Yunnan Stories 云南故事

Three Lis are three students whose last names are Li. Have I mentioned before that there are extra many Li-surnamed people here in Honghe? Just in my class the Lis make up nearly half, most of whom belong to Hani(哈尼)ethnic group. Really, nine out of ten people you meet in the streets are surnamed Li. From the angle of history and georgraphy, it is not hard to explain given that Li in itself is popular family name and that Honghe is relatively of a backwater.

The three Lis I’ll talk about are from one place called Shitouzai or literally Stone Village, which is 2 hours on bus plus 4 hours on foot from the county town where they go to school. A great number of students here have to rent rooms either inside or outside of the compus because the school dorms are far from enough. The rooms, varying in monthly rent from 30-50 RMB per person, are basically very ridiculously small—–2 by 3 meters at the most, which squeezes at least 2 students with a desk between their beds. It is not unusual that 3-4 students share such a cramped room, with 2 bunk beds.

The Three Lis, living next to our courtyard, are three sunshine boys. Their given names are Zhengzhou(literally,integrated and considerable), Tianxiang(Literally, fly in the sky) and Yangguang(literally, sunshine)from senior grade two, one and Junior grade three respectively. I didn’t know they are living in compus until the other day I stumpled into Tianxian( my student)carrying a bucket to fetch water from the public water station 5 minutes away. Asked him why bother and he replied that there were no water pipes connected to his dorm. Needless to say , he with his mates have since then become our daily visitors, washing clothes or even taking showers in our courtyard. Besides, I keep an open house to them and vise versa. As their friend, I will share my goodies with them if there are and ask them to feel free to consult me over English. Yet, what they fancy most is the 2 hours I have promised them to play QQ on my labtop at weekends. At that point, I, dealing with a large pile of laundry or homework, could feel they are the happiest kids in the world. After all, they are in the most lively ages between 15 and 17. Unfortunately ,they are all forced and trained to act like bookworms, with little time to have fun except hitting the dull books. Only from their excitenment with the QQ do I find they don’t look like nerds any more, about which I don’t know I should be happy or sad.

I often visit their dorm, which is let by a teacher who has moved to a new flat in the town. The first time of seeing them was unforgetable, reminding me of 15 years back when I leased a room with another buddy during the Gaokao(高考) countdowns. The similarities: intense studing atmosphere with books after books everwhere. The defferences: more cramped with little room to turn around your body, two bunk beds with the fourth berth as a luggage rack, two small desks filling almost all the rest space, one of which is even shared by two kids sitting face to face. Without places for putting chairs, the kids have to sit on the bed edges and so has every guest unless he would rather stand. I noticed there were some jars under the beds and asked what were they used for. They looked a little embarrassed first and then said they were for storing pickles, which could save them a sum of money from meals. Later I also learnt that they normally stayed at school until a semester was over. Asked them why and was given two reasons—-#1,They didn’t want to waste the 10- yuan bus fair.#2, The going-home thing was too troublsome to them, one way alone would take 6 hours on the way AND the school has ONLY Sunday off AND the Sunday evening class must be attended.

That is only the story from my first vist to their dorm, and in the following days, I just find there are too many things worthy of writing about the three Lis. Here I name only one example. Last Monday evening, Tianxiang was absent from the class and someone said he was ill. I headed to his place as soon as the 9:30 Pm- ring went off, which was finishing time of the evening study. His door half open and the light on, I found he was sitting at desk doing maths problems with a cap on his head. Turned out, he had a bad fall the day before and his eyelid was swollen plus he happened to catch a cold so he didn’t go to the classroom. Later his two mates came and said they had took him to the clinic and the doctor said there was nothing serious and more rest was suggested. I fetched some cold pills for Tianxiang and asked him to rest early. Probably around 12 pm, awoken with a start by a nature call, I jumped from my bed into the courtyard and found their window was still bright. Only then did I know they meant serious when they said in the past that they never hit the sack before 12 pm. I know there are too many resons why they have to study excessively such as endless homework and eagerness to get rid of the humble fate.Good luck, three Lis and the like.

By the way, the three Lis mentioned last time to me that how beautiful their hometown was and warmly invited me to have a look in person some day. Since then I have been looking forward to the day but have no idea when I could eventually make it. Maybe I will have to wait until summer holidays. And I really wanna experience ,just as what the three Lis said ,what it would be like running along the mountain ranges&paths in 4 straight hours just in order to make it to home or bus station before sunset!

If you ask me what attracts me most in Yunnan, I will say without hesitation it is the climate.  November now. In Shanghai, it is already freezing cold and my families have bundled themselves tightly. But here in Yunnan, it seems that people haven’t changed their outfits much since mid summer. Now I am in a cybercafe,  wearing a suit and feeling warm enough while the girl sitting beside me is only in a T-shirt.

Before leaving for Yunnan in August, I was told that there was no need to prepare a large pile of clothes. So my heavy weapons for the coldest days are merely a jaket and a sweater. Seeing the sunny weather nearly everyday, I just have no idea when we will be in the deep of winter. Maybe they will come in handy only when we are on the way back to shanghai in the spring festival.

