30 March 2007
The long hike from Ping’An to Di zhai Guest House
With little more than a spare T-shirt, their
waterproofs, lunch and water, the packs felt light as
we climbed steeply from the village to a viewpoint 500
m above the guest house. The view was spectacular –
mountains, endless rice terraces and small villages
half hidden by folds in the hills. I thought it would
make a great location for a film like the Lord of the
Rings.
Thousands of bangers (long strings of Chinese
firecrackers) were being let off in one of the
villages. Depending on which way the wind blew, the
tiny explosions sounded like heavy rainfall on a tin
roof or a spaghetti western shoot-out on an old
televisions set. On the other side of the mountain
there was a slowly moving procession of villagers all
dressed in white. They were carrying a man to his
burial site. Last night, we had watched a stone mason
carving lettering on his tombstone.
The hillsides are dotted with elegant graves, each a
stone tablet carved with many Chinese characters, held
vertically in a carved footstone and caped with a
protecting lion. These final resting places have been
chosen with great care, enjoying superb views over
the rice fields and mountains. Many of the headstones
had been gruesomely smeared with a dismembered
chicken, bloodied feathers, torn flesh and shattered
bones inside a blood stained circle. Twice a year the
villagers feed their ancestors in this way.
A group of local Yao minority women followed us until
lunch. The Yao are famous for their long hair. They
cut it only once in their lifetime, when they are 18
years old. From then on they let it grow, washing it
every three days in a shampoo made from rice water.
They wind their enormously long hair into a gently
twisted pony tale that starts at the forehead, before
tying it in a natural turban. Five of the ladies
unwound their hair for us to see; it reached their
shins. A lady from Ping’An, we were told, holds the
world record for the longest hair.
By mid-afternoon, the light packs were feeling heavy
but the kids managed to get to the guesthouse ahead of
schedule nevertheless.
In the evening Xiao Si put the students into four
groups and gave them an hour to prepare skits. There
was much laughter at the camp humor that followed.
