By Lisa Carducci
In 2007 I started to write a series of books about the China's five Autonomous Regions. These Wonderful People of Xinjiang, These Wonderful People of Ningxia, and These Wonderful People of Guangxi have been published.
Terraced Fields on a rainy morning
I have interviewed very interesting persons and learned much about the Zhuang, as well as the other ethnic groups who live in this region. For example, with Fang Zhenguo, I learned about the Maonan wooden masks they used for Nuo theatre; with Huang Mingbiao, I learned about the Buloto culture and the bronze drums of the Zhuang; with Prof. Pan Wenshi, about the rare animals protection. I met Yang Taiyang, a great painter who is 101 years old this year and whose all sons and daughters are artists; the ethnic music composer Fan Ximu; but also a bee-keeper, an outstanding teacher, a pearl producer, etc.
The writer is on the right side.
Guangxi has a major source of tourism and economic growth in its ethnic cultures. Though several ethnic minorities have no proper writing systems, they have history, legends, beliefs, and traditions, and oral culture may be transmitted if a place is made for it.
Transportation has progressed remarkably in the autonomous region. I found the toll high (for example, 75 yuan for 200 km) but it is compensated by the wonderful smiles of employees of both genders, and the services. In each city, highways offer very well-equipped rest areas. In Luzhai, for instance, on Guilin-Nanning highway, such an area has been set between a gas station and a convenience food store. Toilets are many, spacious and very clean. There is also physical exercise equipment, allowing drivers and their passengers to stretch their muscles before taking the road back. A mangled car, the result of a road accident, is exhibited on a platform, and prudent warnings surround it. At another place, a red banner bears the inscription "Don't produce white pollution" and it reminds me of the horrible plastic bags I saw among the branches all along the Lijiang River...
Dining with a Dong family
While each city is linked to its counties by quality roads, it is not yet the same from county to county. Travelers must often return to the city to take another road. But Rome was not built in a day. Thus, ethnic communities living in the mountains are no longer isolated... or not quite.
The region's capital, Nanning, is becoming the commercial capital of the south, and its high-rise architecture resembles that of Shanghai and Beijing.
Telecommunications are convenient all over Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Most of the hotels offer Internet connection and the rooms are even equipped with a modern computer.
As always I paid attention to education. I visited Miao, Dong, and Yao places in the north of Guangxi. There are still too many children who are not able to attend school. I also found a lack of employment, even for educated people who often have to expatriate to Guangdong in search of work. Some parents leave their children behind while they go to earn a living as workers in other cities or provinces. What a contradiction that such misery exists though China's development, reform, and opening are advancing at an astonishing pace. This is sad, but, nevertheless, there are also wonderful facts, places, and people in Guangxi.
Interview of a Buddhist nun
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Guangxi tourist resources, which consist mostly in the outstanding karstic relief, the splendid greenery and water landscapes, the Guilin sugar loaves, and the fine sand of Beihai beaches, the grottoes and hot springs, the rich variety of visible ethnic customs and traditions, excursions for all ages and tastes by bicycle, in boat, or on foot, in the forest or along ancient streets, and, finally, visiting special places such as the Meinü Cun or Village of the Beautiful Women and the "Longevity" Village (Baima), and the Vietnamese frontier nearby.
I also keep an indelible souvenir of Chongzuo for its variety of resources (the reserve of white-headed monkeys, the stone forest, and the Meinü Celestial orchestra); of Longsheng with its unique terraced fields, as well as of Sanjiang for its Dong architecture, and of the charming Beihai city on the sea where tourism and recreational activities are possible the whole year long due to its mild climate.
Guangxi cuisine is also a must when you travel there, but I will let you discover by yourself.
Though in Nanning most of the Zhuang can speak putonghua, one can hear different dialects and other local languages such as Hakka, Cantonese, Baihua, Pinghua, so even westerners with their French, Italian, English or Greek languages don't feel weird – just more elements of the Guangxi melting pot.
Yao mother and baby
Source: China.org.cn
