你们好！
This past week was spent learning a lot about China’s ethnic minorities. We visited a village of the Bai (white) people. They are not actually white , but it is a prominent color in their clothing. It was incredible the amount of dancing we did this week, everyone, even the children know all of the traditional dances. We also went to a Daoist temple on a sacred mountain for a night. I was the only person in my group willing to wake up at 5am to practice Taiji with the monk on the mountainside, it was definitely a memory I will have with me forever. I was also in a rural home-stay in the village of Shaping. China has continued to surprise me, and this time I was amazed by the far out reach of its development. I was expecting an extremely rural town in terms of a lack of technology but I found quite the opposite. Sure the village is significantly less developed than the major cities, but it had paved roads, numerous cars, running water and my home-stay even had a 50 inch+ flat screen tv, meaning they obviously had electricity. Every household also grew corn for animal fodder and although it seemed to be quite counterproductive, all of the corn was de-kernelled by hand! This meant a fair amount of blisters. I also got to do a lot of planting and hoeing. I even herded my family’s cows! Despite these advancements, the bathroom was an outhouse so I’m definitely grateful to be back in the city now. We have one week left of our group travel, next stop Shangri-La!
<3 Elizazbeth
After reaching the top of the sacred Daoist mountain.
The monk with whom I did early morning Taiji.
Having fun in Dali.
The three pagodas of Dali.
Enjoying the view with some friends.
Picking tea leaves at a tea plantation.
Learned how to roast my own green tea!
The Bai ethnic minority in traditional clothing.
Everyone here has a cell phone.
Went to a bilingual school, Mandarin and Bai.
My rural host family’s shoes.
Hiked up the Bai secret mountain.
Loving every moment of it!