Tomb Sweeping Festival: Climbing in Dali, Yunnan Province

Every year during the first week of April many Chinese people celebrate Tomb Sweeping Festival (清明节). Yes, the nationally observed holiday is as literal as it's title. Families clean their ancestors' graves and present offerings such as food and joss money. The significance of the holiday, I fear too simply, is to venerate and remember their ancestors. Anybody who has spent time around Chinese people in China will know that family is everything to them. This unreciprocal dedication of children-to-parents is contributed to Confucius's 2000 year old pillar of filial piety. There is an ancient story to exemplify this maxim. 

Shun (舜) is credited as one of the first three founders of China's first dynasty, Xia (2100BC-1600BC), and is regarded by the Confucians for his supreme virtue and humanity. One day Shun's father commits a crime. Shun faces a moral and civil dilemma: turn is father over to the government or say silent. Law or family. Shun puts his father on his back and runs away. This 4000 year old story still rings true in China today. I hope this example increases the significance of Tomb Sweeping Festival for the reader. 

Since the festival is observed by the Chinese government we PCVs had a nice little holiday.

With four days total Libby, Gabby (site mate), and I decided to go climbing in Dali, Yunnan Province. Yunnan is located in the SW corner of China (see map) and the weather is almost never unpleasant. Sunshine, cool breezes, lush, and mountainous. There is a good reason Yunnan is one of China's most popular tourist regions. For the past five years, members of ClimbDali have been working on making the city China's second most popular climbing destination by bolting over a hundred sport routes and putting up dozens of bouldering problems. Even though we never ended up meeting the climbing developers, I have to say they have done an excellent job.

With only four days to climb all of our scheduling had to be airtight and movements swift. After teaching two morning classes my site mate and I hopped onto a 4 hour bus from Wanzhou to Chongqing proper. An hour on the subway, rendezvoused with Libby, and then an 1.5 hour plane to Lijiang, Yunnan. Spent the night in Lijiang. From Lijiang we took a 1.5 hour train to Dali. Car to Shuanglang town on the NE end of Erhai Lake. Dropped our bags at a Rongyi hostel and headed immediately out to Shuanglang Softcore crag. After dodging through small alleyways filled with leathery faced old people, smoking pipes and cigarettes, their hands stained with the colors of decades of rural labor and red earth, shoeless children with dirty faces, we made it to the path that led the crags. 

Crag One: Shuanglang Softcore

 The walk to Shuanglang Softcore looks more like Mexico than China

It started raining pretty hard on our way to the crag. Hiking up wet rock on a precipice is never fun

 A top section of wall protrudes just enough to protect the lower section from the rain. So we climbed

Then the rain cleared. Gabby leading 'River of Poo' (5.10d)

Me chillin on 'River of Poo.' I am sitting at the crux. Inside those black cavities there are a bunch of small animal bones. After two separate days of attempts we never ended up getting to the end of the river. I believe 5.10d is our difficulty ceiling

 Gabby leading 'If you Bolt it, they will come' (5.9+). This route is said to be the most interesting at the Shuanglang crags and of the many routes we climbed it proved so. Great route!!

 Libby cleaning 'Table Score' (5.7) I crushed on lead ;)

 Yep, Erhai Lake（洱海）. We learned that the 'Er' in Erhai is the same 'er' in Pu'er tea（普洱茶）. We think the 'Er' symbolizes this region of Yunnan.

 Sunsets over Erhai make all the traveling worthwhile

 -Days Two and Three at Softcore

The day of Tomb Sweeping Festival. Based on the emotions coming from the cemetery, Tomb Sweeping Festival is not sad, but one that encourages joyous celebration. 

 Peasants observing from the hills

White and orange. Sky, plants, and wind 

Libby on 'Cactus Pants' (5.8) 

Gabby on 'Cactus Pants'

Back on 'If you Bolt them, they will come' 

 Homunculus Cloud ;)

Erhai Lake  

 Me leading 'Stairmaster' (5.9)

Cacti everywhere. I accidentally kicked one and spent five minutes pulling spines out of the top of my foot

These dried flowers are hard and toll like small bells with staccato in the wind 

 It got so hot by day three that we had to shade our provisions 

 My 'Princess Mononoke antlers'

A great sight to see us off 

 Crag Two: Shimenguan (石门关)

 Shimenguan is about an hour drive outside of Dali. Although peasants still live inside Shimenguan, it is a protected national park of China. Shimenguan is marked by its massive gorge, massive boulders, priceless walnut trees, and serene river. 

 This water comes directly from the gorge mountains. There is no pollution in the area, no farming or human habitation up river from here. You can swim in this pool and the locals say the water is safe to drink. 

Climbing is not allowed in the gorge on the right. The crags that have been developed are on the left. With the bludgeoning heat, heavy gear, loose footing, overgrown thorny path, and the large amounts of pollen and burs this may have been the roughest yet shortest hike I have made in China. Bushwhacking. 

Libby leading 'BB Kuen Kuen Chu' (5.8)

 Me hanging out in the only available shade at the crag

 It was so hot we had to stop climbing. In case you were wondering, rocker-hands are in in China. 

 The water was to cold to swim in, so...

This was the first time I had the chance to experiment with small rapids and shutter speed. If I had a tripod these pictures would have been much better. I think these are the best of the lot. 

