Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, China
(that's Chiang Rung, Sipsongpanna for those of you who want the Thai version)

Photos:
1. Dai roofs
2.Dai wat, Galanba
3. Hotel "pond"
4. Around Jinghong
5. In the market

I am not going to pretend like I was entirely productive when I was in Xishuangbanna. I am not sure entirely for this lack of productivity, but I can definitely make up excuses, including the fact that for the entire two weeks that I was there (minus 2 days), the weather was unbearably cold. No sunshine at all, and it even rained for the better part of 3 days. Although I am frustrated with the lack of work I got done, at least I actually finally got there, and can now confirm that their banner tradition is going strong.

It was evident from the moment I stepped off the plane that I was in China and no longer in familiar territory. I was greeted by a uniformed customs guy: “Welcome to China!” I enjoyed his friendly welcome. Once I got out of the very small airport, I wasn’t really sure what to do. A taxi driver came up to me and said who knows what to me, when I realized that I actually had no Chinese money at all. Luckily a woman standing next to me spoke English and so I told her I needed to get to a bank and hotel, etc. The next thing I knew I was in the back of a taxi, completely unable to communicate with the driver and heading into town. I can admit now that I did feel a bit more culture shock than I expected upon arrival to Jinghong. Not being able to communicate was really a change for me after being so spoiled in Thailand and Laos. But I did end up at some strange Chinese hotel for my first night. Certainly I paid too much, but I couldn’t really be bothered since it was more important for me to adjust to being in Xishuangbanna, get orientated, etc. After putting my stuff down in the room, I wandered around a bit. After getting completely lost, and near panic (again, confusion over language), I found my way and was able to locate the “backpacker”-ish part of town. I ate dinner and went back to my room to watch the Table Tennis Women’s World Championships on TV. Wow, fascinating. And a Chinese woman won (believe it or not)!

I was very fortunate my second day in Jinghong, because I tossed a coin and decided to check out the Wan Li Dai Style Guesthouse. They didn’t have a whole room available, but had a bed (some rooms, they call “dorms” but really only have 3 beds, they rent by the bed) available for 20 Yuan (8 Yuan = 1$). The place seemed very nice and (most importantly) clean, so I took a bed. My roommate turned out to be a German woman named Iris who was on her 4th trip to China. Iris was very friendly and knowledgeable, and helped me to get more accustomed to being in China. She was planning on going to a town (Menghun) a couple of hours away the next day for the Sunday market and invited me along. I had been thinking about possibly doing the same thing and was not fully sure of where the bus station was, and everything else, so I jumped at the chance to travel with her. In doing this, I not only had a traveling companion, but I also got to see where the No. 2 bus station was and how to get a ticket, etc.

It was nice getting out of Jinghong, and the mountains (hills) were very beautiful, even if they were stripped of their original forest growth. I want to make a note here that not all of Xishuangbanna is stripped of its original forest, but much of it has been, replaced by tea farms, rubber tree plantations, and pineapples. Anyway, the town we went to, Menghun, was small but nice, with 2 wats in town. Tourists go to Menghun for the Sunday market, which I thought was really only mediocre, but maybe this opinion comes from having been to so many markets already in northern Laos. However, I do know 2 things about my trip to Menghun: the first that it was the beginning of my being very, very cold while in Xishuangbanna, and second that Iris and I were very fortunate because a traveling group of Shaolin monk performers had come to town the same day as us and were performing that night (see other blog). The place we spent the night was also quite interesting, notably the toilets which drained right into the “pond” the rooms opened up to. Ah China… definitely not known for its clean toilets.

Another place I traveled to in Xishuangbanna was Damenglong, again with Iris and another friend from our guesthouse, a completely unusual (unique?) Swedish guy named Pärolof. This time the slow bus ride reminded me of being in Laos – the road was unpaved, bumpy, and dusty. I enjoyed the sleepy town, its friendly people, and its wats.

The Dai people (who are the people in Xishuangbanna who are Theravada Buddhists and closely related to the people of Laos and Thailand that I like so much) have an incredible architecture style which includes homes that look like roofs on stilts. I really enjoyed exploring their villages and visiting their wats. Many of the wats in the Dai villages and towns are built or rebuilt within the last 10-15 years. This is a result of the destruction of Dai wats during the Cultural Revolution in China. The newly built wats try to maintain the integrity of the traditional ones, but they are typically not made from wood, which tends to affect their appearance. It is still possible to find the older temples in some villages, and I was very happy to explore a number of them.

Most of my time was spent in Jinghong, riding bicycles into the surrounding area, taking the minibus to a nearby town, Galanba, and observing life in the major city of Xishuangbanna. I did mope a bit as a result of the crappy weather, painful blisters, and a very painful mouth problem I had for a few days related to the wisdom tooth I have yet to have pulled out. Being in China really grew on me after I adjusted to not wanting to speak Thai to everyone I interacted with, and I can say I really can’t wait to explore China more. It is such a large country, and there are many places I want to go there. I know most people consider being in Xishuangbanna as hardly even being in China, but it was China to me.