July 3 Lijiang Third Narrative

Happy Forth of July!

Kevin
June 29, 2009

Sam and I collaborated and created a comprehensive To-Do list to help sort out our duties. I would have more on the day’s events, but I can’t quiet recall what did for the rest of the day to be honest.

June 30th, 2009

One of the tasks that I have taken up here at the GYS is to update exhibition center. The center is directly above the office room. The exhibition center is broken into two sections: renewable energy and biodiversity. The walls are filled with pictures and poster boards written in Mandarin. There are also two demonstration tables used to get a hands-up understanding of the functions of biogas and traditional ways of cooking such as coal. Mr. Chen would give tours with a suggested donation of 10 Yuan. Sam and I thought this center could be greatly improved and our goal has been to make it update it to the point it is worth 30 Yuan. How do you make it worth 3X as much? The first step is to add headings and captions in both English and Mandarin. As I stated before, there were only pictures and demonstration tables. Mr. Chen would usually explain the content to the visitors. I wanted to have that content available like at a museum that answered the questions of the four Ws: what, why, who, and when. Therefore, I committed the entire day to taking every single picture (total 43) off the wall and took it to Mr. Chen. I had him explain to me the significance of each photo. Afterwards I would return to the exhibition center and type out the captions and the headings. I was at it from 10:00 A.M to 9 P.M. I was basically trying to find out everything Mr. Chen know about these photos and typed it out. Again this was only the first step of a large overhaul project for the exhibition center. I had big plans for it by taking out unnecessary content, reorganizing photos, adding new content, purchasing picture frames to replace the old poster boards, etc. This makes me think of that TLC television show – Clean Sweep!

July 1st, 2009

Both Sam and I woke up late Wednesday morning from the late night of sorting and typing out descriptions of the exhibition center upstairs. After an early lunch, he had the whole afternoon and evening planned out. We had created a To-Do list of the different items we needed for the Green Education Center that we are trying to develop. Items included garbage cans, paper, lamination materials, markers, etc. We also had plans to meet Julie’s sister (Ester) at 4:00 P.M. Julie is the girl who attends a Swiss University and whose boyfriends is also Swiss. Mr. Chen gave us ride down to the city and dropped us off at a local crafts store. It worked out perfectly. We found about 60 percent of our marked items at this one location. The exciting part was directly afterwards. We walked across the street to a market. This was far from any tourist destination. The next items we were looking for was garbage bins that we could use for separating plastic, glass, paper, compost and garbage. The ones at the school are cardboard boxes. We thought we could do better. In the market, we initially saw Naxi baskets by one vendor. He was willing to give us 4 for 60 Yuan, which was an absolute deal. However, Sam shook his head, and we walked away. We decided to check out some other vendors to compare prices. Another woman was willing to give us the same baskets for 20 Yuan each. We continued to tour the market as we enjoyed the music and authentic feel of the locals. We thought this is what it must have been like decades or centuries ago. After browsing some shops, we thought that the first vendor made us the best deal, and went back to see him. As it turned out, 60 Yuan was for only three baskets, not four. We also decided we not only wanted four baskets, but also the larger sized ones. The total price he gave us was 200 Yuan. We told him that the vendor a few shops away offered us 20 Yuan each for the same baskets. As it turned out that is exactly the price we got for the larger baskets. We paid 80 Yuan rather than 200 Yuan. The strategy of barging here was five steps. First - get an initial price tag. Second - walk away. Third - come back and see the new price offered. Forth – check out other vendors. Firth – come back and use the information from other vendors to push down the price. Sam walked out of that market with four Naxi baskets on his back. It was a hilarious picture. If he had a blue Naxi hat on, I am sure he could have disguised himself as an older, native Naxi woman.

