Harvest Festival Time

The train from Kunming to Guiyang, the capital of the Guizhou provence was an overnight affair, not too bad at a mere 12hours. The chance encounter that I had on the train was to greatly change the shape of the next few days. Gavin, a Chinese guy originally from just south of Beijing was in the south on business. He works as a sales rep for Castrol lubricants. My plan was to visit some of the minority areas of the east of the province. He said he would love to join me, but had to think about work. I told him to sleep on it. He didn't need to be asked again.Told me that the work of a sales rep is flexible. He had a few days that he could spare.

Off to Chongan - Market Day

So from Guiyang we got a local bus to Kaili, in a way the minority capital of the provence. From there it was a guessing game as to which of the local villages to visit. Gavin was never in the area before, so knew about as much as I did. We headed for Chongan north of Kaili, one of the bases of the Miao people.

We couldn't have been luckier. Not only did we arrive the evening before market day, but that was the beginnings of the two day harvest festival or Lusheng Festival, the lucheng being a local instrument made from bamboo. Market was doing a great trade the next day. The busiest stall was the one selling the local traditional clothes. Everyone had to be looking their best for the festival. The market was fabulous to wander about. The usual mixed bag from any Chinese village market. Barbers doing their bit on the street. The local dentists looking for business (luckily, unlike Wase I didn't see any patients being treated). And an addition that I hadn't seen before, the Chinese traditional medicine practioner. This one I really couldn't take a photo of. It was bad enough to see people with acupuncture needles hanging out of their arms, some pulsing with electricity being sent through them, but I wasn't prepared for the cupping. People with four or five transparent plastic cups vacuumed onto the affected area. The vacuum created is said to dispel dampness from the body, warm the qi, reduce swelling and "suck out' the bodies toxins! All you can see is the flesh inside the cup  being pulled so hard by the vacuum it is ready to bleed is. The cups are left in place for about 15 minutes, and leave a round red bruise behind. I guess this was after the table full of local medicines hadn't worked? One guy even had dried snake (see photo).

The meat market was a little different. There were a disturbing amount of puppies for sale. Gavin assured me that they were for protection purposes. I wasn't convinced. In the distance I could see the area where the pig bartering was going on. When we went over, Gavin spotted the dog butcher bartering the price of a dog with it's owner. We followed them down an alley and saw him loading his beloved rover into a cage with others that were ready for the chop. After giving the dog a good whack on the head to get a bit of adrenaline into the meat, they slaughter it. It's then dipped into boiling water and then a sort of tar to skin it (see photo of very photogenic skinned dog!). I wasn't taking any chances on food in this area. I was glad of my Chinese speaking friend.

Chongan - Festival Time

The afternoon was off the festival. It's a small little village and things happens a little randomly in these places. Nobody knew really what exactly was happening, except that there was a festival in a field on the edge of town. The big draw, buffalo fighting. We went to the festival field. Lots of locals around, but not much action. Gavin went to enquire at the table that was acting as the main stage for the buffalo fighting. Nothing on today he was told. All the fighting was the next day. About ten minutes later, two bulls were fighting in the area in front of us! The owners just bring them in and face them off to one another. If they don't fight straight away, the owners push them into one another, encouraging a bit of action. That afternoon not much was happening. There was one buffalo. The guy behind the table was shouting: 'If anyone has a buffalo at home, can you please get it'. No takers!

Next day was the big festival day. After a morning walk into the mountains to visit a little hidden Miao village, I trekked back down to Chongan with the villagers coming to town to see the festival. The locals were out in full colour. They believe that silver can dispel evil spirits and come festival and wedding time are weighed down under enormous head dress and countless chains. Literally, one of the items that they wear around their necks looks like a chain you'd lock the steering wheel of your car with, only a worth a lot more I assume?

