A Return to the Nu River
For TIME Asia's recent Best of Asia issue, I wrote a short piece on the Nu River, which was subtitled the "Best Place to Visit Before It's Gone." When my mother visited last month, she said she wanted to visit a place off the tourist trail, so we went to northwest Yunnan province, near the Burmese border, to see the river.
By coincidence I had been there at exactly the same time a year ago, when members of the Dai ethnic group celebrate the Water Splashing Festival, just like people across Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Just like before, the state of the proposed dam project for the Nu River was unclear, with locals wondering how long the river would continue its unobstructed run to the Indian Ocean. (See my previous story, and this short documentary on the Asia Society's China Green site.)
But unlike before, I had time to travel all the way north to where the Nu enters Yunnan from Tibet. Cross one mountain range to the east and you're in Shangri-la, the mountain town once known as Zhongdian that changed its name and became a tourist destination. (National Geographic has a nice new piece on the region.)
Bingzhonglou, a village along the stretch of the Nu just after it leaves Tibet, sits just below a snow-covered mountain range. Tibetan stupas, a Catholic church and a Protestant church are a testament to the religious and ethnic diversity in the region. Getting there takes a day or two of driving over steep, twisting roads. Unlike the Shangri-la side, there is no airport in the upper Nu valley. And there are few visitors, making it much more like Shangri-la than the town that bears the name.
Here are a few photos:
Rapids just below a narrow gorge
Goats scale a cliff above a bend in an upper section of the river
Along the Nu, just south of the Tibetan border
My mom, after tagging a village wall with graffiti that reads, "Long Live Freedom." Kidding! My mom would never do that. Now Jackie Chan...
-
1
Let me make the story even more sensational.
Ever noticed the "Long Live Freedom" graffiti on the wall was written in Chinese, though badly? Isn't it another evidence that Tibeten language is officially forbidden from their childhood in diapers?
Daliar can prove it with his fluent Chinese which is much better than his Indoglish. -
2
I was there at Christmas and it's a beautiful place, especially north of Gongshan. Sad to hear that it will be spolied by hydroelectric schemes like the one already scarring the landscape near Dimaluo.
My photos and blog about the Catholics of the Nu is at http://drjosephrock.blogspot.com -
3
Just a minor correction:
Yunnan is in the southwest -
4
And laohong is wrong again.
Tibetan is the first language Tibetans learn in schools. They only learn Chinese from high school
-
5
@whatdidyoucallme1: Northwest refers to the part of Yunnan we visited, not the location of Yunnan in China
-
6
to whatdidyoucallme,
--"Tibetan is the first language Tibetans learn in schools"?
Really? I dont think our dear western friends think that way. To them, first there is no school for Tibetens and second Tibeten language is forbidden even to be spoken and thirdly, of course, your tongue will be cut if you ever dare to speak it. -
7
@laohong:
1) If there are no Tibetan schools, and people can't speak Tibetan, then are you saying Tibetans today are fluent in Mandarin?
----------------------------------
2) And also does that mean they don't know the Tibetan language anymore?
----------------------------------
3) If you want to know what westerners think, you should ask the westerners who have ACTUALLY been to Tibet, not the ones who only get their info from you and me.Take a look at this from people who have actually been to Tibet:
.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/05/content_10950616.htm
.
( It includes comments from the Indian editor-in-chief of "The Hindu" ) -
8
@whatdidyoucallme
We have any difference about this Tibeten language thing? I dont think so, if you check all I posted above about Tibet. The only difference I have is I know sarcasm and I come here for fun. -
9
Oh, my dear Whatdidyoucallme1,
A link to Xinhua?
How dare you! -
10
To Austin re Long Live Freedom:
A few decades ago when CCP was ... let's put it in a modern way ... in opposition (I feel quite aweful to say it that way)... Long Live Freedom (and Democracy) was what they said in the streets when protesting (yes, they did protest, and they knew the "grassroots" thing quite well) and perhaps also what some of them shout before they were execued by Guo Ming Dang, the National Party, who are now nesting in Taiwan.
It is all good to make a news out of things like this.
But what's really important is to understand the meaning of freedom, its relativity, its outcomes, and its consequences, in a certain context.
Well, you may say it is not your responsibility as a journalist to do such things.
But I say let's be a responsible citizen of the planet first before clarifying job specifications.
- TIME See the photographs behind the art of Norman Rockwell | http://su.pr/1EKACs - 8 hours ago
- TIME Looking for other things to do on Black Friday besides shopping? Some ideas from @techland | http://su.pr/2J92d3 - 9 hours ago
- TIME Holiday movies: Previewing this year's hot tickets | http://su.pr/1WatHR - 12 hours ago
Most Popular »
- UPDATE: Guess Who Came To Dinner?
- Chutzpah
- Time to panic again! Or, on second thought ...
- Happy Thanksgiving From The AppleGeeks
- Checkout Line Conundrums: Should You Get the Extended Warranty? What about the Store's Credit Card?
- Blizzard: 'Who Knows' When Diablo III Will Ship
- Gleeks and Shrieks: Fox Unveils Midseason, Glee Gone Until April
- The Six Greatest Fantasy Novels of All Time
- A Self-Inflicted Expectation Gap
- FLO TV Personal TV: Being a Couch Potato Has Never Been Easier
- The 00's: A Decade from Hell
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time
- Obama's First Year Policies Need Time to Settle In
- In Italy, A Sex Scandal to Rival Berlusconi's
- Will Dubai's Financial Problems Spread Around the Globe?
- Germany's Doubts About Afghanistan Grow After Revelations About Air Strike
- Satyam Computer Fraud Grows to $2.5 Billion
- A Brief History of Black Friday
- A Brief History of Pie
Quotes of the Day »
RSS