Yunnan Stories 云南故事

This was taken on my way via Yuanjiang two months ago. I redicovered it when sorting out a large pile of photos. Forgot the name but I know the picture just doen’t do justise to this cute village.

All the houses are built with the charecteristic red soil, firm and beautiful.  Nearly a hundred years’ weathering has changed the original red to what you see now the light yellow. The most amazing part is that every small household can be connected to each other through the roof. The roof serves as a dring yard and a road leading everywhere, where you can even take a non-stop bike ride around the whole village. Take the gental slopes if you wanna go up and down.

Pillowed on a hill, this waterside village in itself is a large household.These industrious and ingenious villagers treat each other just like siblings. They, having shared the woes and joys from generation to generation, live an enviablly harmonious life.

Just look at it, isn’t it amazing?

Remember the first day I entered the classroom in Yunnan and was stunned by the masses of clouds floating near on the opposite mountains, repeating to the students that the seneries were just too beautiful.

Now having stayed here for over 3 months, no longer will I see it as a spectacle as I did in the past. Nontherless, I enjoy the ubiquitous sea of clouds for its visual pleasure. It still excites and appeals me if it emerges. Often than not,I would lean against the courtyard wall and  look down at the cloud-covered valley, thinking of nothing.

It is a vast arid plateau where I am now. Under the combined action of altitude and  temperature difference, the hidden tiny waterdrops evaporate into banks and banks mist when heated by the sun at dawn.  Thus, the sea of clouds cames into being, everywhere and everytime. What you need keep in mind is: the cloudsea here happens more often though it can’t be compared to Huangshan’s(黄山）         

Finally escaped from my cozy nest(dorm) and took a hasty trip to Jianshui(建水), where I met my e-friend Yang, a third-year student in Jianshui Normal School. Yang, a son of farmers, is cool and ahead of his time with brilliant ideas, whose major and ideal are IT and being a teacher respectively. We got to know each other from QQ and clicked at the first sight. Born and grown up in the isolated mountains, this Yi(彝)lad has never stepped out of Honghe Prefeture, not to mention Yunnan. He dreamed of finding a teaching job in the developed coastal region and then returned to repay his hometown 2-3 years later. "I just wanna broaden my outlook and toughen myself up first. What we lack most here is the advanced thought, without which,rooting out the poverty is completely a daydream." Yang expained. He is a credit and hope to his family, who have had a hard life on the barran land for generations .

Yang kindly took me under his ample wing and showed me around his compus.The trip was so fantastic, like turning the clock back to several years ago. Due to a weekend, the compus looked like an open field, big and quiet. The students were in twos and threes, basking on the lawn ,reading by the pond, hanging out the washing to dry….reminding me of my own college days. Environed by the tall trees are the various architectures, simple-designed but elegant—— a good place for schooling. Strolling down the tree-lined trail,I just felt so carefree and joyous, like walking down a memory lane. Lucked out with a clear sunny day,I feasted my eye on the beautiful scene, bright blue sky and gentle breeze. I hate most Shanghai compus, morden but cold. "Only if I could study or teach in your school! I envy you." I smiled to Yang when we passed by his classroom. I would not imagine that Jianshui would have such a good place if Yang hadn’t told me. Thanks, Yang, good luck to you.

After luch, I headed back to Yisa. Another painful endless turns and turns on the rugged mountain trail. Fortunately,I didn’t shoot my cookies because I swallowed an anti-carsickness pill in advance. It was already pitch black outside when I returned, exsausted, after 5-hour-long incessant jolting and bumping. A nightmare to me as the ride on the rough mountain track is, I must admit the visit to Jianshui Normal School is really wonderful.

Yisa is the capital of Honghe county, where I am temporally working as an one-year-contract voluntary English teacher.

The very first visit to this small moutainous town is so impresssive that it will never escape from my mind in the days to come.

After Jianshui(建水县）was a 3-hour-long laborous trek, which should account as my first adventure. The big question mark of"What is our destination like and how soon will we arrive " haunted me all the way. The road ahead becoming tougher and tougher, my heart felt heavier and heavier while my eyes opened wider and wider. The carved-along-mountain trail looked scary though the roadside seneries were overwhelmingly appealing with various valleys unfold one after another. I must admit the matter of three hours witnessed my tremendous stress mixed with matchless excitment. The cliffsides were steep enough to made me freak out as hell even at a peek. Again, there were tons of danger zones where piled fallen stones almost blocked the narrow trail. At this point, I would looked up and down repeatedly and neverously to wach out for the possible crash.

No sooner our driver made it to a safe section than I  conjured up a fary land for the far-far-away Yisa, for I believed only saints could choose to live in such a secluded wilderness.  The altitude was increasingly high and it seems that you have reached a no-man’s land, except for oncoming vehicles accasionally appearing around sharp bends. 
                
Simutaniously, beyond words was the idyllic wonder. The spectacular terrace was spreading downward from under your nose till some invisable point far far below, where it converged with other various equally vast rice paddies. Another greatest part was when we arrived at a roadside market where I saw some real-life ethnic minorities for the first time .Previously, I only saw them on all kinds of medias, who have got distinguished characteristics such as extra-colorful and silverware-adorned costumes .  I was thrilled to watch them touting and bargaining in the husssle and bussle. Very very exotic and really really cool .

Finally, our stunning "walk on the wire" came to an end. But I felt dizzy during the last upward bends that were  sharper and more intense. I was even puzzled when the driver told us Yisa was only a minute away and I was yet to see its tip. The very very last second, after a super sharp turn, Yisa, proudly dominating all the valleys we had conquered like a mysterious castle high on one of those peaks, presented itself without any reserve before its exsausted and eager visitors at the last moment,only in its own special way ——sudddenly, suprizingly and dramatically .