A Freshwater Marsh / Lake in Tengchong, Yunnan Province, China

Yunnan Province (云南, "South of the clouds"), located in southwest China, is home to some of the middle kingdom's most beautiful sights and scenery. The Yalies of the Fall 2009 Yale-PKU program had the pleasure to take a 5 day trip to southern Yunnan before our classes started and roommates moved in (Sept 6-10). For those of you who have been angry at me for not uploading photos, be happy! Your fortunes have changed with this post : ) This will be mostly a photo-travelogue, with my commentary.

First, some more background about Yunnan. Many of the "most beautiful" traditional sights are located in northwest Yunnan - Lijiang, with Tiger Leaping Gorge; Dali, with Erhai Hu; Shangri-La with, well, Shangi-La... etc. When we found out that we weren't going to go to any of these sites, a lot of us familiar with them were rather crestfallen... and may still are, at least a little bit. However, we still had a really great time in Tengchong county and Ruili City, which were rather less 'touristy' than the northwest would have been. The question remains as to whether or not those places are touristy for good reasons! but all the same, it was worthwhile to have had a nice trip together, even if we would have wanted to plan it a little bit differently. With no more complaints and without further ado, some more photos and stories!

hot springs in the rain!

The photo at the top of this post is from a lake that we visited in Tengchong; while in Tengchong, we also climbed a few dormant volcanoes and visited some very lovely villages, perhaps dubiously authentic, but "charmful" all the same! I am sorry I don't have more photos of myself, but other people were taking photos of me, and maybe I can get my hands on those. These are mostly of the scenery or other people!

Tengchong - and much of southern Yunnan - is a volcanic hotspot of sorts. All the mountains you were were formed from volcanic activity, and this resulted in - what else? - hot springs! We got to visit a really pretty hot springs park, and a few of our own stayed afterwards to go into the hot springs themselves (indoors, with snacks, etc). Meanwhile, the rest of us went to go relax, and then we went out again in the evening for dinner and massages from local deaf masseurs. Not quite like Zatoichi, but still nice - especially for 20 RMB!

At the hot springs, our guide informed us excitedly about the new development of a "five star hotel!!!" -- indeed, everywhere we looked in Yunnan, it seemed, 'five star' hotels were being put up. Nearby we were also able to see the work currently in progress on what is to be the "largest golf course in China" which - of course! - would be the site of at least a few new "five star hotel."

This obsession with official accreditation extended in some cases to the most bizarre of places. For instance, I can tell you with the official authority of the Chinese People's Scenic Sites Rating Committee (paraphrased) that the above hot springs are a "four star" tourist attraction. Perhaps the most hilarious example of this practice came in a village we visited later on, in Ruili (the village is pictured below, near the Banyan tree). There, the villagers themselves got together to rate each other's homes on a variety of different criteria, from cleanliness to filial piety... yes, really! Anyway, moving on.

This is what the road to Ruili looks like out your window

After two lovely days in Tengchong, we set out for Ruili, in even-more-southern Yunnan. With our guide and driver, we set out along the historic road to Burma, tracing much of the same routes that the "southern silk road" once took. Driving through the mountain switchbacks was, frankly, extremely terrifying. Our driver saved our lives many times, no doubt.

The roads were not themselves so much a problem as were our fellow travelers on the roads. (This is a general rule of thumb for travel conditions in China, it seems)

sadly, the most beautiful and dramatic images were often too deadly to take, and our program director didn't let us stop at the best safe pull-outs

Scooters were not a serious worry - in an accident or collision, we'd survive handily. Instead, on this narrow and twisting two-lane road through the high mountain passes, extremely slow moving "trucks" -- actually truck bodies matches with extremely weak tractor or motorcycle engines mounted naked in front of the drivers -- were heavily loaded with volcanic rocks for the stone carving operations further back down the mountains. Given these and other kinds of slow moving vehicles - local farmers and pedestrians entering from secret off-roads into even more sinuous and dangerous village mountain roads - on a truly horrifying number of occasions we were faced with two oncoming vehicles bearing down on us in each lane.

On one side, the jungle and mountain. On the other, thousands of feet off the mountainside through steep rice paddies to the valleys below. Every time, people were able to maneuver successfully, and I'm alive here to write this story... but very, very scary.  Luckily, I didn't have to drive, so when not preoccupied with our impending deaths, I was able to snap photos like the ones you can see above.

And then, we made it to Ruili - alive! Oh, how happy we were.

