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We woke up at 6:15 a.m., took showers, and went down to breakfast at 8 o'clock. They had a noodle bar with two kinds of noodles. Craig selected the
dry birds-nest kind, which they cooked to order, and he put lots of hot stuff on it, making it look like a work of art. They had white
dragonfruit, and it was even labeled "pitaya". I got a photo to show Humberto, since we often eat red pitaya in Guatemala. We also had sponge cake and chicken sausage. There was a machine
that dispensed coffee, milk tea, and "orange juice", which was really hot Tang. There were large communal tables, and we sat at an empty one.
When we looked up at the buffet line, we saw two of our friends from the restaurant last night - the man with the glasses who originally took a photo with us inside, and the older gentleman who invited us for a drink at the end of the night. We waved to each other and they came over and joined us at the table. The older man talked to one of the hotel employees. A few minutes later, she returned with a computer printout that said, "The gentleman you got photos with last night would like to exchange information." We gave them our e-mail addresses, and they gave us their QQ (Chinese social network) ID's. The older gentleman passed me a packet of papers. They were all in Chinese, but each said in English "Claire Lee Chennault." One had a bunch of military photos, and the other had wedding photos. I flipped through them, but didn't really understand the significance. The name didn't ring a bell. I returned the papers to the gentleman. He called an employee over again, and she walked off wth the packets. She returned a few minutes later with another note: "Claire Lee Chennault friendly cooperation in our Chinese people, he helped us a lot of China, so we Sino-U.S. relationship is very good. I'm sorry, because we can't speak English, only more so your communication, please forgive us." We were very humbled that they were so intent on communicating with us. Little did we know that on our next visit to China, we would visit the Flying Tigers Exhibition Hall, where we would learn all about Lt. General Chennault and his band of American volunteer pilots who helped the Chinese fight against Japanese invasion during World War II. This interaction with these two men made us aware of the fondness that the Chinese feel toward America to this very day for helping them over half a century ago. I showed the men last night's photos on my camera. I'm sure mine came out better than any of their drunken cell phone pictures. They finished their breakfast, waved goodbye, and left the restaurant. Wang Jun came in less than 5 minutes lateer. We wish he had been there to help translate our conversation with our new friends. We left the hotel at 9 o'clock. Wang Jun had planned to go to Xiao Qi Kong scenic area first, to hike while the weather was cooler, and then to go to a Yao village in the afternoon. But then he found out that there was a cultural show at 11:30 in the Yao village, so he switched the order and we went to the village first. The Yao in this area used to be the poorest people in the poorest province in China. But when Xiao and Da Qi Kong became World Heritage sites, the Chinese government invested in the Yao villages and helped them to start a tourism program. Now their standard of living has improved. Young White Trouser Yao men and women in traditional dress greeted us formally as we entered the village. The women wore indigo tunics and knee-length flouncy striped skirts. They wore embroidered indigo gaiters on their shins. The men wore white knee-length trousers (hence the nickname for their subgroup), an indigo tunic with white trim, and indigo gaiters covering their lower legs. The women sang a welcome song while swaying from side to side. A young man fired a musket, and a young woman gave each of us a shot of rice wine from a bamboo shot glass. It was quite the welcome! We went into the museum and saw examples of the festival clothing which is reserved for funerals and weddings. It is a fancier version of what the men and women outside were wearing, with additional colors and more elaborate embroidery work. Examples of weapons, tools, spinning tops, musical instruments, and jewelry were also on display. Large paintings depicted the traditional day to day life of the Yao. After exploring the museum, we went outside and took a walk through the village. Small wooden structures served as grainaries, perched above thhe ground on stilts to protect the grain from rats. Some of the grainaries were adorned by clay pots at the top of the stilts, but Wang Jun said that this is a modern decoration and is not traditional to the architecture. We saw a woman in an alleyway sitting on the ground, pleating tradtional skirts. A young man invited us into his house. It was a traditional Yao home, with clay walls strengthened by bamboo and clay tile roofs. A toddler hid from us behind the door as we entered. Inside were a loom and a rice husking machine. There was a large portrait of Chairman Mao, and the man was cooking food on a fire. He offered us some food, which was very kind of him, but we had to be on our way and politely declined. I stepped in buffalo dung, and Wang Jun says that means I should play the lottery when I get home (it is a sign of good luck). I bought a cheap necklace that I liked, and then we watched the cultural show in an outdoor amphiteater at 11:30. We were the first ones in the amphitheater, but soon more tourists arrived. The cultural show was quite entertaining. The young men did various types of drumming. The young women and young men danced while using bamboo sticks for percussion. The young men spun tops and balanced them. The show concluded with a bamboo dance like we had seen in Sa Pa, Vietnam: Men held bamboo poles parallel to the ground, moving them in a rhythmic fahion. The women pranced through the different bamboo configuration without breaking theri stride. They invited people up to join them, and literally everyone went. I decided to join in and Craig filmed me. One of the Yao young women held my hands and we faced on another. You had to tap your right foot twice between bamboo poles, and then step right left right between the poles. By the third set, I had the hang of it.  