Greenpeace

An old saying is people pay most attention to food. During my trip, Longsheng local favor also impresses me besides Longji terraces and Ailing hot spring. Of all special dishes, unforgotten ones are rice in bamboo;air-dry fish on iron board.

1 Alcohol. This is a kind of sweet wine made from sticky rice. The way of brewery is really pristine, put raised sticky rice in a wooden cask, and then put the wooden cask in a big caldron, at last braise it, wine will stream from the bamboo which is inserted in the middle of wooden cask. White wine rushes down from pot, aroma of wine blow on my face. Shake the goblet, aroma is getting denser. Like yellow wine, after warming up, I feel the warmth of wine coming through goblet to my palm; it seems to paste my palm to the goblet.

According to guide Mr. Su, water of brewery is drawn from the stream outside the village, with gentle of water and fragrance of flower. Sticky rice grains popple in the wine, like boat in river, ups and downs.

Slightly sip makes me sweet which I have never experienced, after tasting carefully, gingers flavor comes out. For the climate in villages is really humid, to boil the wine with some ginger can dispel algidity.

Tossing off, you will find warm current flows to your stomach, and your heart. With strong local customs in village, girls in folk costumes will toast you. Touched by songs of toast, I am getting drunk. With beautiful scenic spots, beautiful wine and beauties, how can I avoid drunken?

There are many minorities in Longsheng; their wine has its own specialty. To toast you more wine can eliminate your grief. 2 Rice in bamboo.

Cutting bamboo into sections with 35CM length, villages put sticky rice which was emerged in stream into these sections, together with wind-dry meat, agaric, dried bamboo shoot and peanut. Fill all the stuff from a small hole on bamboo, seal it with sweet potatoes, the last step is to burn the bamboo sections.

Firewood is charcoal or bamboo so that it is more convenient to burn the sections and water will not lose. Fire can not be too fierce so that bamboo sections will not be on fire. Faint scent of bamboo and sticky rice spills out with vapor from the burnt bamboo sections. After 30-40 minutes, all things have been done. Scratching black ashes outside the bamboo sections with sharp knifes, and then hack it into two half. Mixed fragrance with meat, agaric and bamboo shoot, it really makes me water.

3 Wind-dry fish on iron board

After tasting alcohol and rice in bamboo sections, wind-dry fish on iron board attracts me again.

Streams outside the village come out from remote mountains, they are really transparent. Small fishes can be easily caught, for there are many cobbles in stream, so villages call them cobble fish.

First of all, wind-dry the fish, and then spice them, the last step is to saute; fishes with local capsicum and garlic shoots. Its favor is hot and acetous with fragrance, it is most suitable for accompany with rice.

One more interesting thing is vegetables on the mountains, which is authentic green vegetables; without pesticides. Its favor differs from vegetables in cities, really dainty!

Sitting under boundless sky, smelling wine fragrance from far, I feel drunk again.

beijing shanghai  lijiang yunnan

Msn: achinatravel8@hotmail.com

Email: int@achinatravel.com

Yahoo Messenger: little_monkeycn@yahoo.com.cn are all available

An old saying is people pay most attention to food. During my trip, Longsheng local favor also impresses me besides Longji terraces and Ailing hot spring. Of all special dishes, unforgotten ones are rice in bamboo;air-dry fish on iron board.

1 Alcohol. This is a kind of sweet wine made from sticky rice. The way of brewery is really pristine, put raised sticky rice in a wooden cask, and then put the wooden cask in a big caldron, at last braise it, wine will stream from the bamboo which is inserted in the middle of wooden cask. White wine rushes down from pot, aroma of wine blow on my face. Shake the goblet, aroma is getting denser. Like yellow wine, after warming up, I feel the warmth of wine coming through goblet to my palm; it seems to paste my palm to the goblet.

According to guide Mr. Su, water of brewery is drawn from the stream outside the village, with gentle of water and fragrance of flower. Sticky rice grains popple in the wine, like boat in river, ups and downs.

Slightly sip makes me sweet which I have never experienced, after tasting carefully, gingers flavor comes out. For the climate in villages is really humid, to boil the wine with some ginger can dispel algidity.

