Western
China
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A Photoshop-embellished view of the
legendary limestone karsts flanking the Li river between Guilin and
Yangshou in the southern Guangxi province, immortalized in ancient
Chinese paintings and mythology. Any way you cut it, a boat trip
down here, especially around this region upstream of the village
Xingping, is one of the breathtaking highlights of China.
Culturally it is also a gateway between the frantically urbanized and
industrializing eastern China and the more traditional, rural and
underdeveloped western China.
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Guizhou is one of the
lost provinces to both tourists and to economic development, and
remains an extraordinary opportunity to see "Old China" in sharp
contrast to the ubiquitous new China. The villages in eastern
Guizhou province are a hotbed of ethnic and cultural minority tribes
who jealously guard their traditions against the onslaught of modern
Chinese homogenization, and unlike Yunnan province, are virtually
completely unspoiled by tourism to this day. It won't last.
This ge-jia (hakka) village of Xinzhai is located an easy walk
uphill from Chong'An Jiang, a base for visiting several contrasting
minority villages.
Not even 5 km from Xinzhai village is this
Miao village, more easily walkable from Chong'An Jiang along a paved
road. Each village regardless of ethnicity relies on agriculture
for subsistence, and daily life has probably changed littlie over the
decades. Waterwheels on the river mill the grains harvested, and
a tractor would be a very rare sight. These were the poorest
areas I visited in China proper, where running water and reliable
electricity are very much the exception rather than the rule.
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The main street of the historic city of
Dali (above) and vendors in the market square of the port village of
Caicun on the shores of the nearby Erhai lake. There is a
good reason why both Chinese and foreign tourists flock to the ethnic
minority dominated cities of Dali and Lijiang in Yunnan province,
culturally distinct from Han China. The locals are friendly and
easy going, it's very inexpensive, and more traditional architecture
and traditions are apparent here than in all of the other major cities
of eastern China combined. Dali gets my vote as the most
mellow city in China. I've been asked a few times where in China
I would hang out for a few weeks to relax and my choice would be
Dali, no doubts.
Lijiang lucked out by gaining UNESCO world
heritage site protection early on before the modernization crush in
China. This assured international funding to do the stunning good
restoration work, and prevented the relentless pressure in China to
destroy old culture. This has resulted in Lijiang being easily
the most expansive preserved historical city in China and perhaps in
all of eastern Asia. It is large enough that it is easy enough to
walk away from the 100% tourist-dedicated core area (above) toward
authentic areas where locals still manage to lead their lives
unperturbed by the hordes (middle). The Naxi traditional
orchestra (below) miraculously escaped the cultural revolution with its
instruments buried by their loyal and passionate owners, and has to be
considered one of the great and unique cultural legacies in China.
Where to see giant pandas? Not
bloody likely in the wild, so most visitors come to the panda breeding
centre in Chengdu (Sichuan province) to check out these smiling
goofballs. And few leave disappointed. Some even fork out a
big wad of renminbi to put their hands on one to have their picture
taken. Doing it with a diminutive raccoon-like red panda is
considerably cheaper, for those who just can't resist their urge.
There are other breeding centres in China, but this is easily the most
visited and successful one. Efforts to breed pandas in reserves
outside of China so far have been by and large unsuccessful.
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