Jintian xiayu. . .meitian xiayu. (Rain today, rain everyday).
We left Dali early on Saturday and headed to Jianchuan county to visit Shibaoshan (Rock Treasure Mountain) to stay at the temple there before heading to Shaxi for our rural home-stays. It was drizzling when we arrived and this temple was much more rustic. The bathroom was actually a bit nicer/cleaner. . . however it was a three minute walk, out of the temple hotel and down a path. (Scary/NOT fun in the middle of the night!) We went for a walk in the drizzle after we arrived, to see what else was on the mountain and/or see the monkeys which we had been told lived on Shibaoshan. We made it all the way up and then almost back to the hotel and then we saw them. The monkeys. I’ve decided that I don’t like monkeys. Especially when at some point the Chinese decided that it would be okay to feed them peanuts and Styrofoam looking chips and they have no fear of humans. It ended up being fine. Some people fed them. I preferred to put my zoom lens to use and viewed them from afar.
Monkeys from afar
The next day we went to the other side of the mountain and visited the famous grottos of Shibaoshan, it’s a pretty historical site as it is proof of the spread of Buddhism from India into China, was heroically saved from destruction by one of the local leaders during the Cultural Revolution, is potentially the spot where some Nanzhao kings are buried, AND has the oddest grotto- a stone carving of a mysterious “female reproductive organ” that could either be part of Buddhism or the influence of the local Bai culture.
The picture that I wasn't supposed to take, but took before I saw the no photographs sign. I'm kinda worried that I'm going to get some bad karma for putting this up, but I figure the art should be shared.
From there we walked down the other side of the mountain into Shaxi. It was raining/drizzling the whole time and was made an mini-adventure by the fact that at a couple points the path had been washed away and we had to hop across the rocks to get to the next part. When we got to the village of Shaxi I was met by the home-stay mom and she lead me to our house. I unpacked and went out to awkwardly “hang out” with the group of women shucking corn on our porch. I tried to help but they kept feeding me the smaller nobs that they had been cooking on the little coal fire at their feet.
Eventually, the time came when I needed to use the bathroom – it ended up being the outhouse outside of the courtyard, around the side of the house and on the far corner of the garden, next to the pigs. Seeing how it rained everyday, this got to be a pain because at night I’d have to lug my flashlight and an umbrella to the outhouse.
Despite the fact it was raining, or perhaps because of it, I had an awesome first day in Shaxi. Because it was raining, everyone essentially had a day of rest. Thus, I spent a good part of the afternoon watching women make giant yue bing. (Mooncakes, like for Moon Festival, except these ones actually tasted good). It was a really interesting process to watch! Americans or Europeans have the motto – “too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup” or something like that. But there were four women in that kitchen, three of them working together to make these ENOURMOUS yuebing cakes in a Chinese style dutch oven (the Chinese don’t use ovens often). When it was finished baking one woman would cover the flat-bottomed cast iron basin with a piece of wood and then flip the whole, cast-iron mold, moon-cake and board- ON TO HER HEAD! And then a second woman would take the cast iron thing off woman #1’s head and woman number one had a right-side turned up moon-cake on a board.
The part of the kitchen where mama zuofan he women chifan.
The entrance to the house
After a meeting at the cultural center, I walked back with a flashlight in hand, to my host family’s house to watch TV with my host mom and little sister (meimei), then went to bed, and woke up the next morning to more rain. This was to be the pattern of my life in Shaxi. If it hadn’t been raining we were supposed to help out our families the fields, however, it rained every day, more or less constantly. (Besides, our academic director essentially told us we’d only last an hour maximum in the field). It just gave us more time with our homestay families, more wireless internet time and no excuse not work on our Shaxi Study projects. My project ended up being on the development of eco-tourism in Shaxi. (Shaxi is at an interesting place where they want more tourism, to increase Shaxiren’s standards of living, but they don’t want to turn into a Dali or a Lijiang, places in which tourism overcommercialized the respective minority cultures –it’s a delicate balance.)
