Chinese New Year in rural Honghe

I spent five days over the Chinese New Year holiday in Honghe County (红河县) in Honghe Prefecture (红河州), about 190 kilometers (120 miles) due south of Kunming. The name  Honghe means "Red River" and derives from the eponymous river that carves a deep valley right down the middle of the prefecture, eventually draining into Halong Bay in Vietnam.

As always, please visit my flickr website to see the full collection of photos.

If you look at a topographical map, the Red River Valley is a decisive feature in Yunnan province. The river runs through the valley at only 300 meters (1000 feet) above sea level, but the adjacent mountains rise nearly vertically up to 2000 meters (6500 feet). This produces vastly different microclimates, as well as a stilted transportation network and relative historical isolation.

It took six hours for me to reach Honghe County seat by bus, with two transfers (I was traveling on the first day of Chinese New Year, when many regular bus routes are suspended). I spent one night in Honghe County seat, one night in Xiaohe Village (小河村) in a tropical river valley, and two nights in Lubu Village (鲁布村) high on a terraced mountainside. In each of the three places, I stayed with friends. I met them through Sean, my American friends in Kunming. Three guys, Jack (阿飞), Li Wei (李伟), and Mao Xian (毛线). These three guys grew up in three different small villages in Honghe County. They became friends when they were classmates in high school in the County seat. After graduating they moved, as so many bright and adventurous young people do in China, to the big city - Kunming. That's where they met Sean and me. When they invited us to visit their home towns for the holidays, Sean convinced me it would be the opportunity of a lifetime. He was right.

Google Earth screenshot showing the relative locations, and topography, of the places we traveled in Honghe County

I'll go into specific detail about the three places in a minute, but first some overall impressions. I'd traveled in remote, rural areas of China before. I've even been invited into the homes of villagers before. But never before have I had such a close-up experience in such traditional settings. This clearly was the result of knowing people from these villages. As such, we were invited into their homes by their families, into their villages by their neighbors, extended great hospitality, and wined and dined.

Every meal we ate in the four days and night with these friends was a feast - at least sixteen different dishes laid filling every square inch of the table. It wasn't purely out of hospitality towards Sean and me. All across China, people eat better over New Years than at any other time of the year. I'm sure the average meal during the rest of the year is not so large, and does not contain so much meat, as the meals we were treated to.

Lunch at Maozi's house in Honghe County seat

closeup of lunch at Maozi's house

Another essential component of the trip was baiju (白酒), the Chinese national liquor. Distilled from rice, but not tasting anywhere near as good as Japanese sake or Korean soju, baiju is consumed in great quantities by Chinese men throughout the year. I've encountered it in Kunming, taken sips when necessary, and gotten drunk on it twice (both at weddings, when its a social necessity in toasts). To put it bluntly, the stuff is repulsive. At 100 proof, its stronger than any Western liquor, and unlike a nice Scotch or gin, does not sit well on the palate. Add to that the fact that the baijiu consumed in rural places like Honghe is not of marketable quality, but probably rather some form of homemade moonshine. It is carried around in gallon-sized plastic containers resembling petrol containers. It might as well be petrol for all I'm concerned. I discovered that in villages like the ones we were in, it is consumed on almost any occasion. With breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My god, these men must spend most of their lives drunk. Is this the case year round, or just at New Years? This is unclear to me, but judging by the men's jiuliang  (酒量, one's tolerance for alcohol) I'm guessing its consumed in copious quantities year round.

At every meal, every man is given a shot glass filled with the stuff. Throughout the course of the meal, there will be many, many toasts. In China, it is basically unacceptable to take a sip of alcohol without toasting someone (or everyone) at the table. In a traditional setting such as these villages, the toasting follows many formalities. The elder men are addressed by specific titles. A toast is accompanied by both men standing up and extending their glasses with both hands. For the women, beer is an acceptable substitute.

Another inescapable fact of village life, I discovered, was the ubiquity of tobacco. My god, I've never been around so much smoking in my life. And that's saying something, because Chinese throughout China are heavily addicted to tobacco. But that's particular true in villages with not much else to do. And even more so in villages in Honghe, which also happens to be the location, and brand name, of one of the two most famous brands of cigarettes in China (the other being Hongta, which is also located in Yunnan province).

I was used to being offered cigarettes at social occasions in Kunming. When this happens, I always politely turn them down and that's the end of that. But in the villages I quickly discovered that turning down cigarettes is difficult to do. It is customary whenever two men meet to offer a cigarette. When I tried to turn them down, the men simply didn't believe me. The concept of a man who didn't smoke simply did not exist in their minds. As a result, I graciously accepted hundreds of cigarettes over those four days, stuck them in my ear like a pen at first (this is what Chinese men do when they already have a cigarette in their mouth), and then discretely hid them away in my pocket or somewhere else, where I could "gift" them back to my friends later. Cigarettes are so ubiquitous here that the father of one of my friends thought it funny to jokingly offer one to his two year old granddaughter.

