This past weekend, we went on a trip to Gannan and Linxia. This was part of our cultural experiences because we had previously had a lecture about minorities – now it was time to go and see how these minorities lived. The good thing about traveling with the Gansu foreign affairs office is that we don’t have to pay for absolutely nothing.
We traveled by bus and first arrived in Linxia. Linxia is a Muslim minority city with about one mosque every 10 feet, no joke. Our first stop was the main mosque (mosque cathedral, if you will) and the girls were rather disturbed when they weren’t allowed to enter the mosque. All the men took their shoes off and entered the mosque, interesting experience for I had never been inside a mosque before. There was really nothing to interesting on the inside, but the outside structure was spectacular. Then, it was lunchtime with the mayor and other important government peeps. They took us to a hotel where we had a feast. Started off with a steak and broccoli and boy was I happy to see a knife and fork (there is really no proper way to eat steak with chop sticks). At first, I was a little confused as to why the Chinese man next to me was waiting for me to start eating and watching me so closely. Soon enough, I found out that he actually was waiting to see how I was eating my food with a fork and a knife so that we could do the same (oh, the tables have turned sucka). This activity of mimicking my eating style happened throughout the whole meal. At one point I really wanted to do something ridiculous to see if he would follow, but we were at a formal lunch, so I had to behave.
After lunch, we toured a few houses (rich man’s house first and then the ‘average’ man’s house.), visiting the library (I tried to figure out their cataloging system – I think it was some form of the Library of Congress cataloging cause they used letters at the beginning.), ate some old pears (kinda gross, but you must accept everything they offer and eat it too), and then we were off to Gannan. Gannan is a village where there is a huge monastery and home to a Tibetan minority group. At dinner, we had some wonderful Tibetan performances with a mix of traditional songs and dances. After we had some bai jiu, wine, beer, and tea the real party began. The delegates started performing songs as well and we danced the night away Tibetan style. I don’t know what it is, but when it comes to singing, dancing, or making a full of one’s self I always seem to get nominated by the group. Maybe it’s because I have no shame to look like a fool in front of strangers…
The next day we toured the monastery. We learned all about Buddhism, smelled the wonderful smells of yak butter sculptures and yak fat candles. Heard some monks pray, visited an “art museum” (all with art painted by a Tibetan monk – one piece was worth 2 million Yuan), and over all took in the country life. The village we were in reminded me so much of the Mexican pueblo my uncle is from. It was like we had traveled back to the past because there were donkey hitched wagons, wells, and free roaming sheep, goats, pigs, and cows. Overall, it was really interesting to get to see how fast China is developing, but at the same time see how much work needs to be done on the countryside.
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