yunnan...the ceiling of the world

if tibet is the roof of the world, then its neighboring province yunnan may be the ceiling of the world. not quite the top, but i prefer to think of it as pretty close. i ventured to yunnan with a chinese tour group of ~50, and subsequently spent too much time on a bus with earplugs wedged into my auditory canals to obscure the obscenely loud microphone into which the tour guide seemed to be screaming, and too little time exploring the natural surroundings of the tibetan plateau's 'foothills' (?). for an independent-minded traveler, this could have been a truly miserable experience...and parts of it did indeed skirt the edge of insanity (countless visits to 'companies' producing tea, jade jewelry, traditional herbs, silver jewelry and utensils, coffee, dried flowers, and cosmetics - all in order to supplement the tour guides' incomes - they receive a cut from the companies' profits for bringing visitors and buyers in), perhaps the piece de la my insurmountable resistance being a droning singer attempting to reproduce 'my heart will go on' in (?) english. my least favorite tune on earth while trapped on a bus. so. my humor has thankfully returned after arriving back in humid changsha early this morning (1 am) after spending a pleasant day in kunming, or spring city, which offers eternally springlike weather complete with beautiful blooming flowers, eucalyptus trees (!!) and FRUIT! pomegranates, figs, ginseng (?), and a slew of produce i didn't recognize but devoured nonetheless. i have resolved to return to yunnan some day, sans tour, so i can adequately explore all the spots that appeal to a nature lover.

one really amazing facet of the tour, however, was the introduction to china's minority populations. the predominant 'ethnicity' of people in china is the han chinese, but there are an additional 56 minority communities calling china 'home'. yunnan province is home to a large concentration of minority peoples: naxi, bai, dai, hui, miao, tibetan, and mosu, to name a few. each has its own unique cultural traditions, and perhaps dialect, and the naxi lay claim to the only hieroglyphic written language still in use on earth. at this point, i will pose a question: if you can wrap your mind around the concept of minorities in china, where all people are considered 'chinese' and thus 'minority' does not infer nationality, race, or ethnicity per se, than what precisely does it mean to be a minority individual in china? from what i can surmise, there is very little in the way of phenotype or appearance of minority peoples, but i swear i can spot perhaps subtle differences in skin tone, facial structure (especially cheek and jaw lines), and eye color. the more obvious differences are in style of dress, head coverings, and methods to carry the adorable munchkins along through the narrow streets and bustling markets. i purchased a DVD of an amazing dance and music performance, a sort of rendition of each minority's traditions, along with some heart-rending music which i can't understand linguistically but feel that my soul has been singing for my entire life.

i am now back in changsha adjusting to the fact that i will be departing in less than 36 hours, flying high over the arctic en route to newark, where i will enjoy a brief rendezvous with my parents (God bless them, the saints, they are driving from VT to NJ to serve as a welcome wagon and pack horses to retrieve some of my luggage before i traipse immediately over the atlantic to turkey for a 2+ week vacation - as if spending the summer in china hasn't been enough...). so, as i pack frantically and contend with the blazing reality of excess baggage, i am also trying to be mindful of my impending separation from colleagues, friends, and a culture which continues to captivate but evade me in equal measure, its dance with the preservation of its heritage and the enormous momentum of an industrial revolution attempting coalescence around every corner.