Ruili was, until quite recently, a very exciting travel destination for foreigners who were looking for heroin, prostitutes, danger and excitement on the Burmese border. Why is Ruili City a boomtown of such illicit trades? Simply look across the Ruili river to find your answer: Burma. Yes, we went to the Burmese border. In fact, we drove along one section of the border where there were simply some weak low fencing and on the other side, Burmese farmers. For a brief background reading on how Ruili and other boomtowns are growing because of the surging trade with the junta  -  China is Burma's 2nd largest trading partner - check out this piece from PBS Frontline - Burma: The Chinese Connection. Brief relevant sections quoted below:

Along the Burmese frontier, Chinese boomtowns are sprouting up, bankrolled in large part by the trade in narcotics, jade and timber from Burma. One such town is Ruili, just over the river from the Jie Gao Free Trade Zone.

I first visited Ruili four years ago. Back then, the construction boom brought a volatile mix of men, cash, drugs and sex. China's first AIDS cases were discovered here in the early 1980s.

These days the atmosphere in Ruili is less frenetic. It feels like a town that is finally settling into its self, after going through a spasm of growth. The thousands of Chinese construction workers, who'd come for the building boom, have left. Many of the Burmese prostitutes who flocked here during the boom are also gone.

"In the past, you could see men and women shooting heroin openly in the streets," a longtime Ruili resident tells me. "But today, Ruili is much cleaner, more modern."

But the town has not fully shaken its sleazy reputation. Heroin trade has decreased slightly, but amphetamines -- another Burmese export -- are flooding the streets along the China-Burma border. There are still dozens of brothels, advertising both Burmese and Chinese women.

So yes, Yale / PKU brought us to one corner of the Golden Triangle, Southeast Asia's main opium production zone. Ruili was a little bit gritty, and we were careful going out - the night market was full of Burmese children who sneak over to beg, for example - but it was still an interesting experience. While here, the "Southeast Asia" feel was stronger than ever, even though it was obviously with a Chinese element. One reason we came to Yunnan was because it is full of so many minority groups - and so many which are just found in Yunnan. Here in Ruili, we got to meet local schoolchildren from different minority groups as well as Han Chinese, and visited some minority villages and other local sites.

manual exposure: why I love my Pana FX-500!

At right, you can see one of the many places we were able to visit around Ruili (aside from our numerous excursions to heroin-filled brothels, of course). This was a truly lovely park / wildlife area. We picked up a second guide in Ruili, and she told us that the area was sacred to the local Buddhists, and that therefore for a long time no one would go into it to hunt, log, etc - thus, it was in pristine condition! This definitely seemed to be the case, at least to a certain degree. There was a really nice trail that went to a waterfall there, and this is a photo taken along the way. This area also had some hot springs, which fed into proper "pools" in which local people were just swimming, washing clothes, etc.

The forest was said to be good for your health because of the very high levels of oxygen because of all the foliage there - this was basically rainforest, or so it seemed. Though the day was very sunny when we started, under all the tree cover it still stayed pretty cool, despite the heat of the local climate.

There were giant, old trees - reminiscent of the redwoods and sequoias of the American West, even, although more subtropical / tropical. I have more photos of everything that will be uploaded to... Facebook, I suppose? So look for them there. : )

The next day, we were set to go visit a local village school, and then a corresponding local village. While at first I hadn't been particularly excited about the village or the children, thinking it would be a pretty tacky and inauthentic experience, I was pretty pleasantly surprised.

The kids were all really, really nice - they were very excited to get to meet us, and it was nice to have little kids who really wanted to play with us and who rarely if ever got to meet foreigners.

Obviously, all of them would imagine Yale as being less exciting than a Chinese university, but I still harbor some hope that maybe one of them will be inspired and end up coming to Yale some 10-15 years from now. We sat in on a couple different classes, and then got to play with them outside. Many were shy at first, but it was interesting to get to see them learn and to see the school.

The picture on the right shows the kids in their English class, which was the only one that I could really follow along with - my Chinese is definitely nowhere near 4th grade level, which I believe is the year the students in the yellow outfits were. In any event, I could communicate passably with some of the younger children about basic concepts, but couldn't understand their playground songs, etc.

Outside, during their recess, we got to play with the kids - each class getting a few "big brothers" and "big sisters" (i.e., Yalies). At first, we played their games, which were delightfully violent or dangerous, the kind of things that PTAs have tried to outlaw in the United States like Red Rover, etc. We also played duck-duck-goose, and when I lost I had to stand in the center of the circle and sing a song - but I didn't know the "you just lost duck-duck-goose" song in Chinese, so I sang part of the U.S. National Anthem instead... to the great delight and laughter of all the Chinese (and Yalies in earshot, as well). At right is a photo of one of my fellow Yalies, Monica Lu (Morse, '11) with a variety of friendly little schoolkids. The red scarves indicate that they are on the "honor roll" so to speak, and are especially diligent / hard-working, etc. We left around lunchtime, and so did the students - they go home for lunch, if they live close, and then come back for more classes later.