I will not go through all the errands, but we took a bus over to a supermarket to get the last of items as well as some cash. We met Chester at 4:00 P.M in the old city of Lijiang (a hot tourist destination crowded with foreigners and visiting Chinese). Neither Sam nor I had met Ester before. We had heard from her mother that she was planning to attend high school in Montana. She is 14 years old and had been accepted by a host family in Montana to attend a high school for the next four years. I honestly can’t explain why Montana was chosen of all places in the United States. On the bright side, I can image that her English will improve greatly especially since there are probably very few Chinese speaking people there unlike Seattle, Los Angles and New York. She was very shy as we spoke to her in English. She mentioned that she had been learning English for three years, but this was probably her first time having foreigners come over and asking question and making comments all in English to her. As we approached her house, it was right next to a transmission line. To my surprise, there was a large peacock behind the entrance gate. There were also two dogs in a small cage barking up a storm. They reminded me of the dogs from the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ that came aboard the vacant/abandoned in New York City. In other words, I didn’t want to get close to that cage. I just hoped that lock would hold until I left.

The house was upscale on all almost every level imaginable. As we first entered the living room, I felt like we had entered a Montanan like household, not Chinese. For instance, the furniture such as the chairs and table were all extravagant woodcarvings. At the Green Youth School, we had talked a lot about deforestation. As soon as I saw the furniture, deforestation with an exclamation mark spun around my head. I had done a project on deforestation in Southeast Asia from China’s large appetite, and I thought this was a prime example of it. There was also a deer head hanging above the fireplace. In addition, they had a huge, stuffed deer along side an Anglo Jesus portrait. The mother and the younger sister said they became Christians four years ago. I don’t know the religion of the other family members, but they told me they have friends that come to their house to worship. It appears there must not be a church in the city of Lijiang.

After sitting on those enormous, probably illegally, unsustainable, chairs, and talking with Ernest in English and Vincent, Julie’s Swiss boyfriend, we walked to the kitchen. Julie and Ernest made us some deliciously sweet coffee. The father, mother, and Julie prepared dinner. The dishes were a treat. I like the food at the GYS, but the food does get repetitive. For drinks, it was not the American style in the sense you go to the grocery store to purchase your favorite wine. Instead, the father and Ernest had designed their wine. Sam and I both decided to give it a try. It was a very small quantity, and I assure you it was enough! It was not about quantity, but quality. It actually wasn’t wine. The taste was so strong I would have to say it was liquor. After one sip, my nasals cleared up; no need for allergy medicine. This did the job better. J The father offered us men cigarettes. Sam did not hesitant. He is not a smoker, but came to realize if he really wants to connect with the men in China, accepting a cigarette is a great ice breaker. The interesting part is that I almost accepted a cigarette, but I politely said no thanks. I held my ground for now. Towards the end of dinner, Julie and Ernest gave us three options for what we could do after dinner: karaoke, see traditional dancing by the Naxi in the old city of Lijiang, or go to swimming in the hot springs. It was an obvious vote – HOT SPRINGS! We took a taxi to what seemed out in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road.

Now I had not brought a swimsuit with me. I was advised I could buy one there. The swim trunks were not a Speedo, but they were tight. The hot spring pool felt absolutely wonderful – temperature right between that of a pool and hot tub. It was soothing, relaxing, all the above. It felt great. There were also some smaller pools with minnow-type fish that feed off on your dead skin for an extra fee. The men’s locker room also had shower stalls. That was a blessing! It was nice to now I could post-pone my use of the outhouse shower for a few more days. J

I almost forget to mention that Ernest’s father invited us to have dinner with them once every week until we depart Lijiang at the end of July.

July 2nd, 2009

I don’t think I going to be as detailed as I did for July 1st. There were basically two events that happed today. The fist was that Sam looked over and began editing my descriptions of the pictures from the exhibition center. He did not finish it today primarily because of the second activity that I will explain here, but also because I had a lot written down. You must remember it took me a whole day to write up all the information. Besides editing, he also included questions for me ask Mr. Chen so it is not so generic or abstract.

