Yunnan
bababardwan
March 20, 2010, 11:38 AM posted in General DiscussionFamous for having the most ethnic minorities in China,reputedly amazing scenery,etc.
What sets Yunnan apart?
What is peculiar to Yunnan?
Linguistic differences to Beijinghua?
Best tourist attractions in Yunnan?
bababardwan
Awesome post bodawei!! Highly informative and entertaining as usual.I've learnt a lot.
"only legal gay bar"
..I read a book that seemed to suggest there were heaps of them in Beijing..the section described the "gayjing" scene,but I s'pose it wasn't clear on whether any of them were legal.Come to think of it,I think it was a case of being tolerated/blind eye as long as they didn't make too much noise,so I guess officially they must have been illegal.
btw I would add Shangri la county...a place in north west Yunnan as a place that has tried to claim to be the location of the fictional Shangri la,as an interesting tourist attraction.Anyone been there?
bodawei
Hi Barbs
I wrote the pinyin for Shangerila (that is, Shangri La in English). I had the opportunity to visit a few years ago when in the general area but the roads were impassable because of snow; I've never been. I'm less attracted now it has become a major tourist destination with many people flying in. There are many other Tibetan destinations in Yunnan and Sichuan that compete in a way with Shangerila if it is Tibetan culture that is your interest.
There is a gay scene in several cities - as far as I know, even though it is quite obvious, the bars are strictly speaking illegal (someone may correct me here.) When the Dali bar opened it was widely reported as the first legal gay bar. As you say I think enforcement is light at best. Mostly the police turn a blind eye. (I am bound to be corrected with particular examples.) What I can say is that gay culture seems to flourish in some places and the general population tolerate or ignore it. It is not something that most people like to talk about.
bababardwan
oh right,sorry I didn't realise that was the pinyin for it.Hang on,I should look up the Hanzi then.Here it is:
香格里拉....is what I've found.
I can't find the hanzi equivalent of your pinyin.I presume that it starts with 山。
bodawei
You're right (ever on the ball); I made a couple of errors in my pinyin - it is 香格里拉 xiang ge li la.
bababardwan
March 20, 2010, 10:43 PMAwesome post bodawei!! Highly informative and entertaining as usual.I've learnt a lot.
"only legal gay bar"
..I read a book that seemed to suggest there were heaps of them in Beijing..the section described the "gayjing" scene,but I s'pose it wasn't clear on whether any of them were legal.Come to think of it,I think it was a case of being tolerated/blind eye as long as they didn't make too much noise,so I guess officially they must have been illegal.
btw I would add Shangri la county...a place in north west Yunnan as a place that has tried to claim to be the location of the fictional Shangri la,as an interesting tourist attraction.Anyone been there?
changye
March 21, 2010, 01:16 AMYunnan is now hit by the worst draught in the past several decades. Do you have enough water to take a shower at your apartment?
bodawei
Hi Changye
Quite right, it's very dry - some crops have been hit hard. Attempts at cloud seeding have not been too successful. But they do not have public water conservation campaigns like we have in Australia - they could do a lot more. (I mentioned elsewhere a campaign in our university to save water.) There are no published limits to water use here in the city.
Of course the province is widely planted with eucalypts (gum trees) from Australia - so at least the vegetation is used to the dry conditions.
There was great excitement last night, someone rang and told us it 'was raining' but we didn't get any at our place, just a big wind.
changye
Did they imported koala bears from Australia too?
bababardwan
yep;to zoos of course.I knew one of the guys that helped transport and advise them.
changye
Koala bear is “树袋熊” in Chinese. It's very graphic and explanatory, as is often the case with Chinese words.
bodawei
Hi Changye
Actually, like in the case of 'potato' the Chinese cannot seem to settle on a word for 'imports.' The dictionary will give you the choice of 树袋熊, 无尾熊 and 考拉 ...
In practice 考拉 kao3la1 is how a Koala is usually referred to.
bodawei
Absolutely - reputedly they have grumpy natures, so don't argue with them.
bababardwan
lol ,
I think they'd chose 考拉 because it has the least syllables and they wouldn't want their sleep disturbed by 3 syllables,they're pretty lazy [and so wouldn't wanna bother with 3 syllables nor would they like to learn something too distant from the English koala so I think a transliteration would suit them best],and because a koala is not a bear...we even have a song about that.
changye
The word “考拉” (kao3la1) just reminds me of “烤鸭” (kao3ya1, roast duck).
bababardwan
天啊! ...yeah,I've heard too that what you get at restaurants isn't always exactly what you've ordered...sometimes near enough is good enough.I believe though that when the koalas were transferred about 5 years ago there were some pretty strict guidelines put in place about how they were to be treated,so I think there'll be none o' tha'.
bodawei
'Australians' are held in high regard in mainland China I think (like many people many Chinese do not hold back on stereotyping). Well, apart from a certain mining executive. And I'm sure that warm fuzzy feeling would extend to animals, specially warm fuzzy animals.
