While we were in the Huang Shan area, we were taken to a small village where a group of people called the Wa live. They are pretty much China's version of Native American Indians but China never tried to kill them all off!
The place is designed to look like what one of there villages looked like in the past. Some of the Wa people live here full time however.
Several differnt masks are located along the paths.
The Wa put on shows, sing, spit fire, and dance to show there culture. They are very dark in color and speak a dialect that is somewhat Chinese, somewhat Laos. They are originally from the Laos/China border with Vietnam in between. There were also a couple of women in there group who spoke to me. Now every Chinese person that I have met who has spoken to me has said "Hello" or "Bye Bye." These two girls first words were "I love You" and " I love you, too!" This might explain why so many American soldiers came back from Vietnam and Laos with wife's!! :P
I can't get a good translation of the saying above. It says something about the culture of the place.
One of the top three things I wanted to do while here in China was see, and possibly touch, pandas! Well, I didn't get to touch them but I did get to be damn close to them. Through Andi's father's "connections," we were taken to an animal zoo/refugee. Here we were able to see panda's along with other animals, some of which had found new homes here after being injured from people, earthquakes, etc. Chinese zoo's are much different then American zoo's in the fact that we keep people reasonably far away from the animals. Most of the animals here I could reach out and touch if I wanted to, including a tiger!
The zoo had three pandas in it; two females and one male. We saw one of the females first who was awake but didn't want to get out of bed yet! She was quite content to just lie there and stare at us!
However the boy was quite active! He was very interested in all of us and gave quite a performance.
"I want to see my lawyer!! I know my rights!"
"Hey you. Yeah, you! I want my phone call!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it."
"Let me out of here!!!"
Panda Ball!!
The second girl was passed out and didn't give a shit about us or getting up! I love how her legs are sprawled out in the photo above! All three of the pandas have their own houses which are connected but they rarely see each other. They like to have there own habitat and only will visit with each other when it is colder out. Since pandas are sacred here in China, they get the best accommodations. All three cages we went into were air conditioned.
Next door to the panda's were their cousins the red pandas. These guys are similar to cats in size and the way they behave. The little guy above was passed out high up in a tree when we found him.
Not the best photo but I love the rings in his tail.
It was fucking hot out that day!!
"Muddy" the crocodile.
As most of you know, in American zoo's you would at least be 20 feet away from tigers and that there is usually a small body of water preventing the tiger from getting close to you. Not in China! This big boy I could have reached out and touched if I really tried. He was absolutely beautiful and damn strong!
I felt kinda bad for him because he had two cages to roam around in roughly 20 x 20 feet. In America, we give them there own little world to roam around in.
I was trying to get a better video but my camera decided right then to act up. In the video you can hear him give small roars at certain points. They were hosing down his cage and he wasn't happy about getting wet. We were told that about a year ago a guy was cleaning his cages and didn't lock the first one properly. He got into the cage where where the guy was cleaning, ripped off both arms and had a little snack before they could intervene. The man didn't live, needless to say. Lesson learned: don't turn you back on nature!!
Not sure what kinda of cat this was. She was much smaller.
Monkeys again!! When these guys saw us, they immediately put there arms through the gate and demanded food! Once again, I could have easily reached out and touched them. They tell you not to feed the animals but that doesn't stop anyone from giving them bags of chips and cookies. About a week ago here in China the government decided to have a free ticket day to a zoo in another province. They did this because the price of the tickets are so expensive(along with everything else here!), they were trying to get more people interested. Well, they defiantly were as over 10,000 people showed up at the zoo. However, with so many people there in one day giving the animals food that now most of the animals are sick and one monkey died. The zoo has been closed temporarily to give the animals a chance to recuperate. Smart move government officials!!!
Notice the baby in between both of them in the top two photos.
He was sooooo cute! And yes, the bag floating in the water to the right of him was something some people just gave them. Idiots!
The black bears had just been fed some nice cruncy chicken parts!
This bird had been saved and brought here to live. Half of it's top beak is missing. That's it's tough curling up that you see.
When you sign up for tourist groups here in China, at the end of the trip they take you to different places where you can buy things. At each place, you go into a room and listen to them tell you all about their products, then you can buy them if you want. Kinda like being in an infomercial. We were taken to three different spots: one about tea, one about snake medicine, and one about bamboo. The first and the last were kinda boring but the snake medicine was right up my alley!
The use of snakes in medicine has been going on in Chinese culture since 100 A.D. They use it for everything; skin issues, eye problems, bladder problems, cancer, you name it. Using snakes in medicine in the USA has pretty much been eliminated due to restrictions by the FDA and some endangered species. Most likely you'll only find it by a doctor in Chinatown.
Ever seen a snakes penis??? Well, now you have!
There are many different preparations of snake medicine from pills to balms to alcohol. The snakes are placed in alcohol to preserve them and let them slowly be infused. From left to right: just snake alcohol, wild mushrooms and snake penis(used for hair loss, insomnia, and erectile dysfunction), snake venom(used to kill other poisons in your body) and the last two were just different snakes in alcohol. I tried the one with the snake poison in it. It was cool at first, then I could feel the warmth in my throat and chest. Pretty cool stuff!
Most people come and stay on the top of the mountain so they can get up early in the morning and see the sunrise. They say it's a "must" when you come here. Andi and I considered it but we were to tired to get up that early after the huge hike the day before. Luckily, we spoke to some of the people in our group who did get up early and they saw nothing but clouds. Lucky us!
The start of the long hike down!
However, even going down out of the mountain, we had to go back up at times. Some areas are super steep. On a side note, it was amazing to see how many older people were hiking up and down. I saw people in there 70's and 80's climbing right along with us. Here in China, older people are very active and love to exercise. Could be the secret to why they live longer then us. That and they eat a shitload of vegetables!
I love this photo.
These seven pictures above are just some of the scenes you see as you hike along the mountain. Clouds come and go, sun peaks out here and there. It's amazing to see how some of the rocks have formed over thousands of years.
The tree here is quite famous on the mountain, it's called "Welcoming Pine." It's not the best photo because I had to climb over many Chinese heads to get it. :p Some of the pine trees on the mountain are estimated to be over 1000 years old. Also, the climate of the mountain makes the area great for growing tea leaves. It has become one of the premier tea growing areas in China.
There is also a bridge along the trail that is famous for all the locks people put on it. People come here with locks that have been engraved with there names on them and put them on the bridge. This symbolizes that your hearts will be connected forever.
Some of the rocks have formed into shapes that look like animals. Here is one that looks like a fish in the middle and the head and body of a turtle to the left.
This one here looks like an elephant. Notice the people climbing near the trunk.
These two photo's show a monkey sitting on a cliff looking out at the mountain. None of these are man-made, all have formed over the years.
Speaking of monkey's, our tour guide warned us that we might see monkey's on the mountain and not to approch them or feed them. I came across this sign that I thought was cute. Of course, it's in Engrish(bad chinese english) but it's kinda funny. We didn't see any monkey's the entire time until....
....the last 10 minutes we were on the mountain we stumbled upon a family of them!! This little guy was eating out of a can someone had left lying around.
This baby monkey was so cute but I couldn't get a very good photo of him. He wanted to hide from us. The monkey's didn't stick around for long however. More and more people kept showing up, kids screaming and yelling, people clapping there hands trying to the monkey's attention. Eventually, the monkey's said "enough with this shit" and ran off.
