We’ve never been to Guizhou before, it’s pretty much off any
tourist trail in this part of China, especially for first timers who bypass it
to/from Xi’an/Guilin and vice versa.
But it is defiantly well worth a detour. It’s one of the
poorest provinces in China, roads are bad and poorly maintained, villages are
far apart and a little isolated. But this makes the end result so much better.
Plus there are a lot of minority villages here, which was the whole reason for
coming.
Our wonderful hosts saw us off at the kind of bus stop in
Hongjiang for the one hour trip to Huaihua, where we caught the train to Kaili,
laden with fruit and warm goodbyes we were ready for our next adventure.
Luckily in Huaihua, we had enough time to grab some noodle
soup from a small eatery close to the station. As with a lot of cheap places in
China, they were using the same thin mass produced and cheap rice noodles. Not
so yummy, but the stocks were always good. As with everywhere in the world, food around train stations
is nothing to write home about, but I am a people watcher and these places
provide me ample opportunity for me to indulge in this past time.
When we
first went to China over 10 years ago I don’t remember the shear quantity of
small eateries that there are here today, or maybe I just never paid as much
attention to it as I do today. But I’m happy for it.
There is nothing special about Kaili, apart form it is a
good base for visiting the minority villages in the area.
It does however have an awesome night market, which
thankfully stretched up the street adjacent to our hotel. This was a good place
to get some cheap eats and watch the world go by. We ate well that night.
The journey to Xijiang, one of the largest Miao villages in
China is pretty amazing. Roads that wind their way up and down and around
mountains, giving you excellent views of the countryside below, as long as you
don’t suffer from car sickness that is.
The inhabitants of this village or small town have made a
very good job of restoring parts of the village, although a simple stroll from
the main clean street will bring you to the real Xijiang.
Just wandering around the less developed part brings up many
surprises and we met many a lovely person, who were probably wondering why two
foreigners were in this part of town when everyone else was down below in the
nice clean part.
Surrounding the village are rice fields and rivers, which
mean that food is in good, supply here.
Guizhou is not known for its culinary delights, but it does
have a sour fish soup called Suantangyu (酸汤鱼).
Quite by chance we managed to try this here at a small
eatery on the main street. Quite by accident we had two perfectly innocent fish
killed for our enjoyment. The chef even brought them through the front of his
small joint to show us, still wriggling in the blue plastic bag before he
knocked them on the head and begun chopping them up for the pot.
Suantangyu
is basically a hotpot with a sour stock. The fish were already simmering away
in the cauldron of fire when it was brought to our table, and we only had to
add the other ingredients as and when required. Rice was served separately and
made a great vessel for soaking up the delicious stock.
It wasn’t
the best meal we had on this trip but it was one of the more interesting ones,
the sour notes of the stock were from the tomatoes and were rather a surprise.
I’ve never used the good old tom as a souring gent before. Interesting.
Xijiang
like other minority villages include in the entrance fee a cultural
performance. This one was really like no other except this particular group of
Miao have a very bizarre duck dance. Sadly I do not have any video evidence of
this, a shame as it was really funny. But with them grabbing people from the
audience to make fools of them, we left pretty quickly, as being the only two
non Chinese we knew where this was heading. I found a video of a similar thing
here. Enjoy.
The road
trip to Conjiang was long and dull. We followed the river, but passing through
what seemed like an endless building site for 6 hours was not very fun at all.
Basha
itself is an interesting village. It’s only 7km’s uphill from Conjiang, but it
could be several centuries away.
It’s an
amazing place, the people still live and dress as they have always done. They
are clinging onto their culture here with full force. Thankfully.
With luck
we met up again with a Chinese couple on the bus, who we met in Xijiang
briefly. For the life of me I cannot remember their names, but they were pretty
cool, except he had this thing that he didn’t like westerners because we called
Tibet, Tibet and not Xizang, as it is called in Chinese. But apart from that we
were aok. They were to be our translators for the next few days. And boy were
we glad to have them.
They
basically found us all somewhere to sleep and had arranged dinner for us as
well in a simple hostel in the village.
Today
another animal bit the dust before our very eyes. This time a chicken. I’m
pretty sure it knew it was getting to the end of its time. It must have seen
some of his mates or loved ones go into the pot over the last few months, that
his all was resigned to it. It was quick and I’m sure it felt no pain as the
cook wrung its neck.
I cannot
remember what we ate, but there were a lot of dishes all cooked in the local
style we were told. The chicken tasted lovely and it had lived a good life to
provide us with a good evening. It would have been proud.
Basha is
one weird place. As I said it has a feel about it of being centuries old. It is
one of the last remaining villages in China where the men are allowed to carry
guns. The ancient rifles are carried with pride over the shoulder, although I
am really not sure how effective they are these days, as I’m sure they are just
for show. But this is China so anything is possible.
The village
below is still how I imagined it was 100 years ago, except for the sight of
electricity and satellite dishes not much has changed.
The people
still wear their traditional clothes, even the men, which is a big surprise, as
I’ve found it’s normally only the women who keep to their traditional dress.
But not here.
Most of the men still have their hair long as they used to have
in Imperial China. It was good to see that modernization was being kept in
check here.
Zhaoxing is
by far the most quintessential minority village in China. The largest group are
the Dong and they lead a lovely life here in this relaxing town.
The town
has a couple of large streams running through it, with wooden houses and shops
either side, with bridges to cross and wooden Drum Towers to see it is peace in
China. If you can ever imagine such a thing.
Slowly this
will change with the opening of a new motorway in the hills above Zhaoxing and
several miles away a new train line is being built.
One day
soon this small peaceful village will see more tourists, progress and will
loose its charm, but for now it is a sheer delight.
The
villages surrounding the town are well worth the hike. An hour or so will bring
you to a couple of villages where the only people you will encounter during the
day are the scores of children and the old people watching over them.
Zhaoxing
was one of the highlights of our trip to China, not a lot happened there, but
this we liked. Its minor isolation has kept the peacefulness preserved, but
with everything in China today, progress is forever advancing at a furious
rate.
We loved
Guizhou and really want to return here one day. Not sure when that will be but
soon. Next stop Guangxi.