Restored ancient theater
I didn’t know who my homestay dad was until 3 days after I arrived. In case it was a sensitive subject I didn’t want to attempt such a conversation, especially between my broken Chinese and my host mom’s Bai accent. (I had difficulty understanding when she asked me if I wanted to watch TV, (it sounded like kan di si. .. . rather than kan dian shir. . .) much less complicated topics. But apparently I did have a Shaxi dad, but he’s a migrant worker in Kunming, in a place I’d actually heard of, an amusement park near our university.
Leaving Shaxi was sad. Despite the rain we had a really good set-up. The rural setting, washing your face in the morning in a basin of water heated on the stove, etc. was novel and the restored architecture of Shaxi is absolutely charming. We had the best of both words because we had this AND we could go to the cultural center and get a hot shower and use wireless internet. And my homestay family was just adorable and really, really welcoming to me. I felt much more like a part of the family in my Shaxi homestay, than I did in my Kunming family. And as much as it limited conversation, I enjoyed not being able to fall back on English, and the challenge of explaining things/holding conversation with my host mom and her friends. We were able to communicate the important stuff and that was all that mattered. It was also really sweet that the day we left, everyone’s homestay families sent us off with a bag of goodies. Mine included some apples and pears, freshly boiled eggs, and of course, slices of the homemade yuebing, made on my first day.
Mama, meimei, he wo
We got back on the bus for the ride to Zhongdian. . and before we even made it half-way there the skies had cleared.
Me in the rain with my trusty (albeit slightly bent) umbrella; the ancient restored bridge in the background
Monkeys from afar
The next day we went to the other side of the mountain and visited the famous grottos of Shibaoshan, it’s a pretty historical site as it is proof of the spread of Buddhism from India into China, was heroically saved from destruction by one of the local leaders during the Cultural Revolution, is potentially the spot where some Nanzhao kings are buried, AND has the oddest grotto- a stone carving of a mysterious “female reproductive organ” that could either be part of Buddhism or the influence of the local Bai culture.
The picture that I wasn't supposed to take, but took before I saw the no photographs sign. I'm kinda worried that I'm going to get some bad karma for putting this up, but I figure the art should be shared.Eventually, the time came when I needed to use the bathroom – it ended up being the outhouse outside of the courtyard, around the side of the house and on the far corner of the garden, next to the pigs. Seeing how it rained everyday, this got to be a pain because at night I’d have to lug my flashlight and an umbrella to the outhouse.
Despite the fact it was raining, or perhaps because of it, I had an awesome first day in Shaxi. Because it was raining, everyone essentially had a day of rest. Thus, I spent a good part of the afternoon watching women make giant yue bing. (Mooncakes, like for Moon Festival, except these ones actually tasted good). It was a really interesting process to watch! Americans or Europeans have the motto – “too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup” or something like that. But there were four women in that kitchen, three of them working together to make these ENOURMOUS yuebing cakes in a Chinese style dutch oven (the Chinese don’t use ovens often). When it was finished baking one woman would cover the flat-bottomed cast iron basin with a piece of wood and then flip the whole, cast-iron mold, moon-cake and board- ON TO HER HEAD! And then a second woman would take the cast iron thing off woman #1’s head and woman number one had a right-side turned up moon-cake on a board.
The part of the kitchen where mama zuofan he women chifan.
The entrance to the house
Restored ancient theaterLeaving Shaxi was sad. Despite the rain we had a really good set-up. The rural setting, washing your face in the morning in a basin of water heated on the stove, etc. was novel and the restored architecture of Shaxi is absolutely charming. We had the best of both words because we had this AND we could go to the cultural center and get a hot shower and use wireless internet. And my homestay family was just adorable and really, really welcoming to me. I felt much more like a part of the family in my Shaxi homestay, than I did in my Kunming family. And as much as it limited conversation, I enjoyed not being able to fall back on English, and the challenge of explaining things/holding conversation with my host mom and her friends. We were able to communicate the important stuff and that was all that mattered. It was also really sweet that the day we left, everyone’s homestay families sent us off with a bag of goodies. Mine included some apples and pears, freshly boiled eggs, and of course, slices of the homemade yuebing, made on my first day.
Mama, meimei, he wo
Me in the rain with my trusty (albeit slightly bent) umbrella; the ancient restored bridge in the background
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