Zhaotong Yunnan

After one of our easier bus rides, we found a really nice hotel in Zhaotong, Yunnan that happened to be next to the only surviving parts of the old town; that is, a mosque, two chuches, the hardware and tea market, and a couple of old factories.

View from the bus window.



This mosque - how about that neo-classical dome - and Islamic school are expanding.


Another mosque faces a catholic church.


We bought a tool to take out the "eyes" of a pineapple from this vendor. Can you guess which tool? And which tool is used to take hair off pig meat?


Barbershop.


Scale vendor.


View of old factory complex or maybe a guild hall from our hotel window.

Huize and Baiwu - Ancient Towns

Once again we found ourselves liking a couple of Chinese ancient towns. Huize Ancient Town is located on a plain surrounded by hills. The southern center of Huize is a fairly well preserved old city with centuries old guild halls, temples, and schools. The Jiangxi Guild Hall is particularly cool with a magnificent stage. Huize by itself has more stages than we've seen in the rest of China combined!

Sun-Ling made a new friend in Huize. While checking out the old Confucius Temple and Academy, now the Huize No. 1 Middle School, we happened to walk into a student cafeteria just at closing and were invited to eat dinner with the staff who were eating their meal. No hesitation on my part. Good eats! Two days later, we ran into one of the ladies as we were taking our evening constitutional up to the Taoist Temple at the southern end of town. She and Sun-Ling became quite good friends as we strolled up and down together, chatting about life.

Nearby Huize is Baiwu Ancient Village, where copper has been mined for 2000 years. Baiwu is also located on a beautiful green plain surrounded by mountains. We rode city bus #17 from Huize to the end-of-the-line, then walked 6 kms to Baiwu. There are quite a few old crumbling family compounds in Baiwu, an old watchtower, wells, and a meandering stream. Having renovated/restored some old buildings, the town wants to attract tourists but the flies, smells, filth will make that a difficult task.

Observatory - Confucius Temple - Huize.


A couple views of the stage at the Jiangxi Guild Hall.




Making egg noodles.




Typical street scene in the old part of Huize.


Some of the copper mined in Baiwu was minted into coins in Huize; thus the coin is the city symbol; hence the Giant Coin in the main square.


Heading to the well at sunset - Huize.


Huize with the old town in the middle - more or less.


View of Baiwu Village.


Watchtower.


Washing clothes at the well - Baiwu Village.


Working the fields.


Old family compound.


Composting in the streets.


Restored Catholic Church - Baiwu Village.


Restored Taoist Temple.

Huili plus a bus ride

The train ride to Panzhihua put us in Sichuan Province for the first time since 2004 and after a day in the ancient town of Huili, our route took us back across the Yangtze River into Yunnan.

In a few words, Huili is very cool. The town once had a city wall and moat, a bell tower in the center of the gridded streets, and a drum tower above the North Gate. Remnants remain today. There were also many academies, many of which survive as schools today.

We enjoyed walking the pedestrian friendly streets, checking out the turban sporting Yi men and women, and having a peek at Sichuan tea house culture.

We left Huili on a mid-morning bus and were pretty beat when we arrived in Qiao Jia, Yunnan 7 hours later, having changed buses twice, and suffered through 3 instances of gridlock. Qiao Jia is set in a beautiful valley, just south of the Yangtze River which forms the Sichuan-Yunnan border in these parts. However, a planned mega-dam will flood some of the town and fields of grapes, mulberry, fava beans, wheat, and pear trees.

There is not much of interest in Qiao Jia, so we hopped on an 8:30AM bus for the 3-hour trip southeast to Huize, Yunnan. I snagged a seat next to the driver and the first hour was smooth until we hit backup caused by landslide repairs and a disabled truck. To make a long story short, it took us 90 minutes to get by the disabled truck. More on Huize in the next post.

Stalemate. Our bus on the right.


Yi man in Huili.


Yi woman.


Kindergarten on the site of a shrine dedicated to Cangjie, the creator of Chinese characters.


Huili's North Gate and Drum Tower.


View south from the North Gate towards the center Bell Tower. Check out the closed-circuit cameras.


Chinese Chess players at a one of the bigger tea houses in Huili.


Apse end of a church with Chinese architectural elements.

Into Sichuan by Train

After overnighting in Chuxiong we found ourselves in the train station waiting room in GuangTong, recalling memories from our November-December 2008 trip across China in which we spent a chaotic hour or so in the GuangTong station waiting for the slow train north to Heijing. This time the station is more orderly and instead of getting off at Heijing, just an hour north, we are riding to Panzhihua, Sichuan, some 6 hours north.

What a great ride! Although there are lots of tunnels, the views are awesome. At a few points the tracks double back on themselves to gain or lose elevation and the last hour is along the Jinsha Jiang, the main western headwaters of the Yangtze River.

And it's a slow, dusty, mostly empty train, with many stops in remote towns, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for quite awhile to let freight trains pass. During one of those long stops the conductor stopped by for a chat. At another stop our car was in a tunnel while the rear cars were at the station.

We had this car pretty much to ourselves




One of the valleys along the way.


Sun-Ling studies the route ahead.


A spot where the tracks "tripleback" on themselves.


Locomotives of a passing freight train.


The Jinsha River near Panzhihua.

Yongping and the Bonan Trail

We came to Yongping to hike the Bonan Trail, one of the old caravan routes, but the logistics of getting to the various start/end points without staying overnight in a village had us stumped. So we decided to just walk from town and take our chances with transport back.

The plan: take a 3-wheeler to Qudong and check out the Old Street and mosques, then walk the Bonan Trail, or the Gu Dao (Ancient Path) to Hua Qiao Village. If there is no transport in Hua Qiao, then walk back to Qudong.

A great walk! We saw more horse carts in action today, than in the rest of our travels combined. The people of Yongping County are relaxed and friendly, quick to respond in kind to a smile and greeting, and eager to help with directions. We found this refreshing after the quiet, cautious, expressionless locals of the upper Nujiang Valley. For example, a Muslim shopkeeper in Hua Qiao filled our water bottles and brought out stools. She also wanted to feed us.

When the one minivan in Hua Qiao wanted 50 RMB each to take us to YongPing - the locals pay 7 or 8 RMB each - we walked backed the way we came to QuDong and caught a three-wheeler back to Yongping.

The New Mosque in Qudong dwarfs the town and is very visible as it perches on a hill.


The Old Mosque is now a school.


Fried dough is always good fuel for a walk.


A newly paved section of the Bonan Road.


Sun-Ling walks a fairly well preserved part of the old road about midway between Qudong and Hua Qiao.


All the fields are ploughed the old fashioned way.


This very nice man helped steer us back onto the old road as he managed his three water buffalo and one donkey.




Typical horse cart with handbrake and seat over the left wheel.


Pack Donkey.


The old road meanders through the valley towards Upper Hua Qiao, the green spot in the distance.


Tie Chang - The village below Hua Qiao.


Hua Qiao's old city gate.


The old road in Hua Qiao.