China 2008, Part XI: Bai Nationality and Guanyin Xia

After seventeen days, the 29th Olympiad in Beijing has finally come to a close. I haven't yet seen the closing ceremony, but having seen the sheer awesomeness of the opening ceremony, which can be viewed nearly in full on NBCOlympics.com, I am very much looking forward to seeing it once it's broadcasted!

As you can see in the medal count in the sidebar, the United States closed out strong, earning gold in Basketball with the Redeem Team, consisting of stars such as Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Jason Kidd, and LeBron James, as well as in Beach Volleyball and earning several medals in Track and Field, as expected. The U.S. finished their Olympics leading in the overall medal count with 110, beating out China's 100, but trailed China's 51 Gold medals with 36, the same number of gold medals as we got in Athens, largely thanks to mer-man Michael Phelp's record breaking 8 gold medals.

While I have tons to say about this year's incredible Olympics, there are droves of professional journalists out there who are covering them, so I won't dwell much more on the subject. However, for a laugh, I do recommend Rob Riggle's coverage on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which you can view at their website dailyshow.com. Once your there, search the tag "Chasing the Dragon". You won't regret it!

The conclusion of the Olympics allows me to finally change my What I'm Listening To playlist, which has been updated to feature pop from all over Asia, which I though would fit well with the continuation of my China 2008 series!

On Wednesday, after a long bus ride, we arrived near Dali, a city where the Bai nationality has a strong presence. The Bai nationality is characterized by their relatively more Han Chinese culture, when compared with many other minorities in China, but they still have unique culture of their own as well, such building houses with Dali Marble, which would be considered quite a luxury in most other places of the world.

In addition to their marble-clad homes, the Bai people have an interesting marriage tradition. In Bai weddings, it is common for the bride to cry - not because of joy, but rather due to pain. This pain is a result of her bridesmaids and the groomsmen, as well as many of the other wedding guests, to pinch the bride's cheeks! There was a reason for this bizarre practice, but I have to admit that I've since forgotten what that reason was.

After lunch, we headed over to a nearby lake, whose name I no longer recall (I think it had something to do with ears, though!), for a boat trip. Each boat was pushed by a boatsman (or in our case, a boatswoman), but we were also equipped with oars, so when we weren't looking at the traditional homes with no electricity or running water along and within the lake, we raced other tourists from our tour group!

Tired from rowing, our group next rode over to Guanyin Xia, or Guanyin Valley, a very scenic spot that pays tribute to the Bodhisattva Guan Yin. Guanyin Valley, besides being a beautiful sightseeing spot, is inhabited by another minority that uses one of the world's only heiroglyphic languages today.

Heiroglyphics or not, the main draw for me at Guanyin Xia was the hiking trail, which started after a short train ride through a tunnel. The hike was actually quite strenuous, though it was nothing the likes of Cherrie and I couldn't handle, after having climbed several sections of the Great Wall and up and down mountains like Huang Shan and Hua Shan several years back. But what was impressive was my 85-year-old grandfather, who's eyesight has sharply deteriorated over the last several years, was able to make the climb as well, though not nearly as quickly as he used to. I remember as recently as 2004 that he used to kick all of our butts when hiking! Still, that he was able to make this climb without any assistance was something that impressed more than a few of our fellow tourists!

Come back next week for the next installment of the China 2008 series!