Xichang is the capital of the Da Liang Shan (Big Cool Mountain) Yi Minority Autonomous Prefecture. The Yi are one of China’s 55 ethnic minority groups, with communities primarily located in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces. On Friday afternoon Noel and I walked around the old city of Xichang, and ended up in a “park” along […]
Up and Over
Our drive south from Xichang to Huili today took us up and over a range of mountains and down into a remote valley. There are no trains or planes that come here, so everything is brought in by truck. The first half of the journey (by distance) was on an expressway and took an hour. […]
Spinning in Yichang
SNAP! CRACK! SLAP! CRACK! The sounds became louder as we approached the plaza that was along the riverbank in Yichang, Hubei Province. Curious to find out the source of the unique sounds, we crossed the broad avenue to have a look. What we saw were a half dozen men wielding large sticks with ropes attached […]
Sailing the Mountain Tops
Our trip up the Yangtze River has been a bit surreal. As we view the hillsides with their villages and occasionally entire cities, we have to keep reminding ourselves that these hills are in fact, the tops of some fairly high mountains that line the shore of what used to be a swiftly flowing river. […]
Seeing What We Want to see
On Saturday morning, we did a little tour of some of the old colonial sections of Shanghai. With the help of some local friends we were able to find the Lutheran Hostel where Esther had stayed in 1924 and the general vinicinity of a Baptist hostel where she had stayed in 1933. It was great […]
