the (only) road out of Xi Jiang and followed it as it snaked up for about 5 or 6 kilometres, where we turned off onto a path which folowed a river for another 2 or 3 kilometres. We reached an idyllic spot by the water, which formed large shallow ponds with sandbanks, surrounded by trees and bamboo groves, and several spots where Miao launderesses were doing their washing. After a while the farmer who was to put us up for the night arrived and we trekked up into his village. He had a large house, Miao style, with large reception area on a balcony, many smaller rooms, kitchen and large dining area, and several store rooms for chili-peppers and corn-cobs. However the washing and toilet facilities were primitive and well outside the house. He had four children, and his oldest son cooked dinner for us. It was the same dishes we had eaten in Kong Bai, boiled chicken in soup, meat, peanuts and paddy-field fish, although not so well-prepared. However there was plenty of rice wine, and innumerable toast were offered. The custom is that you offer your bowl of liquor to your neighbour, who at the same time offers his to you. After the festivities we were about to go to bed when a mother and daughter among the guests invited us all back - to continue drinking. The old lady sang too, the same melancholy melodies as in Kong Bai. Eventually we crawled out into the darkness to try to find our way to our beds.
13 Nov	We should have been here in time for the Miao New Year celebrations but we missed it by a day, we were promised that we would be allowed to see the slaughter of the pigs and at 6 am we were awakened. All over the village, pigs were being slaughtered, the custom is t offer one leg to each relative, so big families get through a lot of pigs, the next door neighbour had already killed three. We started to walk down the 'main road' at 8 am and about 10 am we found a bus that took us to Rong Jiang. So totally we have trekked about sixty kilometres. The bus now took us the 140 kilometres to Rong Jiang in six hours, fine views at times of the surrounding distant mountain ranges. We stopped half-way for lunch at Yong Le and also passed through Lei Shan and Tashi. Rong Jiang appeared to be a fairly pleasant, if ordinary, small Chinese town, with leafy main avenues, bicycle-rickshaws, a few karaoke places (but not nearly as many as Feng Huang for example) We had no liquor tonight, but bought a bottle of white Yangtai wine, which turned out to resemble fruit squash. The hotel was adequate, we had been promised hot showers after the trekking, and after a good deal of persistence, we indeed found one shower which delivered hot water.

China (19 Oct 1996 - 30 Nov 1996 part 2)