JiangCheng
on Tina's Journal (China), 04/Oct/2009 14:32, 34 days ago
I spent Mid Autumn Festival in JiangCheng. It lies 140KM South East of Simao and borders Laos and Vietnam. After using a bit ofGuanxi, I managed to get some accommodation booked in a hotel in the town centre. I was also really lucky to hitch a ride from a couple of teachers in the college who were going there to be part of a stage show to promote tourism in the area. Once there, I met up with Jayne and Andy. We were invited to a friend's house, Zhang Hao, who had returned to his home town to take part in a Buffalo painting competition, the first ever to be held in JiangCheng. His family were so welcoming and we spent either lunch or dinner with them most days. The town itself is not very large but there were many people there from the surrounding countryside and the two neighbouring countries for the festivities. All the sign posts are written in three languages, Laos, Vietnamese and Chinese. The town was also hosting the very firstSachet Throwing Competition. These are small triangular shaped cushions attached to dangling string. On Friday Evening Jayne and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to a ethnic dance performance promoting the competition. The show was part presented by our friend Miss Gao, she was translating the speeches and introducing each act into English. It was a colourful, elaborate performance. As always the Chinese know how to put on a show! The following day was Mid Autumn festival and the day of the Buffalo painting. There were 53 buffaloes. Zhang Hao is an art teacher and had four students to assist him paint his buffalo in a time limit of 2 hours. It was amazing to see the finished buffaloes. Unfortunately, Zhang Hao did not get first prize, but they did win something. I have attached a photo of the winning buffalo. Top prize was 100,000RMB. The other photo shows us having dinner at Zhang Hao's house. It was the first time I had eaten both frog and dog!