Inescapable Karaoke, part 2

As the sun fell below the top of the mountain, we went back to the home and joined the family in the family room.  They fired up their VCD player and coaxed Bryan into singing a Karaoke tune. Yes, even Chinese people who don't have sewage (the restroom consists of a pit covered by strips of wood) still have Karaoke players and microphones in their family room.  Chinese people like to sing, and they don't care (or even notice) how bad it sounds!

At one point Mr. He paused and gave Bryan and I each five crisp $1RMB bills, fresh from the bank. He said it was a Naxi blessing of good luck for guests.  I humbly accepted them and pronounced that the good luck would return to him!  

Mr. He presents me with 5 Yuan, which is a gift of Good Luck for Chinese New Year

 (And yes, as an American I find it somewhat uncomfortable to accept money from a retired school teacher in rural southern China -- but I told him about my reporter friend from the Berwyn Life Newspaper, who made me promise to write up my trip for her, and that I'd make sure to send him the article so that he can be famous in America.)

William's brother in law and sister in law were there too, with their 1 year old son whose name, translated into English, is "Phoenix."  He toddled around dangerously close to the fire, which made me endlessly nervous.  Bryan said the Chinese are infinitely less concerned about such things, citing an example of a mother and her boy in the hotel business center, the boy playing with a REAL medical syringe and everyone laughing at how funny it was.

(Imagine this in the US -- I can see the headline now: "Mother thrown in jail for 20 years for letting child play with hypodermic needles.")

We joined them for dinner, which included William's chicken (feet still included, sticking out of the soup) and pork sausage, liver and lotus root, home made potato chips, rice, lotus root and fried pork.  Actually very similar to New Years Eve dinner at Richard's place, and although I describe all this odd stuff, it was actually very good.

After dinner, it was dark and we walked with flashlight to the old school building, where Mr. He played Naxi music, with speakers and lights mounted in the trees outside next to a paved basketball court.  About 30 people gathered to dance to traditional Naxi dance, always in a circle, swinging hands and kicking, not unlike western dance steps.  

Bryan seemed quite at home, joined right in, and Mr. He convinced me to join in.  For the next two hours they played Naxi dance tunes and I did my best not to look like the American Klutz-O-Rama.

After awhile I started to get the hang of it, and they appreciated my willingness to try.

At about 10:30, everyone started to go home.  We went back to the house.

Bryan and I stayed ina spare bedroom with traditional Naxi beds - sleeping on a straw mat on a hard (short) bed frame, sandwiched between two comforters.  A charcoal grill near the door kept the room warm for the night.  A dog skull hanging on the back of the door hopefully afforded me some protection against evil spirits.

My bed that night: A traditional Naxi bed, a hard frame with a 1" thick straw mat, with me sleeping between two comforters.  Mr. He tells me that many years ago, the commander of the Red Army slept in this room the night he crossed the Yangtze river.

Next morning we had a breakfast similar to supper the night before - vastly more extravagance for their American guests than would be the case if we weren't there.  We went to the school for awhile and played Mr. He's drum.

Then we piled on a small pickup truck already loaded with people and headed for the center of Shigu.  As the truck carried us through verdant fields of beans and potatoes, I told William that such is an extremely rare experience for an American.  

"If my friends could only see me now!" - Bryan, William and I pile on the back of a pickup truck full of Chinese farmers for the trip back to Shigu

We stopped in Shigu for a bit and looked at the river -- at the exact site of the first northward bend in the Yangtze river, which you can find on most maps and globes -- then boarded a bus and came back to Lijiang.  

Bryan and I walked from the bus station to the hotel, and stopped into a hi-fi shop that sold parts for building speakers.  Yet another example of how the China of today is in many ways like America in the 50's.  "Speaker building" Heathkit style, which I did myself in junior high and later turned into an engineering career, is nearly an anachronism in America today, but is very natural in an economy where the average citizen has far more time than money.  And I'm sure some kid in Lijiang who builds speakers today will be working as an engineer in Shanghai or Beijing in ten years!

No longer a common sight in America: in Lijiang, we stumbled upon a store that sells parts for building speakers.  

Go on to the next page for the last day of the trip...