National Holiday in Guizhou, China

With a week-long vacation decreed by the government beginning October 1st, we decided to join with another tour organized for the BYU teachers. So we were off to a little-known spot in southwestern China to see mountains and ethnic minorities.  I came home with over 1000 photos which were edited down to just under 400, and I'm sure you don't want to see all of them.  I am reminded of the seemingly endless slide shows someone would bring back from their vacations when I was a child.  

The truth is, most pictures are only meaningful if you were there.

So, I'll do the best I can to give you the flavor of Guizhou Province, without going on and on and on ...

First, I was happy to find out that although it was in southern China, because of the altitude the climate is quite moderate--no snow in winter, but not too hot in the summer. 
We arrived with the rice harvest well under way.  Often the rice straw is burned.  Other times it is fed to the water buffalo or used as their bedding. 

Our first afternoon, we visited Qingyan ancient town, which turned out to be lots of shops selling

mass-produced trinkets (and some genuine souvenirs)

and we got to pay an entrance fee for the opportunity to shop here.

At least many people were in native dress, and the town streets were old. 

  There were lots of Chinese, and no other westerners,

so we were stared at a LOT, and a lot of pictures were taken of Alice and Rachel, as well as different BYU teachers.

Many people said "hello" to us and were SO excited if we said hello back.  

And really excited if we spoke any Chinese to them.

In Guiyang, a small Chinese city of 3 million people, there are tunnels under the main intersections so pedestrians can cross safely.  Normally, these tunnels are filled with shops.  This one was under renovation, and we were amazed--in the US an area like this would not allow anyone in--there were live electrical wires hanging down; sharp metal rods sticking out about knee-height, and so on.  Not to mention the cement dust in the air...

Still, we survived!

Once we were above-ground again, we were in the city square of Guiyang, which happens to be the capital city of the province.  It was here that Mao became the leader of the Communist party in the 1930's.  I've been reading a very interesting history, "Wild Swans" about a woman and her family's experiences over the past 100 years in China, and my opinion of the Chairman has been

going down quite steadily.  

Looking the other way--the city square, and an amazing sculpture over an open-air auditorium.

With temperatures in the low 70's, it was a beautiful evening, and thousands of

people were enjoying themselves. 

It doesn't matter which city you go to in China, in the evenings and the mornings, there will always be a group of women dancing, doing a type of Chinese line dance.  We joined in, a couple of nights, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like doing "Just Dance" on the Wii, only following a live leader.

Next day, we drove several hours by bus to Kaili, then on to Leishan. The route is now a 4-lane highway, with tunnels through the mountains. In the past, this area was very isolated. Most young people left and went to the east coast (Shanghai, etc) for jobs,

leaving the grandparents to take care of their children.

And since these are minorities, they can have 2 children.  If they stay in the country, they can have 3 children (but cannot move to the city).  It was fun to see families with more than one child.

Now the government is building more roads, a high-speed railroad,

and encouraging foreign companies to build here.  They are even building tourist attractions to bring other Chinese in.

At one point, due to an accident, traffic came to a standstill.

We were able to get out and look around, watching a local family harvest their rice. I loved how the sheaves were stood up and looked like pictures from the 1700's in Europe.

The road began to parallel a river, and it is the first river I've seen in China that had clear water.

It was so amazing to see that I ended up taking tons of pictures,

because it looked like a river in the Rockies, pine trees included!

But one thing you won't see in America--cars pulled into the river to be washed.

Langde Miao minority village.  The Chinese have named these minority peoples "Miao" (sounds like someone calling their cat!)  The people have their own name, and they are actually Hmong, and related to those of Laos and Cambodia, some of whom relocated to the US after the Vietnam war.

These people used to live further north in China, but kept moving southward with the aggression of the Han Chinese.  They ended up in the remote mountains for their own protection.

I was struck at how similar their homes are to those in the Alps.

The area is known for embroidery and silver.  Most of what we saw was mass-produced.

Only in China... a pony was being used to give rides (for a price, of course), and happened to walk by just as I was taking a picture of a group of people at the bottom of the stairs.

What had me so interested down there?

A couple of women were washing all the dishes that had been used for lunch in the open-air

food court, but right next to their big dish pan was a bunch of dead chickens that were being plucked and butchered.  There was no water for rinsing the dishes.  No place to set them out to dry.  And of course, no mess from the chickens splattered that way, right?

And that's why we ate off paper plates and didn't eat chicken.

At least the water used for the dishes was good and hot

and I was impressed with the make-shift stove.

The girls purchased pan pipes and with their musical knowledge, it didn't take long to get

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star" going.  

That probably hadn't been heard here before!