GuiZhou Trip

Page 1

GuiZhou [Precious-Province

] Trip (Aug. 2002)

Quite contrary to her name, GuiZhou is the poorest province of China. I know very little about her before this trip. And if grandpa is not building schools there, I wouldn't think of going there.

Grandpa is not the kind of grandpa kids would love. I am not exaggerating. I don't remember talking to him for over 10 minutes, ever. I know very little about him before this trip.

In July, while visiting grandma at her resting place, grandpa suddenly asked us (kids and grandkids) if we want to go to GuiZhou with him to see his schools. I sensed that it was an invitation for gettingto know each other again. I raised my foot and said YES! I saw 6 other feet in the air - 3 from 3 uncles, 1 form mum and 1 from dad. The 6th is my other foot.

Time Table (Aug - Sep, 2002)

	* currency in US$ unless specified
27 Aug	Hong Kong > ShenZhen > GuiYang Flying into GuiYang, the capital of GuiZhou	28	GuiYang Checking out GuiYang ,,,
29	To SE GuiZhou Go see schools grandpa helped build	30	To JanYuen Nice scenery and more schools
31	Back to GuiYang	1 Sep	HuangGouSu Waterfall the famous tourist spot
2	To DuYuen My solo trip starts!	3	To PingTang County I am in the remote village of China!
4	In PingTang County Another say in the village.	5	LiPou The climax is over?
6	In LiPou Quick tour of the "Little 7 Holes" scenic area.	7	Back in DuYuen The ceremony .. .. and the black out .. ..
8	Another Day in DuYuen An even grande ceremony. What happened to lone backpacker Kam?	9	The ZiJin Cave #1 cave in China. And so long GuiZhou.

Postscript

Travel Plan

I have no idea how much control I have over this trip. If I can, I would spend 7 days with my family before they leave. Then another week traveling GuiZhou by myself.

But I would have never imagined what lies ahead ...

Quick Facts of GuiZhou

Every Chinese province has a one-character abbreviation. GuiZhou's short name is

Qian.

Population 35,000,000, of which 16,000,000 are minority tribes.

Only second to YunNan province in number of minority groups - 48 of China's 55 minority tribes are found in GuiZhou.