Tossing off, you will find warm current flows to your stomach, and your heart. With strong local customs in village, girls in folk costumes will toast you. Touched by songs of toast, I am getting drunk. With beautiful scenic spots, beautiful wine and beauties, how can I avoid drunken?

There are many minorities in Longsheng; their wine has its own specialty. To toast you more wine can eliminate your grief. 2 Rice in bamboo.

Cutting bamboo into sections with 35CM length, villages put sticky rice which was emerged in stream into these sections, together with wind-dry meat, agaric, dried bamboo shoot and peanut. Fill all the stuff from a small hole on bamboo, seal it with sweet potatoes, the last step is to burn the bamboo sections.

Firewood is charcoal or bamboo so that it is more convenient to burn the sections and water will not lose. Fire can not be too fierce so that bamboo sections will not be on fire. Faint scent of bamboo and sticky rice spills out with vapor from the burnt bamboo sections. After 30-40 minutes, all things have been done. Scratching black ashes outside the bamboo sections with sharp knifes, and then hack it into two half. Mixed fragrance with meat, agaric and bamboo shoot, it really makes me water.

3 Wind-dry fish on iron board

After tasting alcohol and rice in bamboo sections, wind-dry fish on iron board attracts me again.

Streams outside the village come out from remote mountains, they are really transparent. Small fishes can be easily caught, for there are many cobbles in stream, so villages call them cobble fish.

First of all, wind-dry the fish, and then spice them, the last step is to saute; fishes with local capsicum and garlic shoots. Its favor is hot and acetous with fragrance, it is most suitable for accompany with rice.

One more interesting thing is vegetables on the mountains, which is authentic green vegetables; without pesticides. Its favor differs from vegetables in cities, really dainty!

Sitting under boundless sky, smelling wine fragrance from far, I feel drunk again.

beijing shanghai  lijiang yunnan

Msn: achinatravel8@hotmail.com

Email: int@achinatravel.com

Yahoo Messenger: little_monkeycn@yahoo.com.cn are all available

Miao minority is one of the minorities which locate in the north of China. Now there are totally 7,384,000 Miao people in China, with 430,000 in Guangxi, which are mainly spotted on the four Autonomous counties-------Rongshui, Longlin, Sanjiang and Longsheng, with the other are on Ziyuan, Xilin, Rongan, Huanjiang, Tianlin, Napo, Laibing. Except their own traditional festival-----Miao New Year Day, Miao people of Guangxi observe the same Festival Day of Han people, while their activity is a little different from Han minority people.

On 9th February,2006(12th January, lunar calendar), we photography team were invited to Antai countryside of Rongshui county to celebrate the Miao minority New Year, the destination is to Zaihuai village of Antai countryside. We started from Guilin at 8:30am (Guilin----Lingui----Yongfu-----Rongan-----Rongshui), we arrived at Rongshui County at 1:00pm, just eating some rice-noodle, we continued at 1:30. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we met a strong fire, which burnt two wooden storied building, and had obstructed us for an hour.

At 5:00pm, we the team with more than 90 people, we went to the village as we are with our guns (tripod) and cannons (cameras) as if we are devils, while the villagers did not look us as that way, they were exited to heard that we are photography fonder, and some of which were from media units, so they welcomed us with the most warmest ceremony. The villagers dressed up in queue met us with fresh flowers, the others played the Yaogu (a kind of Chinese drum which can hang on ones waist), and Lusheng (a kind of traditional musical instrument of Miao minority people), a pretty girls toast us one by one.

When we arrived the village square, the villagers served us with the most wonderful Lusheng dancing; we felt the atmosphere of festival in their skilled performance, beautiful and honest dance posture. We could not help clicking the shutter as to catch the most brilliant instant.

This night the arranged us stay in the villagers families, with the way of Dahongbao (the host serves us a night sleeping, a supper, a breakfast, and each of us pay the 20 Yuan, cheap? So cheap! )

Lao Xu and I were arranged to the family with the master whose name was Lao Shi, Lao shi was pretty veridical and honest. He guided us to his house and showed us the rooms which are ready for us, in which there is simply a bed, maybe that can not be titled as bed, which was built by several wood bat, ok, it does not matter, we originally came here to experience the life of people here, while the problem is the bed is not large enough, I thought we would fell on the floor in the night, Lao shi caught our he explained I had three children, Laoer (his second child) stay in his friends house as to provide for us, if this does not enough I will ask Laosan (his third child) to do that too. When he said he veiled his eyes all the time. We said ok. At last we have others two even three persons slept in a bed.

