Ancient Village

I’ve got the name written down, but its in my notes in Beijing…I’ll edit this later, but I found a wireless hotspot here in Minqing so I’m using it while I can!

We left the Changjiao village sooner than I wanted (missed the ping pong game), and we headed to lunch then to an ancient village. The village has been around since the 1400s. The residents appear to be leveraging the ancient nature of the village to draw some tourists. On one hand the buildings are very old, and the construction style still reflects some of the concerns of a world gone by.

The layout of the buildings was set up to create tight winding paths to slow an enemy who might invade the village. “Murder holes” are still part of the old walls where a defender can see out and shoot an invader with an arrow while remaining safe inside the stone walls. Rounded turns make it hard for an invader to hide, and the maze-like design had most of us lost as the walls are too tall to see over, so after just a few winding paths an turns, you could lose your way quite easily.

On the other hand the modern world is slowly infiltrating the area. At all times in this village and in Changjiao I had 4 or 5 bars on my iPhone. No data network, but that may be more a product of my 1st gen iPhone than the absence of a network. In Guiyang I had no data network either but local residents appeared to have access.

Electrical wiring was all over the village. The fixtures reminded me of 1920s aged stuff, but it worked. In one home I saw a TV running. The picture seemed pretty good, and I suspect there was a dish on the roof. Not a digital dish, but all along the drive out we saw plenty of the older satelitte dishes that pick up broadcast signals.

Aside from the fact that we had to purchase tickets to enter the village, a few stores selling local crafts were clearly the by product of a tourist industry. Some of the crafts, particularly the carved wood pieces were of exceptional quality.

One wonders what will become of this village as the older generation passes and the younger grows up. It would not surprise me to see wireless broadband deployed in 2-3 years, and once that gets out into the rural areas, the physical isolation will no longer be as significant. The cell towers are already in place, and as I noted above, there my already be a data network that my phone wasn’t seeing.

Tags: China, Guiyang, P2P, Travel

Changjiao Village

When we arrived at the village, we knew we were going to have to walk into the village as the busses couldn’t really drive right into the heart of the village. This gave us an incredible view of the landscape. I’m not sure the photos do it any justice, but the village was surrounded by dragon’s teeth mountains. Most of the land at the base of the mountains had been farmed, and a paved road winded through the fields to the village which was tucked up against the base of one of the mountains.

As we neared the village, you could see that they had organized a welcoming party. Not just a party of people to welcome us, but more literally a party. The road was lined with what was probably everyone from the village. Many were dressed in traditional clothing as well as a group wearing Chinese opera costumes and masks. Later the opera group would perform for us. The women wearing the blue, I had at one point thought, had dressed for us, but later I started noticing more and more women in the region simply dressed this way. I’ve decided that in general, while it is considered traditional clothing, it is also just regularly worn by many of the women. The blue we learned is from the indigo dye which is readily available.

Everyone was very excited to see us as we arrived. It was a bit overwhelming to be welcomed as we were, but given we numbered almost 200 Americans, and the village school was supposed to have about 180 kids, our delegation must have been a bit overwhelming to them as well. The kids in the village were happy to pose for photos, and like their counterparts in the city, they too flashed the two finger “V” sign. I saw this in Beijing as well while touring the Forbidden City among people in their teens and twenties, so I guess its just a common practice all over China as I’m sure the people I saw at the Forbidden City were not from Beijing but from parts all over China.
[caption id="attachment_228" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Some of the girls"][/caption]
When we arrived at the school, we greeted the children and looked at the school which was built with funds donated by People to People. Then the students sang us a song, the opera group performed, and a group of mothers performed a dance. As a reciprocal action, one of the delegations had organized themselves to sing the Hokey Pokey to the great amusement of both the other delegations and the villagers. After one performance, they pulled in as many as they could and did a joint delegate/villager performance of Hokey Pokey. All had an especially good laugh as they “put their backsides in”.

