phoenix; china, not arizona

***this is duffy writing, not kate***

hi, everyone, i know it's been a while since kate or i has posted about anything really fun or interesting, but we've been really busy. we've realized that we don't have too much time left in china, so we've started really trying to soak up everything we can. expect a deluge of posts over the next few days as we try to catch up.

about 3 weeks ago, kate and i ran into one of our chinese friends at dinner. she said she was putting together a trip that was leaving in a few days and that she and 3 of her friends would be going to hunan province and asked if we'd like to come. we said sure, we'd love to, but forgot to ask where we'd be going. carol got all the plans together and a few days later, we met at the train station to go to the town of 'phoenix', feng huang in chinese. the group was kate and i, three students, and a german history student that they knew.

since the details of the trip had been vague thus far, we didn't know that we were in for a 13-hour train ride followed by a 3-hour bus ride into the mountains. the train was fine, like it always is if you have a sleeper, but the bus ride was chaotic. the bus was so full that people were sitting on plastic stools in the aisle for all 3 hours. also, it left at 7 am and this particular bus was outfitted with karaoke equipment, which the driver enjoyed at full volume. the ride was through beautiful hills and steep, terraced farmland, but the roads were also very curvy. by the end there were 2 kinds of people on the bus: those who were asleep, and those who were motion sick.

the town of feng huang itself is in the middle of a gorge and most of the town is next to a river that, while beautiful and lined with ancient looking buildings, doesn't seem to move. when we arrived, the first things we saw and heard were dozens of students drawing and painting the scenery, a drummer and dancer on a pavilion in the middle of the river, and a large number of gondola-like boats on the water. it was very beautiful and gave a great first impression.

after winding our way through narrow, tourist-shop-lined streets, carol and her friends found a great guest house for all of us. the place was a steal at $2.50 a night. it was a newly built hotel, but had walls, doors and windows that were frosted plastic in carved wooden frames. the interior was all wood and all the walls were windows, making the place really airy, which was nice, since there were amazing thunderstorms every night. the thunder and lightning felt like they were coming from in the building.

feng huang is in western hunan province, an area with a large population of the miao minority group. for those not familiar with chinese minorities, about 93 percent of chinese people are 'han' chinese. the other 7 belong to one of 56 'minority nationalities.' the miao are one of the largest groups, with a population of about 9 million, and they are found all over southern and western china. the miao have turned feng huang into a large-scale exhibition of their 'traditional' culture. the entire city is built with traditional chinese houses with the corners of the roofs turned up and thick clay tiles for roofing. our daytime activities in feng huang were hiring a driver and going into the countryside to visit miao villages and see traditional dancing and singing. there were women in traditional costume, and the show was interesting and colorful. the scenery was beautiful and it was a lot of fun to just get out into the country, whether driving or walking.

there's more to talk about with regards to phoenix, but that's enough for now.

keep checking the next few days. we're going to be writing a lot.