Our supper was simple, (we ate in a wood building, which may be owned by collectivity, the first floor is kitchen, the second one is dinning room which displayed about 6 big dinning tables, and the minority people were very hospitable.) Every 8 persons sat by a table, all the food were placed by large bowls, two bowls of stewed beef, braised pork, net radish, cabbage, soup, a bowl of meat was stewed with big boiler, which had little attraction for us, compared with the delicacies of every kink, it was a bad one, while their we cannot buy in the restaurant and also I knew it was the best for the local residents, they did their best to satisfy us, I, too, tried my best to taste my food, even though I felt I could not swallow them.

The scale of the celebration this year is the largest; the Lusheng teams joined us, too. The ceremonious performance lasted until 2:00 at dawn. Zaihuai village was divided into 5 production teams, Lao shi family was the first one. There are six persons in Laoshis family, his old father, his wife, his three children and he, the eldest and the elder ones are boys, the eldest one is disabled on his leg, while the littlest is a girl, who is a senior grade 2 student, Laoshi worked at a power plant as a casual laborer, salary is 400 Yuan per month, with the three pigs they fed, they could earn 10,000 Yuan per year, which was on a low level in their village, with the mail earning on curing his eldest childs leg, and on the girls study.

I had a bad sleep that night, I could not adapt to the condition, and the cock sang at about 2:00 at dawn, since then I opened my eyes turning over from time to time, since their breakfast started at 10:00, and its raining all the last night, I had to got up until 8:00, at about 10:00, the members of the family got up one by one, and then they were busy with our breakfast. They began to boil Youcha(a kind of tea), kill the chicken, and Youcha is the necessary meal to the Miao people and the Dong people, which was considered as breakfast. It was very simple to make it. First of all, put some edible oil in the pan when the oil is heat, we could fry the Mihua (a kind of sticky rice which was boiled and dried) then put 1,000km water with 20-30 grams tea, and boiled it, adding some salt, monosodium glutamate was ok, we can enjoy a wonderful tea, it was a traditional food there, this morning, or we can say it was noon, we had a wonderful meal.

Laoshi treated us as honored guests ,he asked us to drink more all over the time, they called it Quangjiu, in their way Quangjiu means the host respect or welcome you very much, they would make many excuse cheat you to drink more, the more you drink, the more happiness they got, I could understand this, so that day I drunk much, though I usually drunk little, I loved the family, loved their custom, at last, Lao shi exchanged his cup with mine, I felt some his wife told me, that mean he want to close to you, it was also their custom, I nod my head, did that and smiled, suddenly I remembered my father, I did not know why. Our main food was sticky rice ,it was very funny, we ate it with hands. 12:30, we finished our breakfast, and went to the plaza, both of we gave another 20 Yuan to Laoshi for his hospitality.

The celebration was held for a while when we arrived, we saw there were many Lusheng pillars of every camp and the body of the pillars were carved as dragons, with a favonian bird on the top of the pillar. Lusheng pillar is the signal of holy. Thousands of Miao minority people and Dong minority people and several dozens of Lusheng team ran from all aspects. They sacrificed and prayed under their own pillars, they prayed the God to give them a harvest next year. I forgot everything as if I was the member of them, together with them to feel the exiting and happiness which the God gave us. And it was also a good chance to make young people fell in love; this was another custom of them. The remainder was perfect, too. The particular one was which called horse-fight. Maybe it is more bloody and, but it was also a kind of culture, as if the bullfight on abroad.

How time flied, we have to leave. When we got on the bus, all the villagers in the street, their mood was same with ours. Wait for me next year, I shouted with my heart. See you next year, thank you for your hospitality; I will miss you, with the beautiful photos in my camera, which is eternal in the shoot, also in my heart.

 yangshuo anshun yangtze river cruises

Msn: achinatravel8@hotmail.com

Email: int@achinatravel.com

Yahoo Messenger: little_monkeycn@yahoo.com.cn are all available

Guilin is Located in the subtropical zone in the southern part of China, and boasts a pleasant climate throughout the year. Built over 2,000 years ago during the Qin Dynasty and named after the fragrance of osmanthus, Guilin has been famous for its picturesque scenery; the peculiar landforms of Limestone Mountains and numerous caverns are renowned throughout the world and called the finest beauty under the heaven. Over the course of centuries many poets and painters have been drawn to these parts, and they have all praised the beauty of Guilin in their works. The Lijiang River flows from northeast to southeast like a jade ribbon.