One of the things I noticed immediately in the courtyard as I entered the school was a ping pong table. Just as we were leaving, some kids arrived with paddles and a ball, but I was hustled back to the busses before I had time to try and play with them. I’ll have to make it back to the village some day for a game.

There are far more photos of this than I can post here on the gallery.

Tags: Changjiao Village, China, Education, Guiyang, Guizhou

Dragon’s Teeth

This is a bit late, but I thought I should note down a recount of our last full day in Guizhou province. We all piled into our buses and headed off into the country to visit a small village where People to People had previously donated funds to build a new school. It was a couple hour drive, and along the way we were treated to views of the southern countryside which gave us an even better look at the karst mountain forms in the region.

When we had arrived in Guiyang, our guide had mentioned that in order to build the airport, they had to remove 11 of these mountain tops in order to create a space large enough and flat enough for an airport. Somewhere in my past, I’ve heard the term “dragon’s teeth” to describe the terrain. I googled it, and found a reference to Dragon’s Teeth Mountains, but it was referring to Terry Brook’s Sword of Shanara fantasy books that I read years ago…so now I’m not sure if I heard the term from the books or in reference to these mountains. Either way, I think the term fits.

As we drove along, Matt and I took up positions at the back of the bus on either side. These two places, you could open the windows. I felt like a WWII tail gunner in a B52 except armed with a camera with a telephoto lense. You can see Matt’s photos on his Flickr page. I’ll be uploading my photos soon. A link will appear on the Photos page.

In the meantime, here are a couple more views from the bus:

In the description of karst formations on wikipedia, it notes that the process that forms these mountain tops also forms caves from water erosion. We could see this in some of the mountains like this one.

Tags: Guiyang, karst, Travel

Guiyang Experimental Primary School

Friday afternoon we visited a primary school in Guiyang. This visit gave us a chance to sit in on a class and observe then have an exchange with the teachers. I sat in on a Chinese reading class. What stuck me immediately upon entering the classroom was that on one half of the room was a regular classroom oriented to the right of the doorway, and on the left, desks and chairs with a group of adults sitting facing also to the right facing the class. The room was set up to observe the class. I filled into one of the empty seats with the other adults. I asked the guide what the other adults were here for, and he told me they were young teachers here to learn from the classroom teacher.

When we were all seated, the class began. The class went along well. The teacher gave some direction, and went through some content using a powerpoint presentation. Like the classroom in the high school we saw in the morning, the teacher had a console with a computer and a ceiling mounted projector and screen. I didn’t see a white board. The powerpoint had quotes from Mao Zedong. I managed to follow along that well because she had a picture of him on the presentation, and I heard her say his name, and I recognized the Mao character (毛). The guide filled in the rest for us.

After this, kids read pieces from the projection, and then, she let them loose. Kids jumped up and regrouped around the clusters of tables and all began talking at once. The teacher floated around the room and checked in with different groups. She invited us to come join her, so we too began to walk around and peek over the kids’ shoulders as they talked with each other, books in hand.

We later learned the assignment was for the kids to group up, pick a favorite passage of reading (from whatever they had that interested them) and then as a group, do a reading out loud to the class. After the kids had some time to meet and greet us as well as work out their plans, we all took our seats and the kids presented their readings. All in all, it was a fun class to watch. We left afterwards to meet up with the teachers to discuss what we saw, and share. I already had questions based on what I saw.

When were had settled into what was clearly the teacher’s lounge, we had brief introductions, then questions began. When I got a chance, I asked about the observers, and how that was structured, on-going practices, etc. The teachers deferred the answer to their principal who explained that they often had a lot of young inexperienced teachers (this is a school of 2000 primary school children), so they routinely observed more experienced teachers to learn from them. After their observations they would convene and discuss what they saw. In addition, all teachers were expected to do classroom observations of their peers to learn as well as to be observed at least 2 times per year.

Others noted to me that classrooms they visited also had the observation section all set up. While technology is used almost entirely as a projection device, their model of observations and such was very refreshing to see. I wish our schools could institute models like that, and also build a culture where it was welcomed and seen as positive for all as it was in this school.