The second activity was hiking. On Sunday, Sam and I had gone for a hike only up about 20 minutes to a rest stop with benches because there was an approaching thunderstorm at that time. We had recalled the trail had not ended there. This time, we wanted to find out where that specific trail led to and we also want to climb to top of the peaks (somehow/someway). The experience was a lot of luck. We realized early on that there was not one continuous trail to stay on early on. As one trail began heading down the mountain, we had to find another way leading up. Some were not trails at all. It was really a hit and miss type of hiking experience. Even if it was a trail, it was difficult to follow because it had not been trek frequently therefore there were a lot of bushes and branches that we had to crawl through. Fast-forward two or so hours, we traversed along a mountain into an open field. We saw one path that may lead up to the peak and within a few minutes it was obvious an ambiguous trailhead. We turned around, and I saw another path. This was more carved out. As we hiked the step slop, we ran into a few Naxi men with walking sticks. They said they had just come from the peak of the above mountain with an amazing view of Lijiang and Lashihai. One man gave me his walking stick. I knew I was in for it. The hike was tough on the lungs. I was asking for breaks every 5 or so minutes. I was out of breath, partly due to the elevation. Once we reached the ridge, it was still shaded by trees. The path continued along some large boulders. I have to say this was nothing less than 40 percent slope done if I fell either way. Each step was taken with precaution. I think I was more scared that when I had that allergic reaction. Perhaps I could this was a little dare-devilish. Sam warmed me to take it show because he had no plans of calling in an emergency helicopter. The pictures on the blog should be able to do the rest of the talking. There are a couple pictures of Lashihai (the large lake). That is on the west side of the mountain. On the east side is Lashihai, a city of 1,000,000 + people. It was a spectacular view and well worth it from 11,000 ft looking down 3,000 ft. And now our 5 hours of sweet and effort are free to show for via those pictures. J. Pictures are great, but the experience was far better. Sam and I will be journey back to the mountain peak for another round when the Yale students come at the end of July.

July 3rd, 2009

Today was back to work. Sam and I went through our today list. Sam finished editing my captions and heading, which I will go through one more time with Mr. Chen tomorrow. In addition, I wanted to get in contact with the The Nature Conservatory (TNC) to ask some questions such as –

· What has been the history of TNC's involvement with the promotion of renewable energy such as biogas tanks in Lashihai? What have been the challenges of advancing the use of biogas technology?

· Does the TNC have any detailed reports or information about the local environmental problems of Lashihai? If so, would you be willing to share that information with YEN?

· Lastly, do you have any information about the biodiversity hotspot of Lashihai?


I had sent TNC an email with the above the questions to Jiang Xiaotang, but I had not heard back. I decided to give her a call. I used my Skype account to make the cheap phone call. The funny part was that when I called and asked for Jiang Xiaotang, no one knew who I was asking for. I explained that I was an intern with the Yunnan EcoNetwork, but that only made the woman even more confused. I asked if anyone could speak English. She replied ‘No.’ I gave up and hung up. Sam was across the table listening to the entire conservation laughing. He offered to call back for me to find out what was going on. It turned out I had called a random Kunming hotel. No wonder I was frazzled. It also turned out that I miss dialed the last 2 digits. I redialed and called Jiang Xiaotang cell. She informed me to call Lili with Ecotourism in Lijiang. Sam and I had actually met Lili the week before. I could have completely bypassed this little blunder. J

Most of my day was spent in the exhibition center. Since I had the captions and heading almost finished, I took down most of the pictures in the ecology section. It terms of the layout, it was disorganized. There was no flow. Pictures were hung wherever there was space. I sorted them out and went to work. I got a hammer and a box of nails, which became my friends for the rest of the afternoon. It looks more like museum now, but that only leads to the next project. For example, within the ecology part is a dozen stuffed native or migratory birds to Lashi Lake. However, the way they are set up has their heads facing towards the ground with water down Mandarin captions (new layout and new captions in English and Mandarin needed obviously). I will post pictures to show the before and after results. Perhaps you can give me feedback and suggestions about the layout.

I should also note that Xuanyang’s relatives just arrived this afternoon from Guangdong. They were Xiaoyen, zhangrui, Fangfang, dangdang, and Huyueying. If you are familiar with Hong Kong, it is not to far from there. They speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. As guests, they prepared a delicious feast for us. One helping was enough for me and that is saying a lot since my appetite has been compared to an elephant. J

Well, it has been another busy week here at GYS and tomorrow is July 4th. I want to wish every one of you a very happy forth of July weekend. We also have plans here. I will have an explanation about that in the coming day along with everything else.

All the best,

Kevin