Wednesday, March 31, 2010

2010 - China (7) Yunnan: Dali (d) House

Dali



Later we visited a house opened to tourists, where we were treated with three cups of tea and performance. The “Bai” minority young ladies prefer to be called, not as “Siao Jie” (Miss in Mandarin), but “Jin Hua” (Golden Flower) instead.



The house was decorated for a wedding. The two pillows before the table with candles and flowers were for the bride and groom to kneel and pay respect to their parents.



Inside the house was a bridal sedan-chair covered with red silk and embroidery to be carried by four runners. Similar sedan-chair precursor of rickshaw for brides have been have been used for wedding for hundreds of years. It is a perfect vehicle to transport brides from her village to the groom's over hilly paths or rice paddy dikes.



The room or office at the left was for the scholar of the family ("book reader"). Except for the chairs, the other furniture seemed authentic.



A typical Chinese house is built as a "compound" having four perpendicular two-story rows with the ends abutting each other. The building forms a wall with a central open air court. This stronghold style is to protect the inhabitants from thieves and robbers. The second story has a walkway around the outside of the rooms, and the central court is for family members to meet and chat or play games.



The photo above shows a court for family activities. It usually has a pool or fish pond to store water in case of fire. Several families and maybe three generations can live in the "compound". Such a house can be seen at the Peabody Museum in Salem, MA.


The dancers (above) had fancy moves and the ladies (below) had a more traditional performance.




The bride and groom were greeted by friends and dancers. Red is a happy color for Chinese. It has nothing to do with party affiliation.

2010 - China (6) Yunnan: Dali (c) Shops

Dali



A little distance from the temple park is a town with crenelated walls.



A gate leads the tourists into town through a thick wall. The town inside has many shops.



The shops were owned by Bai and Yi minorities. The second floor are storage area and also for living accommodation.



The above photo shows a silversmith working on ornaments sold in the store.



Above is another craftsman in action.



I was more interested in local fruits. I bought some mandarin oranges and green-color but ripe plums. It was wonderful that I could communicate with a vendor halfway around the world in the middle of China.

2010 - China (5) Yunnan; Dali (b) Temples

Dali



We arrived at this beautiful hotel with trappings of house of a noble in ancient China. We were late in our schedule because of a highway accident that delayed us for an hour. A late-model sporty car all smashed up with a truck with a full load of gravel that was on its side. It looked like the truck was trying to avoid the accident. There didn't seem to be any fatality or anybody seriously hurt.



The next morning we visited the Buddhist temples and pagodas in windy Dali. It is actually a big park that has small shuttles that bring tourists up the hill to the various temples.



In front of a temple was a large bin for incense. There were also smaller round pots for the same purpose.



Another type of burner was an incense smoker like the one shown above.



This is one of the many temples we were going to visit; we did not know there were so many temples in this park. The courtyard is filled with local marble squares meticulously aligned.



Another compound of temples we visited. We walked up and down the marble steps, gawking at Buddhist statues of gods and goddesses, and common people who had dedicated their lives of helping others and did good deeds and became "Buddha".



The photo above shows three pagodas in which two of them are leaning a little. They were the victims of an earthquake not too long ago. The little rectangles on each of the floor are doors and windows. They gives the relative size of the pagodas.



The above photo shows the Buddhist chant "Nan Mu Au Mi Tou Fur" written on the walls with 6 characters (I meant tourists) below the characters.



This was a view from one of the temples overlooking the courtyard and the lake and hills on the horizon. The sky was clear blue with no pollution.

2010 - China (4) Yunnan; Dali (a) Food

Dali

The Chinese name for “marble” (Dali Stone) comes from here. After the Stone Forest, we stopped for lunch on our way to Dali.



Our lunch was in a theater/restaurant. The show was going on while the customers were having lunch. The photo above was a shot from out private dining room.


The lunch was one that was fit for a king. The beer is local, and it tasted great. The thin slices of Yunnan ham (plates in the middle) is famous throughout China. It tastes like Virginia smoked ham; very delicious. The dishes were "just" appetizers!



Here comes the full lunch. The clay pot in the middle is the Chinese-famous "Over the Bridge Rice Noodles". Many hundreds of years ago, in a small town somewhere not too far from here, a scholar was studying for his national examination. He secluded himself in a small apartment away from town to concentrate on his study. His wife brought his meal every night. However, she found out he was always deep in his studies and left the food cold. She had to start a fire, and reheat the food. Of course, there was no instant microwave, or even a convenient gas or electric stove. The poor wife had to start a fire from kindle and wood and it took a long time. By the time the food was ready, he was lost in his studies again. One day, the wife prepared a chicken soup with rice noodles in a clay pot. As usual, the scholar did not eat immediately. When he was ready and hungry, the wife was prepared to start a fire as usual. To her surprise this time, the food was still warm even after a few hours! She found out that the clay pot, and the chicken fats on top of the soup had kept the food warm. So, from then one, she served him this dish once a week, so that he had at least one warm meal a week. He studied for more than a year and went to take the exam. He was the "Chuang Yuan" (First Place Nationwide) and the emperor awarded him an important and lucrative post, with fame to him, his family, and his ancestors. The little town was so over-joyed that they named the dish after the way his wife who created it and brought it over the bridge to his secluded apartment. Everybody in Yunnan, and many in all of China know this dish and its legend.

