Nihao :D Miao village Guizhou @Southwestern China

Hiya 안녕 您好 こんにちは ! (Hiya Annyon Nihao Konnichiwa)

Who know's Guizhou? What is Guizhou??

I guess, most of you have never heard of the name, because neither did I !

But, recently I received the chance of going on a small trip to a Guizhou Miao village, which is what my little story will be about today:D

Guizhou is a location in southwestern part of China, where it's provincial capital city is Guiyang. Known as one of China's poorest provinces, since it is mostly constructed as rural area, however it is also identified as one of the eight plant diversity hotspots in China.

> Thus seen, relatively poor and economically in-developed province, but rich in natural, cultural and environmental sources (highest fertility rate in China. ). 

Moreover, Guizhou is demographically one of China's most diverse provinces. Minority groups account for more than 37 percent of the population and they include Miao (designated as autonomous regions for ethnic minorities). Miao is one of the ethnic group recognized by the government (China)  as one of the 55 official minority groups. 

Location: Guizhou Miao village: Into the Southern China's mountains ... 

        -    Weather: Humid but slightly cooler than the city (Shanghai). Terrible when it rains because there is only hiking to get in and out of the village. Harder work too. 

-       Food: Typical Chinese food : staple food will be rice(well fried), vegetables, and maybe some pork. They use a lot of oil and season their food with salt, pepper, and garlic.

＊Self sufficiency (making own rice, going to the mountains to pick vegetables, eggs from own chicken etc.)

-    Belief: They believe that everything in nature has a 'spirt'. They worship their ancestors, taking memorial ceremonies very grand. E.g. If there are disasters, they will invite a wizard to perform ceremonies designed to dive out the devil ghost.

-       Houses: Basic structures, with the use of wood as main body 

-    Clothes: The traditional dresses use many patterns taking themes from life such as flowers, birds, etc.

              Also, they decorate themselves dazzling jewelry for special events such as ceremonies and       parties. Normally, they would dress casually like, t-shirt and some trousers or a simple dress, but never any fancy or very modern.

-    Specialities : The villagers specialize in rice growing, dancing, singing, handicrafts (such as embroidering, weaving, batik*, and jewelry casting) 

*Batik: A special handcraft where you draw a pattern in wax onto a piece of cloth and dye, then melt the wax later. (I tried this out, which was quite simple to do but difficult to make a beautiful pattern like the local people)

-       Transportation: In the mountains where the village places, their is hardly no transportation, thus the only way to travel is by foot. After arriving at Guizhou airport it took 3,4 hours to arrive to the southern mountains, and after we go to the very end, we have no way to go into the mountains but to walk in. It takes 3 to 4 hours to hike into the mountains and into the village, but their is no other way, since no proper roads are constructed. 

-       Life style: Waking up with a rooster early call, or maybe a pig being slaughtered (oinking, crying sound...), and normally, the villagers will all go out into the mountains to their own fields (rice paddies) to work. At night, there are no street lights, thus they come home early and carry around a torch at night when necessary. (Hardly no one is outside because of this)

-     Problems: More and more young people are going out of the inconvenient village to the city for work, leading to less labor for hard work in fields. One day, I was able to help one family's rice paddy to be made. We just did the simple first step task of ploughing the green field but it was a extremely tiring job (many men do this alone !!!)

-    Language: Mandarin (archaic dialect, eastern Guizhou province dialect). Since, I couldn't speak any Mandarin except Nihao(Hello), Sheishei(Thank you) I wasn't able to have any proper conversation, however the funny fact is that we were able to understand and become close to each other just by the sake of caring and trying to understand what each of us is trying to say, 

I just stepped in this small province in Guizhou and guess how many new findings I found !

So different from city life in China (Shanghai) or Seoul etc. and ...

Just amazed of how diverse culture is, and it was a great experience to look at the Miao villages in special !

Staying at a small Miao village for 3 days and 4 nights, I had some little problems such as no toilet and a lot of hiking just to go to a slightly different destination. However, the Miao villagers looked more than happy to stay in this peaceful village even with some difficulties. 

Overall, this precious experience of being part of a totally new culture gave me a wider view of the world ! Staying (actually living) with them is one of the best ways to understand a new culture ! 

Hope you found out something cool that you never knew about Guizhou and the Miao villages too 〜 :D

Visit Guizhou and sure you will be overwhelmed with the beautiful nature environment and its people !

Cool Asia !