Now I'll describe the three different places. First, the County seat. Straddled across a mountaintop, with the Red River Valley plunging down on one side, and a verdant valley and terraced mountains spreading out on the other, Honghe County seat is truly set in a stunning location. If I hadn't researched it on Google Earth before my arrival, however, I might never have known this. In the morning, the Red River Valley is a sea of fog (the Chinese word for this phenomenon, yunhai, or 云海, literally means "cloud sea"). Luckily, by afternoon the fog burns off and the geographical setting reveals itself in its glory. This market town and transportation hub was alive with activity when I was there, with people from surrounding villages coming to town for shopping, many of the women dressed in their traditional ethnic clothing.

view of Honghe County seat

Honghe County seat must have been a pain in the neck to reach in the days before motor vehicles, sitting on top of a mountain as it is. But that must have made it a good defensible trading center. Li Wei explained that the French came here a hundred years ago and that some of the architecture they built is still preserved today. The Japanese encroached upon the region during the war, but never made it as far as Honghe County seat, the locals proudly recount. I had three meals in the County seat. First a simple lunch of grilled tofu pillows and cold rice noodles. For dinner a feast at Jack's friend's Li Qi's house. Li Qi's house is on the edge of the city and overlooks the stunning valley to the south. The dining table is set up on the large balcony overlooking the valley. Several of Jack and Li Qi's classmates joined us for dinner, including one who works in Hekou, on the Vietnamese border, as a drug enforcement cop. The next morning, Li Wei, Sean and his girlfriend arrived (they were coming from his girlfriend's home town and had been delayed the previous day by New Years transportation cancellations). We had lunch at another classmate's house, Maozi (his name means "Hat"). Another feast.

That afternoon, Jack chartered a minivan to drive us down the mountain and down the Red River Valley 15 or so kilometers on the newly paved highway. Where the dirt road to Jack's village split off from the highway, the minivan driver had us get out. A friend from Jack's village drove out in a pickup truck to meet us and drive us the rest of the way on the very bumpy dirty road. I'm not sure why we didn't just walk the 5 or so kilometers. I think walking would have been almost as fast as driving on that road.

Jack's village Xiaohe is in a tropical valley, around 300 meters in elevation. Jack is of the Dai ethnicity (傣族). It was explained to us that the distribution of ethnicities in Honghe County is very closely tied to the physical geography. The Dai people always live near water, at low elevations, in tropical climates. The Hani people (哈尼族), with whom we would stay next, on the other hand, live on mountains. Jack's village is surrounded by banana plantations and sugar cane plantations. They also have mango trees and lychee tress. Those ripen in summer. This was sugar cane season. We all enjoyed chewing on freshly cut sugar cane for the next day. Jack's village has maybe 20 households. Each in a mud brick compound. Inside the furniture was mostly made of wood. The mud brick structures provide pretty good insulation - cool in hot weather and warm in cold. During our visit in February it was warm during the day, and cool at night. We met Jack's whole family and had another feast that night. That was the one and only night I drank baijiu, and I got very drunk (as did everyone else). After that I decided I would drink beer.

Dinner at Jack's house in Xiaohe Village

Banana and sugarcane plantations around Xiaohe Village

Our next destination was Mao Xian's village Lubu. Lubu is only about 16 kilometers away from Xiaohe as the crow flies, but to travel between the two villages by road takes more like 35 kilometers and 4 hours of travel time (!). Jack's original idea was to travel by road. But Sean and I convinced him otherwise. We would hike it instead. Jack warned us that it was quite a hike, with a lot of climbing. We said great! It would take us 6 hours (with numerous stops) to hike those 16 kilometers. I guessed we climbed about 1000 meters in elevation. Later, on Google Earth, I calculated that the actual elevation gain was even greater - about 1300 meters (4000 feet). Although Jack grew up in Xiaohe and was friends with Mao Xian, he had never hiked the trail between their two villages before. He didn't even know the route. So Jack's mother walked with us the first two hours, showing us the way. Then Mao Xian met us about half way and showed us the route to his village (If this had been the United States, we probably wouldn't have gotten cell phone reception. But I have yet to be anywhere in China where my cell phone didn't work).