We went to Xiao Qi Kong Scenic Area (part of Southern China Karst UNESCO World Heritage site) at around 1:30. Private vehicles can't explore the park (they can only drive through on the main road without stopping, as we had yesterday), so we took a golf cart shuttle to the start of the "68 waterfalls trail." We saw the park's namesake bridge: 7 Small Holes Bridge, which was built in 1835. From our vantagepoint, we could look down on the turquoise water beneath the bridge, with red paper lanterns in the foreground. We walked along the easily accessible trail which ran parallel to the main road. The park seamlessly blended natural and manmade features to create a national park experience for the 21st century. The park felt incredibly new, and in fact, some walkways and footbridges were still being constructed by small teams of men with hand tools. Water cascaded over green canyon cliffs, sending white mist into the air. The river itself had many levels, and the turquoise water became whitewater as it fell from one level to the next. The weather was sunny and beautiful, if a little bit warm. It was all very beautiful, and we could understand why, on our drive through yesterday, Wang Jun had instructed us to avert our eyes...it was worth being surprised today! When we reached the end of that section of trail, we hopped on a huttle bus to the rock forest area. ALso referred to as the water forest, the river winds through dense goves of bamboo and there are view of the surrounding karst peaks. We hiked around, finding that Craig had a little bit more tropuble walking here due to the uneven footing, stone staircases, and stepping stones to cross the river. The bamboo was glowing in the late afternoon light and the whole area had a very other-worldly feel. We took a break from our walking, and Wang Jun bought us pummelo fruit. This one was white inside rather than the pink that we had at the family's condo in Guiyang. We used the restroom. In the ladies' room, as usual in China, there were drawings of the toilets on each stall door to indicate whether it was eastern or western style. The western style toilets were labeled "potty toilet," which I found cute. After exploring the rock/water forest section, we took a golf cart to a marshy area. We walked along a meandering boardwalk past lush green marsh grasses and lily pads. The views (and reflections) of the karst peaks in the distance were absolutely stunning. I think that this was my favorite of the three areas, if just because it is the landscape that I am least familiar with. It was so peaceful, and we only ran into a handful of other people. Next we took a golf cart to the Crouching Dragon Falls, a nice waterfall in front of a pictresque karst pinnacle. It was gorgeous. Then we had a 30 minute shuttle bus ride back to the entrance / parking lot where Mr. Zhou was wating for us. We used the restroom at the entrance. The stalls didn't have doors, and there were neigher eastern nor western toilets. A single long trench flowed through the stalls. This was certainly outside of my wheel house! We got back to the hotel at 6:15 p.m. We met Wang Jun for dinner at 6:45. We walked over to the Deng To Hotel across the street which was very upscale compared to the places we had been eating. They delivered us a plate of pork and chilies. The plate was garnished with a hand-painted image of a flowering tree. Craig said that it was very fancy. Wang Jun immediately picked up on this and said, "The chilies are so faaaancy!" mimicing our accent. This would become a catch phrase, just like we were able to mimic the way he said "Try-yy" whenever we would ask what a particular food item was. All kidding aside, the pork with chilies was so sweet and so good! We also had date bread, a mixture of celery, lilies, and red bell peppers, and spicy scalloped potatoes. Then they brought out the special item - an omelet cooked by pouring the egg mixture over hot stones. The result was almost like a quiche with 2-inch spherical river stones embedded within. "Don't eat the stones," warned Wang Jun, tongue in cheek. I got a JDB and Craig got a Snow beer. We loved everything and ate it all up! A cute baby kept going by our table and she had a great smile. She waved at us aborably. Meanwhie, at the next table, and couple ate dinner together, completely ignoring one another's existence, with faces buried into their respective phones. Wang Jun left before we did to get some rest. Once again, we were comfortable walking the shorr distance back to the hotel on our own. On our way, we stopped at the square again. A cute tween girl was there with her dad, and she was watching us and trying to get a stealth photo of us. We eventually got her to say hello and we posed for a picture, and also got one of her and her dad. We drew quite a crowd while we were watching the group dancing. One young man offered Craig a cigarette, and when Craig politely refused, another guy took it from him. The guy who offered the cigarette wanted a photo with me, so we took one. A woman walked her baby right up to us and they introduced themselves. We walked over to a stylized modern statue of people dancing. There were a bunch of little kids climbing on it. They called hello to us and waved. I got a photo of two of them, and soon all of the others wants in on the act. A mom lifted up all of the smaller ones, and they all posed together. One really little guy was flashing peace signs and blowing kisses to us - so cute! We showed them the photo and they all loved it. It caused such a commotion that the seurity guard came out of his little office to see what was going on. Oops! We are causing trouble. LOL! We casually walked over to the bouncy house and sandbox, but it was all shutting down by 8:45. We went back to the hotel, stopping in at their gift shop, where we bought a doll. We went back the room, downloaded the day's photos, wrote in the journal, and went to bed at 10:30. Xiao Qi Kong Scenic Area Southern China Karst UNESCO World Heritage site |
 Welcoming committee at the Yao cultural village  Yao man with a musket which he fired to welcome us  Yao grainaries  Yao cultural show  Xiao Qi Kong Bridge  Xiao Qi Kong Scenic Area  Xiao Qi Kong Scenic Area  Xiao Qi Kong Scenic Area  Crouching Dragon Falls  Fancy dinner at Deng To Hotel  Kids in the square 
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