In the background you might be able to see some rubble; it was just littered around the schoolyard, which was a bit worrying, but it turns out to be positive: they are building new classrooms etc and it's just part of the construction process. The facilities were all things considered quite nice: they had nicer overhead projectors and equipment in some cases than what I had had in elementary school, even if the facilities were anything but fancy. The school had recently gotten a good infusion of funds for their expansion / renovation, so they were on pretty solid footing. Apparently they also had a program in place to teach Burmese children, too. Some of the kids whose clothes look different are from different minority groups,  but it's not always obvious; most of the differences in outfits are just those who are wearing 'uniforms' for different grades.

Rice laid out to... dry? A common scene everywhere we went around Ruili - Rice, Corn, and Tobacco were the main crops we saw grown - also some chilis!

After we also had our lunch, and emergency ice cream to combat the heat (remember, we're on the Burmese border, but not at altitude anymore), we headed off to this nearby 'minority village.' There are several interesting stories to tell here, though I had few photos to go along, but I'll try to give a sense of what it was like.

First, we were met by a local woman who was head of the women's committee of this village and four others. This was actually a very important post, since - or the claim was made - that this and the other villages were part of a minority group which was in fact matriarchal, where the women have indentured servant husbands for several years until they have "earned their keep" and can move upstairs into the bedroom of the house, for example.

Afterwards we weren't quite sure how much of the story we were told was entirely true, but it seemed quite believeable. In Chinese fashion, this woman - 10 year party member! - was not eager to really show off the squalid conditions of the village-village, instead touring us her house and suggesting another nicer section to visit. After talking with her and hearing the story of the village (translated by our program director) she offered us a large selection of jewelry to purchase, supposedly made from local materials in a local factory constructed by the Chinese Communist Party for the villagers - the proceeds were meant to support the village and their Buddhist temples. After hearing the very well told story of their history and culture, we of course all leapt to buy trinkets; southern Yunnan is an important site of China's jade trade, but the items were mostly metals. Still, we left about 2000 RMB (~300 USD) poorer, collectively, and richer by an unknown number of bracelets and earrings.

Now, with a short drive an an additional walk, we came to another, nicer part of the village - or a nearby village, it's hard to tell - as pictured above. Some of the old style houses were still around - woven bamboo walls, etc - some were newer buildings of brick, and some were a combination of both. The classic house here in this area is to have a mostly empty lower section of the house for entertaining guests and storing your animals when need arises; upstairs is where the family lives and keeps their nice possessions, etc.

Our objective was the Buddhist temple of the area, since a very large Buddha had been built over many years. I took photos, but it wasn't especially exciting - what drew my attention was another absolutely fabulous Banyan tree. This picture is taken from very far away and doesn't really convey the full scale of the tree; we had stopped at some Banyan groves earlier, and this was much bigger than any others.

Now, I later learned that this particular tree - of a species significant to Buddhists and Hindus alike - was probably sacred and significant to the local people, especially given its close proximity to the giant Buddha (taller than the tree, perhaps?) just 100 feet away. Still, my first thought when I saw such a beautiful tree was to worship it in my own way - by getting up on top of it and experiencing its age and majesty first hand. I didn't know that was wrong until I started getting yelled at, but still...!

Banyan trees are a kind of ficus - often called stranglers for the way they sometimes start by growing around existing trees - which drop down roots which then grow into larger trunks which can end up as large as real trees themselves.

These trees can grow to be hundreds of years old, and cover huge amounts of territory because of the way they can extend laterally - the first picture above shows just how "wide" this collection of trunks can become. Very impressive trees!

Afterwards, we went into the adjacent temple, which mostly merits mention because - like so many other places in China - it had a very cute cat posing in a very photogenic way.

After this, we went back to the hotel, had some food at an interesting Burmese-themed kitschy restaurant (which was fun, if tacky - Cameron got married off to a local woman, as well!). At night throughout the trip, we all became friendlier and closer by playing lots and lots of Mafia together. The next day, we drove to the airport, flew back to Kunming (capital of Yunnan Province) and from there back to Beijing. With that, I'll end this travelogue!

This has gotten to be very long (almost 3000 words) so thank you for reading till the end, if you really did, and I hope you enjoyed the stories and photos. I had a great time getting to know lots of nice new people who are now my good friends in the program, and it was very cool to get to see Yunnan as well. We had many interesting experiences which were not recounted here and maybe I will write about them randomly some other time. Until then - thanks for reading!

If you want to see a gallery of all the photos used in the post, click the "read more" link below.

Gallery of photos used in this post