I had a close visit to Guilin in holiday last summer, which is a tour not only to Guilin city itself, but to the beauty around the city: ethnic minority experience in Longsheng north of the city, cruise on Li River to Yangshuo in the south and a special show in the open air with the river as the stage. I remembered that I sent pictures of the hills of Guilin to friends back home, and few of them believed what they saw.

On the first day, we had an Ethnic Minorities Culture expedition at Longsheng Terrace. After three-hour drive we arrived at Longji Rice Terrace, which is located in the southeast of Longsheng County and is called the champion of the terrace world ? The terraces wind from the foot to the top of the hillside and show a picture of great momentum and imposing beauty. Layers on layers, some of them look like great chains, others look like ribbons. We hiked for about 1 hour up to Ping’ an village and visited the rice terraces of Dragon's Back Mountain where the Zhuang and Yao Ethnic Tribes have inhabited for hundreds of years.

For me, not the beauty but the local women with their long and black hair that is the most charming feature. From a local woman, I learned that long hair is a local tradition. All the Hongyao women can cut their hair at 16 years old; symbolizing the fact she is an adult who can look for a lover. But the hair cut off should be kept by her grandmother instead of being thrown away. That was really interesting!

We drove back to Guilin in the afternoon and freed at leisure for the rest of the day.

Departed from the hotel in the next morning, we were transferred to the Zhujiang Pier for wonderful Lijiang River Cruise. Lijiang River, the river of poems and paintings, is the soul of Guilin scenery. From Guilin to Yangshuo, the 83-km-long waterway forms a gallery of landscape painting, which is a fairyland in the world with "Nine Horses in Picture Hill", "Places of Interest in Xingping", ?ellow Cloth Shoal ? etc. After 4.5 hours we arrived in Yangshuo. Yangshuo is probably the most westernized backpackers’ town that I’ve been to in China. The foreigner street here, literally called ?est Street ? is full of bars, hostels, and the requisite foreigners. I was impressed by the picturesque mountains, peaceful green fields, farms and villages with water buffalos, cows wondering around on both sides of the river bank, etc.

I rented a bicycle and wandered through the back parts of town, which was really wonderful!

In the evening, I enjoyed the Show of Impression Liu, a brand-new performance produced with a natural stage setting of Guilin scenery. The performance is based on a lady Liu Sanjie who was well known for her beautiful voice and she always sang while working in the fields. The production aims to provide an insight into the lives of the region's ethnic groups through song and dance.

We lodged in Yangshuo and had a cool night. We returned to Guilin city on the third day by bus, and today’s highlight is a half days' city tour of the most famous hills and caves in Guilin. We first visited the Elephant Trunk Hill, which is situated majestically on the west bank of Li River, and resembles an elephant sucking water from the river with its long trunk. It is supposed to be the landmark of Guilin landscape. To our guide, I knew that when the moonlight sprinkles over the river, the mirror-like water reflects of the moon-like cave, and hence the name 'Moon over the Water'.

Then we came to the Reed Flute Cave, which is known as "the Palace of Natural Arts". The cave got its name from the verdant reeds growing outside it, with which people make flutes. Inside this water-eroded cave is a spectacular world of various stalactites, stone pillars and rock formations created by carbonate deposition.

We were free at leisure in the rest day, I tasted the famous local delicacy - Guilin Rice Noodles and went for shopping on the Zhongshan Road in the evening.

We departed Guilin and headed for home on the next morning. Coming close to Guilin is a dream in my life, now I hope to sleep in my dream and never wake up. The verdant mountains, elegant waters, and fantastic caves deeply impressed me. Guilin, I wanna dream in your charming land forever!

 Xi'an map Tibet map Lijiang map Yunnan map

Msn: achinatravel8@hotmail.com

Email: int@achinatravel.com

Yahoo Messenger: little_monkeycn@yahoo.com.cn are all available