I also noticed that all the teachers and the principal wore matching suits. It was clear that this was not for our benefit, but part of their professional practice. While I don’t think it would be implementable in US schools to require matching suits, I do think the level of professionalism as reflected in their dress was also refreshing to see. Not that our American teachers don’t dress well, but sometimes, it is hard to tell the difference between a well-dressed student and a teacher. “Better than the best dressed camper” as we used to say at tennis camp…

Tags: Guiyang, P2P

more on food…breakfast

The one thing about the food here in the hotels that I have really enjoyed has been the breakfast buffets. At both the restaurant in Beijing and in Guiyang, they made an effort to accommodate both Western and Chinese palettes. So, I made a point of avoiding all the Western breakfast foods (cereal, eggs, potatoes, bacon, etc). Instead, I elected to eat congee (or what my grandmother always called “jook”) which is a rice porridge, dumplings (dim sum), and sometimes some noodles.

Whenever I’ve had congee at home, both at my grandparent’s home and growing up with my mother, we always ate it with what we called “Fu Yuh”. Fu Yuh is a fermented bean curd product that I cab best describe as the Chinese equivalent to Marmite. Its very salty, very pungent, and very much an acquired taste. So, in Beijing, I went to the wait staff, and asked if they had any Fu Yuh. No luck. They were unable to interpret my bad Chinese, and I ended up without.

For the dumplings, I like to eat them with hot chili oil and a little soy sauce and vinegar. Fortunately, all of these were available at the buffet, and I was able to mix up my own sauce. So, at least for breakfast I was in control and could get my daily dose of spicy foods.

In the morning on Wednesday, before we flew to Guiyang, a couple of us took a walk around the neighborhood near the hotel. We found a grocery store, and decided to explore. We had been told that despite No Smoking signs posted in hallways and rooms, that most people ignored them, and that there was a chance that our hotel rooms in Guiyang might be smell like smoke. So, one of our goals was to find some Fabreeze. We were not successful (but fortunately, when we did arrive in Guiyang, the rooms were very clean and fresh smelling). However, what I did find was Fu Yuh. So, I took a photo on my phone so I could show it to the wait staff.

So, skip forward to Thursday morning in Guiyang at breakfast. I got my food, and then went to seek out some Fu Yuh with my iPhone at the ready. I caught up with a waitress “Cherry” and asked her again for “Fu Yuh” and she simply laughed. She didn’t know what I wanted, but it also appeared that I said something funny. So, I pulled out the iPhone and showed her the photo. “Ah! FooRuua!” she exclaimed, and then proceeded to call out to all the other waitstaff and the cook at the omelette stand that I wanted FooRuua. She pointed at someone, and they headed off into the back. She led me back to my seat, and said it was coming. In a couple minutes, she produced a small dish with a leaf-wrapped cube of FooRuua. Mmmm…breakfast was now complete.

At dinner and later that evening downstairs in the bar/lounge, I saw Cherry, and she was especially friendly. The following morning, as soon as she saw me, she called out to another waitress, and she quickly headed in to the back to get me the FooRuua. Cherry had become my new favorite friend By the third morning, I think all the waitstaff knew, because the first person who saw me as I entered the dining room smiled and asked me if I would like more FooRuua.

Of course, I still wanted to know why Cherry had laughed at me when I said FuYuh, so I asked Jill our guide how to pronounce it right, and what I had actually said. She asked me, “how did you say?” and I said it again…and she too laughed and wouldn’t tell me what I had said. But she at least helped me pronounce it correctly.

Today, at lunch, I asked my father thinking perhaps I had said something that a woman would not translate. According to my father, I simply said it in Cantonese and not Mandarin. He told me that while Mandarin is complex with the 4 tones, that Cantonese has 9, and that most Mandarin speakers cannot speak or understand Cantonese all that well if at all.

So, at least breakfasts have been satisfying, and I’ve learned a new Mandarin word.

Tags: Beijing, China, food, Guiyang, Travel