The scene when I first landed on Kunming was pretty much vivid just like yesterday. It was still a furnace in Shanghai three hours ago, but the instant we got off the plane  we felt Kunming was like a huge natural AC. I reported the significant discovery to my family in Shanghai, thrilled and joyful like a kid. Sure enough, Kunming is a spring city worthy of the name. In fact, not only Kunming but most parts of Yunnan enjoy the wonderful climate. The hottest of hot days won’t make you sweat. Similarly, the coldest days won’t make you grow frostbites. At least I haven’t exprienced the two extremes here so far. Meanwhile, it is impossible for me to forget the sweating hot and numbing cold in Shanghai. Unbearable.

Some climate-related things I happen to like include fresh air, blue skyes,starry evenings, clouds or mists and even UV（紫外线). When we were in Yunnan on the first day, the tourist guide said that Kunming enjoyed the 5-star UV. She was swarthy but pretty,sweet and warm-hearted, exuding a heathy vitality of youth all over. Therefore I had a strange feel that UV is associated with beauty besides its function of sterilization. The charm of Yunnan climate also lies in its blue skyes. The blue is almost a daily occurence, bright, cristal, immaculate and even holy. Each time I am outdoors especially when sitting on a bus, I will not forget to look up into the sky. You may well use the word "greedy" to describe my feeling about the Yunnan blue.

What are equally unfogetable aslo include the starry skys in the evenings, over which we Shanghai teachers often exclaimed. Sometimes, we gazed at the night fall , silent for a long time. It is just so comforting to be reminded of the long lost childhood memories, in which we lied on the bamboo bed on the summer evenings, looking at the stars while listening to stories told by the adults.

Oh, the sunlight. Yunnan has far more sunshine days than Shanghai, which can be judged just from the number of the solar-driven heaters installed on the roofs. Nearly every household has one! In this sense, Yunnan fully deserves the title of the greenest region. Really, I sometimes wonder why Yunnan is so favoured, with the enviable weather.

Climatewise, I know it would definately be a totally defferent story if I were in Shanghai now. The weather of Yunnan will surely something I will miss in my rest of life. 

The other day, I met two countrywomen in the street, who were selling the firewood in the market. I was taken back when they told how heavy each bundle was. 100 jin at least, my god! Seeing my suspicion, one of them unloaded hers and let me have a try. Until my back was bent down did I find I couldn’t stand on my feet no matter how I struggled. Futher inquiries and I knew they were Hani(哈尼）ethnic minorities and had trudged 4hours along the mountain trail. The firewood was sold by jin(斤） and a bundle was worth around 10 yuan. They would carry them back home if there were no buyers.

4 hours’ toiling up the rugged mountain trail with an extra-heavy load is only for 10 yuan. But wait! I was also told this kind of a market was open only once a week, which means they would have to wait another week to try luck if no deal was made this time.

Along the mountain muddy road were more and more people advancing toward the market, with more budles of firewood and even cattles. I couldn’t help but crossing my fingers for them, hoping them to sell at a good price. Such market must have existed for thousands of years, If I am not mistaken. Would their business always thrive even though they just make peanuts? What would they do if they couldn’t make the both ends meet?…….I dunno.

Maybe my previous fear about their fate was unnecessary. They are a tough breed after all, for which I could do nothing but show deep respect.

One oddest thing here in my current school is that almost no students  wear glasses! (Have a look in person here in Honghe No.1 High school and you’ll see what I am talking) I still remember my initial double take at such odd scene during my first class here. But I didn’t take a serious notice until the recent experience of hunting through the only two main streets for a pair of new glasses only to be told there were no optician’s at all. I even had searched some back alleies door to door before I suddenly found myself in an almost eyeglassless world. I was taken back,  cause it’s just too sureal. How come of that you can’t find an eyeglass store in a town as a county-government seat with population of over 20′000 ? Maybe I had asked the wrong person or missed the the right location .So one day it would be very likely for me to ask some radom student who happened to wear glasses where he/she bought them. Luckily,my frame-loosened spectacles have nothing serious and I could make do for a couple of months.As a guy who is heavily short-sighted ,I have been always vigilent keeping my baby from any possible inextricable losses such as being crushed under the pillow before I purchace new ones back home in winter holidays .

So questions arise apart from my minor complaints.Why do these kids have brighter eyes? (Actualy, the adults here have got the equally enviable eyesight ) Do they have more scientific eye-employing habit? I know shanghai students have way too much exposure to computer’s radiation. Yet the same problem of excesssive eye-employing also does exist here and the case is even worse based on my spot observation.It is not unsual that students here show far more enthusiasm in study and even sacrifice eye-excercising time with aquiecense from techers and sometimes they have to read in dim light.  Thus they are more like bookworms in the eye of some peers from so-called developed coastal regions. Another possible answer could be seeked from the following fact.  Here in Yunnan, people are bestowed the better natural enviroment with greeneries everywhere and more visual space especially in rural areas , which is good for eyesight beyond any doubt. Meanwhile, I suspect whether the unique Yunnan diet has something to do with their better eyesight. I am gonna ask a local in the know for the truth since my curiosity is picqued.