 A man naps in the gorge. 

For our trip only being four days long it was an excellent one. I am really happy that we decided to go. This was my second time in Dali and even though my time in China is limited I would go again, climbing or not. 

In a word. Living in a Chinese city is rough in its own way. The poor environment leaves people jaded. For, I think it is vital that one travels out to places like Yunnan to remind them of the great serenity that China still has to offer. Traveling to the big cities, the industrial monsters will only reinforce the notions, impressions, feelings, and inferences that cause people to despise China. If you plan on traveling in China I ask you to please skip the big cities. Do hard research and see the small things in the rural areas, you will be surprised what they have to offer. The places in the middle of nowhere are difficult to get out to but always worth it. Remember, traveling is about the process: what is in between point A and wherever point B may be. 

Libby opening a melon with the back end of a pen a the airport :) Love the Peace Corps

Hiking Club To Peace Mountain

Every Peace Corps Volunteer is required to have a primary project and a secondary project. Globally, Peace Corps primary projects fall in the fields of Agriculture, Youth in Development, Community Economic Development, Environment, Health, and Education. All primary projects for PC China volunteers are centered around English teaching. This semester at Three Gorges Vocational College, I teach Oral English to Tourism, Logistics, Management, Hotel Management, and Gardening majors. Last semester I taught Animal Medicine, Animal Feed, and Aquatic Products majors. Other than my Tourism students, who can really benefit from English and do, there is little practical reason for most of my students to learn English.

Almost all of my students are from rural Sichuan Province and rural Chongqing Province, and a handful are from Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. Some students will move to a city for work, but many will return to the countryside after graduation.

These circumstances do not determine an end and my project is certainly not a vain endeavor. There are still many students who love to learn English and even more who are eager to learn about western culture. But for those who are not interested in either, I attempted to find an alternative. For my first secondary project (hopefully there will be a second), I started a hiking club. Secondary projects have few boundaries. They are left to the volunteers discretion and imagination. All secondary projects strive for sustainability.

I wanted to create an environment where students were not so distracted by the formalities that come with speaking/practicing a language, to make speaking more casual. One major thing that mentally bars students from speaking English is the fear of judgement from their peers and failure in front of their peers, resulting in low speaking confidence. In class, some students, literally will not speak because they are so terrified. I thought that on a mountain hike one would be too busy worrying about falling down and breathing to care about whether or not one's pronunciation is sound enough for his or her peers. I figured at this point English speaking would become more casual.

During my first semester I took a poll and was surprised to find that nearly fifty percent of my students liked hiking and considered it a hobby. But when I asked them what they did on the weekend they would say, "Sleeping. Ummmmm. . . watch TV." There are mountains in our school's backyard and many of my students had never thought to explore them. I took another poll and found that about eighty percent were very interested in a hiking club. Two weeks into the second semester on a cool Saturday afternoon we convened.  Thirty five students (hopefully less next time) showed up and we left for Peace Mountain.

 Hiking Club meets biweekly. We try our best to stay out of farming fields, but sometimes you have to cut through. 

 Although the club is simple to manage it is time consuming because you have to do the scouting yourself, at least until it is sustainable and the students can run it. 

 Safety is our highest priority. I brought a small medical kit. All students should have water even if they don't want to bring it or think they don't need it. 

 Environmental education is another goal. Many students litter. After warning them about littering I did not see one littered water bottle on our hike. In the future I will apply for funding to get guest speakers lecture on the subject. 

 Sunday and I at the summit of Peace Mountain

 English-Chinese exchange

 As you can see it got a little crowded at the summit. The hike cap is twenty students. We made an exception this meeting. 

The first week of Hiking Club was a huge success. We had an overwhelming turnout. To my knowledge there was no littering. Exercise. The exhilaration of exploration. Something new.  Most importantly, in the three hours we spent hiking - I have never heard more English being spoken by Chinese people in my life. 

A special thanks to Gabby, Maivy, and Marisa for helping me guide the first hike.

A bit of conversation from the hike:
Gabby: "You must be careful when you are hiking."
Girl Student: "Teacher, I am from countryside. . ."

For those interested in starting their own club. We created a QQ group for the club. There around 200 registered members. Students from all majors included. The QQ group is the best way to distribute mass info. One heroic student runs the QQ group. And, as you can see speaking English is not a requirement or a goal. I believe this makes the students more comfortable.  This was the first mass message to all the members:

The Hiking Club has three goals. 1. To create new friendships on campus 2. To teach students new ways to protect the environment 3. To manifest the spirit of adventure. But first we must be safe. So we have decided that only 20 students can come hiking each week. Students will be chosen randomly. Ten boys and ten girls will chosen each week. Hiking Club will be held every two weeks.Rules: 1. No littering. If you litter you cannot go on a hike again. 2. Be safe. No pushing or fighting on the trail. 3. Listen to the teachers.

远足俱乐部三大宗旨：1、增进同学情谊2、推广环保实践3、挑战冒险精神。   考虑到安全因素，每次活动限20名同学参加,人员随机选择，男女各10人。远足活动间周举行一次。              注意事项:1、严禁乱扔垃圾。如有违反将取消参加活动的资格。2、安全第一。禁止在路上推搡打闹。3、一切听从老师安排。