We were lucky that we had to walk many miles everyday during the tour to burn off the calories we were putting in.

2010 - China (3) Yunnan: Shilin

Shilin

Shilin means "Stone Forest". The national park is a wonder of nature and "certificated" (a term I learned from a British friend and teacher) by UNESCO. See below.





This is the tourist bus parking lot where tourists get their tickets.



The photo above shows the beginning of the park with some "teaser stone trees". I think they were limestone formed millions of years ago. Some says that this area was the bottom of an ocean. Maybe they found some sea shell fossils.



This is the centerpiece of the park. Tourists gawked at the calligraphy carved on the stones by famous people proclaiming the wonder of this place. I was told that a governor of many, many years ago was brought to this place. He was in awed and immediately secured funds to open the place up for common people to enjoy. The park we were in is just a small fraction of the whole stone forest.



The photo above shows a precarious boulder wedged between rock walls and formed a "gate" for tourist to venture under. So far no one gets hurt.



Whereas the photo above shows a tree also wedged into a crack in the rock and seemed to be doing well. Life always finds a way.



The Yi people performed a folk dance with their musical instruments welcoming the tourists. Their costumes were very colorful.



As we left the park, we saw family fruit stalls and we bought some fruits. The small Mandarin oranges were very sweet.

2010 - China (2) Yunnan: Kunming - Mushrooms

Mushrooms

One of the main produce of Yunnan is wild mushrooms. Yunnan has many varieties of mushrooms, and some think that the best way to cook them is using "hot-pot".



For dinner our guide brought us to a local specialty restaurant. It was the first in the area to serve hot-pot mushrooms for over a hundred years. The name is "Southern China's Tasty Mountain Mushroom Restaurant" (loosely translated).



The photo above shows some of the delicacy. We had at least 9 different kinds of mushrooms, and some accompanying dishes, with hot sauces to dip in.



The waitress cooked the mushrooms for us in a hot pot in the middle of the table (above). We also had steamed buns (the round cake-like dish), condiments of hot peppers (red and yellow) and garlic (white), and many others. The mushrooms were interesting. They came in different flavor and taste; a little bit bitter, sweet, bland, and indescribably unusual, but all delicious.



After the mushroom dinner, we rushed over to the theater to see "Dynamic Yunnan" performed by Bai dancers, and choreographed by Bai artist Yang Liping, also known as Peacock Princess of Yunnan. We were not allowed to take pictures during the performance, but we had a few with the dancers afterward. If you have an opportunity to visit Kunming, this show is a must-see. The dance troupe went on a world tour some years ago. The name of the dance troupe and the choreographer are easily found in the Internet with a search engine like Google.


2010 - China (1) Yunnan: Kunming - Golden Temple

Yunnan ("South of the Clouds")

Yunnan province is located in mountainous southwestern part of China. It is rich in natural resources, such as water (i.e. hydro-power), minerals, medicinal herbs, and some farm products.

Kunming

Kunming is the provincial capital of Yunnan. Before deplaning, we were inspected by health officials who boarded the plane to "check" for any sign of the H1N1 flu symptom. Our first stop right off the plane was the "Golden Temple".



The gilded characters are "Jin Dian" (Golden Temple) in the above photo.



The above photo shows one of the gates of the temple.


Inside the walls is a courtyard, the entrance of which is guarded by soldiers stationed above the gate. The flag that is hanging on a pole is metallic and very artistic. See above picture.



The marble statue of a lady inside the park is Chen Yuan Yuan, who was a concubine of the Ming emperor, and later wife of a general (Wu Sangui). General Wu was a Ming general who opened a gate of the Great Wall he was guarding to spite his love-rival and let the Qing army in to capture the capital, and established the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912). He got his lady and was first rewarded as head of Yunnan, and beheaded when he became too ambitious for the throne.

Beauty can cut both ways; Chen Yuan Yuan was a great beauty and scholar, who wrote many poems including several that were carved in stone at the park, but had a very unhappy life. More about “beauty” later.

On the other hand, walls cannot stop people who are determined to come in. The Great Wall was built over hundreds of years spanning thousands of miles sacrificing millions of people with blood, sweat, and tears to match. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if instead of spending time, effort, and money building the Wall, schools were built for the “northern barbarians” (the Mongols, Tartars, Huns, etc). Then treated them as equal, and compete with them in sports and on the economic, scholastic, and scientific fields. Does this not have a familiar ring?





The park was serene and beautiful. Willow trees swayed with the wind at the edge of the lake and the bridge formed a neat reflection.



On the other side of the lake were some buildings and an alley for people to walk and rest if they choose to, as shown by the photo above.



The photo above shows the "Grand View Pagoda". The view of the lake from the top must be magnificent.



We were approaching the "Bell Tower". In China, there are usually bell towers in cities or temples housing a large bell, which is used to mark time, act as an alarm for calamity or imminent danger.



The photo above shows the big bell and a "fish-striker" (wrapped with a red cloth). You push on the fish and it hits the bell producing a deep, loud. sound.



The sculpture above is one of many in the park. Yunnan has a great reserve of copper in the mines and people had discovered how to use it hundreds (maybe even thousand) of years ago. Metal workers, as well as artists, have learned to mold, form, and create many things, great and small.



We saw another pagoda (above) before we left. Actually the pagoda was straight, the camera was not so.