A botanist born in Austria known as Joseph Rock lived in Yunnan province for 27 years from 1922 to 1949. He wrote many articles and books, including the book known as “The Ancient Nakhi Kingdom of SouthWest China”. With the spread of these books, Rock introduced the customs, ceremonies, and unique pictographic script of the Naxi to the entire world, thus improving the popularity of Yunnan.
Just like last summer, I participated in another Chinese Root-seeking camp. This time I traveled to the beautiful city of Lijiang of the Yunnan province of China. The summer camp consisted of 47 campers from 11 different states of the US, along with five chaperones. The camp lasted 12 days, starting from July 21st, 2017.
The camp officially started with the opening ceremony, where the organizers of the camp made a few speeches along with my father (lead chaperone). The events that followed included a tour of a nearby Ancient City (古城) and four engaging days of intriguing classes full of information. Besides the classes that were similar to the last year’s Jingdezheng camp (calligraphy, tea-making, clay sculpting, etc.), there was still quite a variety of innovative classes.
While there were Taichi classes in the Jingdezheng camp, we had a single KungFu class in this camp. We learned a form known as Wing Chun Boxing (咏春拳), the form that Bruce Lee studied. From another class, we were informed that China has a total of 56 nationalities; Yunnan itself has 25 of these. Of the 25, one of the most well-known is the Naxi minority. Being quite famous, we were taught a traditional Naxi song, dance routine, and the traditional Naxi Dongba Hieroglyphs. Dongba hieroglyphs are the only hieroglyphs still used today in the world, and has also been included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program (therefore becoming a world heritage site).
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| Dongba Hieroglyphs Class (I am to the right) |
Closely following the four days of classes, we had four days of venturing outside to go sight-seeing! From the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (a mountain that has not been summited by anyone due to the loose rocks) with an elevation of 5596 meters, everyone was given an oxygen tank beforehand to deal with altitude sickness. To avoid campers having severe symptoms of altitude sickness, we only went up to an altitude of 3284 meters above sea level. At the foothills of the mountain lay the Blue Moon Valley along with a series of lakes that change color in relativity to the weather and temperature/climate conditions. When we viewed the lakes, they were a tint of aquamarine.
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| The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain |
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| A panorama of the along with the Blue Moon Valley |
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| Me in front of the Ten-Thousand-Year Camellia |
Aside from all of the historical sites, we visited the first bend of the Yangtze River. Here, three rivers merge into one, the Yangtze River (长江), the Lanchang/Lantsang River (澜沧江), and the Nu/Angry River (怒江). This bend also keeps the Yangtze River within China’s Borders, thus making it the mother river of China. Just like the rivers within the Blue Moon Valley, the waters of the Yangtze River change color as the seasons change. In the spring and the summer, it turns into a hue of yellow due to the sand and mud that falls from the mountains. In the autumn and winter, the water becomes a clear shade of teal green.
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| At the first bend of the Yangtze River (I am the first one on the left of the stone) The words on the stone says "The first bend of the Yangtze River" |
Although some parts of this camp overlapped with the information gathered from the Jingdezhen camp, the entire trip felt like a brand new experience. I learned a significant amount of the traditions, cultures, and history of China and especially Lijiang.
