千里之行，始於足下。~道德经: the trip to Yangjuan

Hey Everyone!

*Sigh* I finally have internet in my new apartment. It has been what? Nearly two weeks now? Anyways...I am going to start posting about my experience in Yangjuan. It will probably take several entries for me to get everything in...and the pictures. I took so many...I dont think I will be able to put them all in here...at least not with my poor blogging management skills. So...what I think I will be doing instead is posting some pictures here...but post a majority of my pictures in a separate link. I would love to stick everything in here in these entries...but I dont think I will be able to. So...as soon as I get a link made...I will be sure to share. Let me just say...Yangjuan was an amazing place. Just wait till you see the place. So...I didnt make any entries on the 25th or the 26th. Both these days we spent getting to Yangjuan. Thus, my journal entries start on the 27th...

August 27, 2006
Today is my second day here in Yanjuan. We arrived yesterday afternoon around four. The journey to this Nuosu (Yi) village was long and tiring. We took the overnight train on Friday after our hectic day around Chengdu. Our TA, Andrea Elliot, flew in the previous night and Steve had arranged for us to meet her. Andrea spent last year in Chengdu working and studying traditional medicine. She is currently shadowing a Chinese traditional medicine doctor, a man I am eager to meet. When I first heard about her field of work, I was really excited. She would be the perfect person to talk to about my interests in Chinese medicine. Since our first meeting, we have talked about setting me up to shadow some doctors here in town and possibly talk to a couple friends of hers who are doing various types of medical research. For example, one of Andrea’s friends is doing a project concerning HIV/AIDS in the province of Yunnan. When she first mentioned this, I could not believe it. For those who aren’t as familiar with my proposal ordeal, I had initially written a proposal regarding HIV/AIDS. Based on what I could gather from the articles I read, a portion of the infected individuals in the Yunnan and southern Sichuan province contracted the virus via drug using, in particular, those along the heroin trafficking route in that region. Of course, as it may already sound like, the research includes a lot of sensitive issues. So, during spring quarter of last year, I rewrote my proposal. Although my current proposal still centers on a sensitive topic, the Cultural Revolution to be exact, it is a bit more possible to investigate. Anyways, I will talk more about my research proposal in these next few entries. So much has happened since I last wrote and since I didn’t have my computer in Yangjuan and no internet this past week, I think it may take me a while to organize all of my notes and journal entries into a completed blog entry.

In the meantime, back to the story of just getting to the village. The only other time I had ridden a train in China was last summer when I was touring China with my mom. We took a night train from Guangzhao to Hong Kong. Of course, that ride was only a couple of hours not an entire night. Our train left around 11 PMFriday night and we were to arrive in Xichang at 7 in the morning. For my first time sleeping on a train, I would have to say it was rather restful. The only downside to the trip was my own laziness. I didn’t take out my contacts prior to going to bed (in my day clothes) and so when I woke up in the morning, my eyes were so dry. Good think Sara had some eye drops. They were lifesavers. Oh, by the way, I should mention who I took this trip with and why they were going. Of course, Steve Harrell, my UW advisor, went with us. He has been going to Yanjuan for the past six years now, each time to visit the elementary he and a couple of other people erected. For the past two years, (so this year was to be the third time), Steve brought money from the States obtained from calendars sold to fundraise for this school. The money is transformed into scholarships and given to graduates of the elementary school. Yangjuan elementary school is a primary school for both Nuosu boys and girls living in the area. Prior to this school, the only other school close enough for children in Yangjuan to go to was in another village/town called Baiwu. By foot, it is a 40 minute walk one way. You can imagine what it would be like for them to walk home at night after night classes. They have excellent night vision. None of the roads are lighted, but they still manage to find their way home. Haha. It must have been a sight having us Americans with our flashlights trying hard to peer into the night, trying to avoid tripping over rocks and stepping in cow/horse/dog/sheep/donkey manure. Anyways, I am getting way ahead of myself. Back to introductions, next are Sara and Alex. Both of them were in the UW-SU exchange program two years ago. I know Alex cause we some classes together…I think one was SIS 401 IPE? And the other was our honors seminar for writing our proposal. I know Sara from her project regarding Yi embroidery. Anyways…Alex came with us to Yangjuan to gather more data on the economics of Yangjuan…in particular the market for Hua Jiao and this time, sunflowers. Sara brought with her a lot of fun things for the kids including Vita-balls, bubbles, finger paints and paper, and some gifts for the lady she worked with on her research. From our exchange year we had Matt and Sarah. Matt is interested in capturing and photographing some of Yangjuan’s frogs. Sarah’s project deals with air quality/air particulates in Nuosu homes. The Nuosu use coal stoves if not just a fire pit in the middle of their homes. A lot of smoke builds up in the house, largely because there is no exit way for the smoke to leave their houses. Winters can get really cold, so their homes are built to prevent warm air from leaving the houses, which inevitably means no smoke from the cooking pit can leave either. Last but not least is Song Li Yun. She was an exchange student to UW last year...and I currently live with her. We were just talking the other day. In China...theres this saying...yuan fun. A translation would give something like fate. We were saying our meeting...especially since both of us have the same surname...was something like fate. So far, living with her has been awesome. So, now that I have made the introductions, let me add some pictures to these descriptions.
For my first picture, this is what the train compartments look like. There are three levels...lower, middle, and upper. The lower bunks are the most expensive...largely for convenience sake. We got the middle bunks. There are several rows of these beds...and you pretty much just spend your time just lying there.

There was really nothing much to do on the train...so Song Li Yun and I just chatted about Taiwan, religion, etc. until we both fell asleep.

We arrived in Xichang at around 7:30 AM. You could really tell the difference in location. Everything around us seemed more agricultural...not to mention the signs had not only Chinese characters...but Nuosu characters as well. I wish I took some pictures of those characters. I might try to copy and paste some of those characters from my Nuosu class website. I took an independent once a week class with Song Li Yun and Alex on the Nuosu language. I was hoping to learn a bit prior to coming. The most complete sentence I can say is: "Hey friend! Where are you from?" I would put the ping ying in...but it doesnt help. Their ping ying is really different from Han pingyin. Anyways, here's a picture of Xichang as we were pulling in:

We made a quick breakfast stop here in Xichang. It was at this small noodle broth shop. SO GOOD! We pretty much sat in the kitchen eating our bowls of rice noodles. I think I may have a picture...one sec...nope, nevermind. I have a picture of lunch...but...first...getting from Xichang to Yanyuan. Yanyuan is not Yangjuan. Yanyuan is more of a city while Yangjuan is a village. Yanyuan is the closest city to Yangjuan. To get from Xichang to Yanyuan, it takes 1/2 by bus. The worst part about this portion of our trip was the winding mountain roads. For someone who gets a car sick...not a pretty sight. No one in our van got sick...but people who take the public bus usually do...and so often times, you can hear people vomiting out the windows. Yeah, thats how bad it can get. We got the Yanyuan at around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. We had lunch in Yanyuan. Oh, if any of you guys ever get to try Chinese speciality noodles, I highly recommend Dao Xiao Mien...or knife cut noodles. They are absolutely delicious! Pretty much all it is is some good hearty broth with noodles made from shaving pieces of dough and boiling them in water. Here is the guy making the noodles: