Monday, March 05, 2007
Spring Festival Adventure Part One: On the Way!!!
This was quite an adventure so be aware that this is just the first installment of the tale of Spring Festival. The journey began on February 16 and ended back in Dalian on February 24th.
Leslie’s friend, Betsy introduced us to the wonderful and fabulous XiaoWei when we arrived in Beijing in August. I blogged earlier about his surprise birthday party in December. He was our tour guide for the few days that we were in Beijing before we trekked to Mongolia and then he was our tour guide again when we returned from the Mongolian trip. Before we flew to Dalian at the beginning of September, we went hiking on the Great Wall with our new friend, XiaoWei. It was on this hike that he invited Leslie and me to make a journey to his village in the south of China for the Spring Festival in February. We were honored and thrilled by the invitation and each time that we saw him or communicated with him, he again expressed his wish for us to make the journey.
February arrived and Spring Festival was nearing, so the plans for going to XiaoWei’s village outside of Guiyang were formulated and before we knew it the trip was in progress. Leslie and I beat feet to the airport after classes on the 16th of February and flew to Beijing. Betsy and her two daughters, 16 year old, Alex and 6 year old, Menghua and Leslie and I then flew that evening from Beijing to Guiyang which is the capital city of the Guizhou province in south-central China. XiaoWei’s friend whom he lovingly calls “Sister” picked us up at the airport and transported us to a great hotel in Guiyang. We arrived close to midnight, but we were all thrilled to be on this adventure. Saturday was New Year’s Day eve and we set out with Sister and her boyfriend stopping at a grocery store before we left Guiyang to buy fruit and treats to carry into the village with us.
The two hour drive northward from Guiyang wound through the amazing Miaoling Mountains. The terraced hillsides are picturesque testament to the ancient ingenuity and industry of the Chinese and continue to produce phenomenal amounts of food. The rice paddies stand ready for spring planting and many of the fields are covered with winter produce…greens of all type. I recognized cabbages, mustard greens, broccoli and a variety of bokchoy type plants. Some protected fields already sport lettuces, cabbage and edible pod peas already in bloom. The nearest town of any size to XiaoWei’s village is KaiYang. XiaoWei reported that growing up members of his family regularly walked over mountains for two hours to reach this town in order to sell their own produce in the markets there. The Miaoling Mountains of this region are home to many ethnic minority groups including the Miao, Yi, Dong and Yao. I will be returning for a longer period of time in the region to be able to visit some villages of these groups of people. Several of the groups do incredible hand stitched material and also gorgeous silver work.
Sister’s van got us as close to the village as possible and then the pavement gave way to a dirt road that was deeply rutted from the winter rains and we got out to walk the rest of the way. XiaoWei was waiting at the school where the mud and the pavement met with a large contingency of friends who helped haul the luggage that we brought along. What a parade we were the about quarter-mile walk to the family compound.
The village is nestled onto a mountainside with about 30-40 homes and perhaps 100 villagers. It is surrounded up the mountainside and down and across valleys to other mountainsides by the gorgeous terraced fields that we had seen traveling the highway. Last year in December, Betsy and her family were the first westerner to ever have gone into this village and they hiked in for a day. XiaoWei’s family was opening their home to us for two nights and three days. What an experience and what a gift.
February arrived and Spring Festival was nearing, so the plans for going to XiaoWei’s village outside of Guiyang were formulated and before we knew it the trip was in progress. Leslie and I beat feet to the airport after classes on the 16th of February and flew to Beijing. Betsy and her two daughters, 16 year old, Alex and 6 year old, Menghua and Leslie and I then flew that evening from Beijing to Guiyang which is the capital city of the Guizhou province in south-central China. XiaoWei’s friend whom he lovingly calls “Sister” picked us up at the airport and transported us to a great hotel in Guiyang. We arrived close to midnight, but we were all thrilled to be on this adventure. Saturday was New Year’s Day eve and we set out with Sister and her boyfriend stopping at a grocery store before we left Guiyang to buy fruit and treats to carry into the village with us.
The two hour drive northward from Guiyang wound through the amazing Miaoling Mountains. The terraced hillsides are picturesque testament to the ancient ingenuity and industry of the Chinese and continue to produce phenomenal amounts of food. The rice paddies stand ready for spring planting and many of the fields are covered with winter produce…greens of all type. I recognized cabbages, mustard greens, broccoli and a variety of bokchoy type plants. Some protected fields already sport lettuces, cabbage and edible pod peas already in bloom. The nearest town of any size to XiaoWei’s village is KaiYang. XiaoWei reported that growing up members of his family regularly walked over mountains for two hours to reach this town in order to sell their own produce in the markets there. The Miaoling Mountains of this region are home to many ethnic minority groups including the Miao, Yi, Dong and Yao. I will be returning for a longer period of time in the region to be able to visit some villages of these groups of people. Several of the groups do incredible hand stitched material and also gorgeous silver work.
Sister’s van got us as close to the village as possible and then the pavement gave way to a dirt road that was deeply rutted from the winter rains and we got out to walk the rest of the way. XiaoWei was waiting at the school where the mud and the pavement met with a large contingency of friends who helped haul the luggage that we brought along. What a parade we were the about quarter-mile walk to the family compound.
The village is nestled onto a mountainside with about 30-40 homes and perhaps 100 villagers. It is surrounded up the mountainside and down and across valleys to other mountainsides by the gorgeous terraced fields that we had seen traveling the highway. Last year in December, Betsy and her family were the first westerner to ever have gone into this village and they hiked in for a day. XiaoWei’s family was opening their home to us for two nights and three days. What an experience and what a gift.
# posted by Sidney @ 2:25 PM 