PS. Which zoo are they in, do you know?
bodawei
March 21, 2010, 01:38 AMHi Changye
Quite right, it's very dry - some crops have been hit hard. Attempts at cloud seeding have not been too successful. But they do not have public water conservation campaigns like we have in Australia - they could do a lot more. (I mentioned elsewhere a campaign in our university to save water.) There are no published limits to water use here in the city.
Of course the province is widely planted with eucalypts (gum trees) from Australia - so at least the vegetation is used to the dry conditions.
There was great excitement last night, someone rang and told us it 'was raining' but we didn't get any at our place, just a big wind.
bodawei
March 22, 2010, 10:52 AMIn introducing everyone to Yunnan I did commit one serious sin of omission. I'll take the quote from Wikipaedia:
Yunnan Province has also been identified as “the birthplace of tea…the first area where humans figured out that eating tea leaves or brewing a cup could be pleasant.”[26] Fengqing County in the Lincang City Prefecture of Yunnan Province in China is said to be home to the world's oldest cultivated tea tree, some 3,200 years old.[27
bababardwan
March 22, 2010, 11:17 AMbodawei,
Sorry, the reply buttons not working again.In answer to your question:
<i>PS. Which zoo are they in, do you know?</i>
...Guangzhou and Taipei
bodawei
I wonder if Chinese zoos are interested in other Australian fauna - kangaroos, echidna, wombats, dingos, taipans, flat-tailed dunnarts. Eastern water dragons (they almost sound Chinese), kookaburras, butcherbirds. The birds are what I miss here - none of the bird calls are familiar.
bodawei
March 24, 2010, 08:16 AMI wonder if Chinese zoos are interested in other Australian fauna - kangaroos, echidna, wombats, dingos, taipans, flat-tailed dunnarts. Eastern water dragons (they almost sound Chinese), kookaburras, butcherbirds. The birds are what I miss here - none of the bird calls are familiar.
bodawei
March 20, 2010, 04:17 PMWhat sets us apart - apart from distance (we are a long way from civilization as most poddies know it)?
1. Ethnic minorities - while we are heartily sick of hearing about our ethnic minorities (just kidding guys, really), today I heard a report from someone who visited a festival celebrated last week by a sub-set of the Yi minority. The men paint their bodies and dance naked. Undoubtedly there was a lot of alcohol drunk. Well that was written in the hope of defining some of our differences but now I have re-read it I guess there are some similarities in behaviour with some of us in the West?
What else -
2. I'm thinking that our capital city Kunming may be the 'Adelaide' of China (other Aussies may care to elaborate). A man was arrested here last weekend; it is alleged that he murdered two children, then removed and ate their brains, following the guidelines for a traditional cure for epilepsy. [This may lend support to the widespread belief that we are sadly backward in our thinking, not to mention primitive in our habits.] On a more positive note, Kunming's most famous sons would be Zheng He (the 15th century admiral who toured the world) and Nie' Er who composed China's national anthem (he didn't write the somewhat bloodthirsty lyrics) and died tragically by drowning at the age of 23.
However, ...
3. Yunnan also has some of the oldest links in China with Europe and European culture. (Maybe this explains some of the bizarre behaviour in #2 above?) There have been numerous Western incursions of the religious kind (there are still communities in remote areas that adhere to some form of Christianity), and the French brought railways and wine-making here eons ago. Dali has one of the oldest associations in China with European tourists, and is notable for having the only legal gay bar in the country. While on food (briefly), we are also keener on dairy products than most of the rest of China. For example, we have a famous goats cheese, 乳饼 rǔbǐng; fans would taste this delicacy at least once a week. We also have a local ham 火腿 huǒtuǐ and the most extensive supply of edible mushrooms in China (about 500 varieties).
4. Language differences - yes. But most Yunnanese kindly speak 普通话 pūtōnghuà (Standard Chinese) to 洋人 yángrén (foreigners), or at worst a mixture of普通话 and 方言 fāngyán (dialect). Many people in the city switch easily between the two.
5. For those interested in the natural world, we are told that Yunnan has the richest ecosystems in the whole of China.
6. Tourist attractions - all of the above. And yes, we are a big tourist attraction. After Beijing, I believe our attractions drag in more visitors than most places in Mainland China, at least for native Chinese. The main tourist route is Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangerila, and Xishuangbana. Increasingly though people go the rice terraces in south Yunnan and explore the various minority communities (all around Yunnan.)
[More information to follow.] Or if you want to explore on your own, visit the Go Kunming website for a start.