The buffalos were more plentiful and a much greater fighting beast than the bulls. The crash when they met first was tremendous. The loser is chosen as the first animal to run away from the fight. The arena was banked on two sides by stone wall, but open on the other two sides. When the losing buffalo decided enough was enough, it was up to people standing in his way to get out of there. These buffalos stop for nobody. The organisers chase down the buffalos with bamboo sticks to try to separate them. One took off running down the river with the winning buffalo in chase. About three minutes later, he was on the way back running the other way down the river. Organisers dragging from the horns to try to stop the winner. About five minutes later they passed again. They were no closer to stopping them. It was very interesting to watch the locals. Eating sunflower seems in a national obsession in China. At such a nerve wracking event, everywhere you looked there was a local cracking shells. If they weren't then they had a pipe stuck in their mouths with some local leave sticking up out of it (see photo from market of leaf for sale). No serious injuries to report to buffalo or human, but I did hear that someone did get hit by a flying buffalo.

In another area, the lucheng players were showing their skills. Five guys would line up, each with a different size instrument (see photo). They slowly marched around in circles, playing the same tones over and over. Not an instrument of many notes, but really beautiful to see. Locals in full local dress moved around behind the players.

The arena for the singers was really pitiful. Little girls from village tried to sing into a microphone that must have been pulled from a Barbie kit. Enough said.

Gulong Festival

The next day, about two hours away, the people of Gulong were coming out in force. The word on the street was that this was a much bigger affair. Indeed when we got there, it actually looked like there was a bit of organisation on it! There was a proper stage set up for the locals to sing and dance, with a half decent sound system. The local Maio and Dong people were the main performers. Excellent to see. As tourists were in very short supply, there were no shortage or people looking for a photo with the white face in town.

The buffalo fighting arena was a properly walled in area. The one the I wanted to see a bit of though was the bird fighting. Almost every house in a little village has a covered bird cage hanging outside. Locals catch these little birds, like a small thrush, and feed then better than their own families. Fighting was taking place in the hill overlooking the buffalo fighting arena, on top to a round top tomb! The two cages were placed side by side. The referee took a good look at both birds to make sure he could recognise them and the doors were opened so the birds could fly freely between cages. Some were slow to fight. Others needed to encouragement. Like the bulls, the first bird to try and escape lost. Some battles really went on for quite a while. The little birds would hold one another down and pick for their lives. Some had to be pulled apart in the end with their claws wrapped around their opponents leg.

One by one the rounds went by until the champion was declared. A very proud moment for any villager. Fame guaranteed at least until the spring festival. The owner shouted, 'You can buy the bird, RMB5,000, no bargaining', The equivalent of Eu500, a fortune for a villager. Betting plays a big part in local contests, and a good bird can make a lot of money for the owner. The winning bull is worth the equivalent of Eu3,000. We also had a birds eye view of the buffalo fighting. Here, when the losing buffalo took flight, he had no where to run to. The winner just chased him around around until the 'officials' finally got him stooped.

How lucky I was to just happen on these festivals by chance. To see the buffalo and bird fighting is not something many tourists get to experience in China. Not a chinese tourist in sight and a couple of foreigners. A really great time Gavin and myself had.

Zhaoxing - Dong!

I parted with Gavin after the festivals and headed south to a predominantly Dong area. The dong are famed for their wooden houses (among other things), the the village that I visited certainly was spectacular. A few bones well shaken to get there, but Zhaoxing really was picture postcard perfect. Shame that the sun wouldn't come out to really show it off to me. Every building in the little village was traditional wooden house except for the school. The entry at both ends with beautifully carved gates. Five drum towers were scattered in the village. Each about 15m high, not a singe nail used to build any of them. One of the towers was full of local men crouched around a fire. On one side three men making lusheng instruments. Maybe a festival coming to town also.

My most shocking discover though was walking on one of the back alleys. I passed an open door and spotted a little boy helping mum to clean out the catch of the day before cooking it. Three plump rats (see photo)! Not easy to stomach, they were very amused when I took a photo. Next morning before I got the bus, the at the front of the local meat market proudly stood another batch. Luckily there were enough foreigners passing through for there to be a couple of english menus in the village. Otherwise I would have gladly lived on mandarin oranges for two days!