Google Earth screenshot showing the route we hiked from Xiaohe Village to Lubu Village

The first hour of hiking was easy enough, following the dirt road up the gently sloping valley amidst banana and sugarcane fields. Then the road ended and the trail began. It didn't seem to be a very heavily used trail because the plants were heavily overgrown in many parts. At one point, Jack's mother (a Dai lady dressed in traditional garb) lost the way and had to call her friend for directions). Eventually, she led us to a bridge where the trail would then begin a steep ascent up the mountain, and bid us farewell. This was the dividing line between the two ethnicities: the valley-dwelling Dai, and the mountain-dwelling Hani. From here on, it would be a lot of steep climbing amidst endless terraced fields.

The trails through the terraces were incredibly steep, and muddy in many places. Winter is the low season, when the fields lay fallow, so there was little activity as we passed through. About halfway up the mountain Mao Xian met us and guided us the rest of the way to his village.

On the hike from Xiaohe to Lubu

On the hike from Xiaohe to Lubu, we didn't encounter many people. But we did encounter cows.

From left to right: Me, Mao Xian's cousin, Mao Xian, and Li Wei

Honghe County is adjacent to Yuanyang County (元阳县), which is a tourist destination famous for its terraces. Honghe is similar geographically to Yuanyang, but its terraces are not quite as impressive or famous. There's virtually no tourism in Honghe. In Yuanyang, you have to buy a ticket to see the terraces. Not in Honghe. Finally, when we were all exhausted, we reached the village of Lubu. Quite a bit bigger than Xiaohe, Lubu had maybe 100 households and several hundred residents. It was especially lively at this time of year with Chinese New Year going on.

terraces around Lubu village

Lubu was in a stunning setting on the side of a mountain, overlooking a vast valley, with more mountains and distant villages on the opposite side. Everywhere as far as the eye could see were terraced fields. 

We would spend the next two nights in Lubu Village, and interact with hundreds of curious villagers, especially the kids. At night there was folk dancing on the basketball court. During the daytime there was basketball. Every time Sean and I went out in the village we attracted the stares, smiles, and shouts of surprised villagers and curious children. Mao Xian told us that we were the first foreigners ever to visit Lubu Village. I found this slightly hard to believe, since the French were in the County seat just a few dozen kilometers away over 100 years ago. Surely a few French explorers had passed through here at some point, hadn't they? But in any case, it's safe to say that Lubu doesn't get many foreigners, and for many of these kids it's very possible that we were indeed the first foreigners they had ever seen. They reacted differently. Some were shy, but most were very outgoing and inquisitive, asking us lots of questions, and inviting us to dance and play basketball with them.

Dinner in Mao Xian's house

Sean and me with members of Mao Xian's family in Lubu Village

Hani ethnic folk dancing in Lubu Village

The first night in Lubu there was a spectacular fireworks show. It lasted nearly half and hour and must have cost a fortune. I was amazed that such a tiny remote village could afford such a fireworks display. Mao Xian explained that the villages in this area competed with each other to see who could put on the most impressive fireworks show (gaining face). Two other nearby villages also had their own fireworks, and we could see all three at the same time. The fireworks were all purchased by individual villagers, most likely the richest people in the village.

We would meet many of Mao Xian's family members. All the women wore traditional ethnic clothing. All the houses had electricity, and television sets. But the plumbing infrastructure was not quite so developed. Most houses had at least cold running water. But hot water had to be heated in kettles. Showering was not an option, and we were all pretty grubby by the end of the four days. Most houses had no toilets. There were two public restrooms in the village - concrete structures with holes to squat over. The toilets did, however, enjoy stunning views.

The people in the villages where we stayed did not speak very standard Mandarin Chinese. When they spoke amongst themselves they spoke in their local ethnic languages, which are completely different from any form of Chinese. Sean's girlfriend is also Hani ethnicity, but from a different county. Her Hani language is completely unintelligible from the Hani language spoken in Honghe. When the locals spoke with us they spoke in their dialect form of Chinese, which is very heavily accented and slightly difficult for me to understand (Sean's better at the dialect than me, having practiced extensively with his Kunming friends).

After two days in Lubu, we headed out in the morning on the way back to the County seat. Another "cloud sea" had settled in the valley below, and offered stunning views. Lubu has one road connecting it to the outside world, but its a very rough road, and slower than hiking, so we hiked down the mountain to the valley below, and then up the mountain on the other side. On this mountain there's a dirt road, and a pickup truck came rumbling along and offered us a ride to Azhahe (阿扎河), the town on top of the mountain. From Azhahe, we were able to catch a public bus two and a half hours back to the County seat. All the tickets to Kunming we sold out that day, and Sean was in a rush to get back to work the next day, so we made emergency plans to travel to Gejiu that night, where I have a friend who was able to go to the bus station and help us get tickets back to Kunming early the next morning.

As always, please visit my flickr website to see the full collection of photos.

The "cloud sea" on the final morning hike out of Lubu Village