Out of the City

This was an incredible weekend: there’s so much to write about, I’m sure I’ll forget some, but I’ll try to get it all (this might be long- if you get bored, just look at the pictures)
I just got back from 4 days in the town of Kaiyuan, in southern Yunnan province (it’s about halfway between Kunming and the Thailand/ Myanmar border.) I went with a few teachers from KIA to visit the family of the Chinese couple who run the English teaching school (their English names are John and Cathy). I was soooo excited to get out of the city for an adventure to see a different part of China. On the ride there, I was glued to the window of the bus- the scenery was breathtaking! I saw mountains, rice terraces, stone forests, fishermen guiding their narrow boats down rivers, even some water buffalo!

When we arrived in Kaiyuan, at first I was disappointed. It was bigger than I expected, and I wasn’t ready to leave the beautiful countryside I saw along the way. I was excited to hear that we’d get a chance to explore outside the town the next day.
I ended up loving our time in the town anyway. We stayed at a hotel, but spent most of our time at the home of the family there. It was such a wonderful experience to be a guest in a Chinese home! They were so hospitable to us, serving us the whole time we were there, making sure we were comfortable and having a good time. A couple of the teachers I went with could speak some Chinese, but it was so good we had John and Cathy to translate. Even so, there were some interesting language and cultural misunderstandings. At dinner the first evening, the main course was chicken. Chinese people are careful not to waste any part of their food, especially not the chicken head- that’s a real delicacy. It’s given to the oldest guest at the table as an honor to them. The oldest person in our group was Mr. Pye, who took the chicken head gracefully when it was offered to him. However, when our hosts weren’t looking, somehow it got passed to each person around the table. It eventually ended up back in Mr. Pye’s bowl and stayed there. We hope we didn’t offend our kind hosts, but none of us could bring ourselves to eat it!
That evening, I had an unexpected surprise- I got to play some ping-pong, Chinese style. Cathy’s 70-year-old uncle challenged me to a few games- it was so much fun- and intense competition! He’s in amazing shape- he gets up at 6 to run for an hour every morning, and plays a lot of ping-pong as well!

It was New Year’s Eve, so we went outside to watch fireworks. People were setting them off everywhere; we really had to be careful where we walked. We got to set some off too. It was fun to watch, but I stuck to doing the sparklers. That night I didn’t sleep too much, it was loud! The fireworks went on all night long, at times right outside my window.
In the morning, we had rice noodles for breakfast, then left for our adventure outside of town. We drove for about half an hour, and arrived at one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen! Words really can’t describe it- it was so China: there were beautiful rock-faced mountains with pagodas tucked into the cliffs. At the base of the mountains was a lake with waterfalls surrounded by palm trees. It was so beautiful I almost couldn’t stand it!! The air was so fresh, it felt so free, it was just incredible! I went crazy taking pictures and completely loved every moment there.
We got to explore a cave underneath the mountains with a guide, then set off to climb one of the mountains. It was a steep climb, but the view from the top was well worth it!
By far my favorite part of the day was the people: there were a lot of people from Chinese minority groups there. Many were dressed in beautiful traditional clothes for the holiday. We had the privilege of being the first foreigners many of the people there- and even in Kaiyuan- had ever seen! We got to meet some really neat people, and talk to them with help from John and Cathy. Also, quite a few people we passed by asked to have their picture taken with us. We felt famous!

We spent the next couple days enjoying the time with our host family. Yesterday, they took us to a beautiful park in the middle of the town where there were a lot of New Year’s festivities going on. I loved watching the traditional dances, and even got talked into trying it out myself for one dance. That drew quite a crowd! The ladies tried to teach me, but it was a lot harder than it looked! We all laughed a lot. J At night in the town, I got to take part in another tradition- lighting a paper lantern and once it filled up with hot air from the flame, letting it go. It was beautiful to watch it float up into the sky and join the other lanterns that people had lit. We watched till it disappeared from sight. I wonder where it ended up… If anyone sees a lantern floating across the sky, you’ll know where it came from!