Lower Ailaoshan-Honghe, Luchun, Yuanyang, Jinping

Glimpses of the titian culture can be had on the route south from Jianshui to the Red River. The flat-roofed, mud-brick architecture typical of Yuanyang County is the feature of Yi villages beside Guan ding, where the same branch of the Yi lives as in Yuanyang. A few Huayao Dai villages also lie in the township and their colourfully dressed women often come to Guanding to sell their fruits and vegetables. Further south on the main road, past Baishashui, lies a long, narrow ridge, Yi and Hani villages perched on top, with others lying on the nearby hills, their terraced fields cut into the steep sides of the ridge all the way down the gorge.

Like this route, the roads from Shiping and Gejiu zigzag down the mountains to reach the Red River. All along the river valley Dai settlements occupy the flat lands, mostly on the south bank, and beside the tribu¬tary streams that have slithered down the mountains. But from the Red River to the terraced highlands of Lower Ailaoshan the three approaches-from Honghe city, Nansha and Manhao-each pass through very different landscapes.

The county seat of Honghe sits on a hilltop a few km above the inter-city highway. The oldest part lies near the top, with a park at the summit. A Qing era pavilion on the grounds houses a huge bronze bell. Nearby is a plain concrete platform for viewing the mountains to the south. It is not an especially pretty view, for the foothills and nearest heights are practically barren. Not much agriculture is in the vicinity of the town, either. And unlike Yuanyang, Luchun and Jinping it does not have ethnic minority villages adjacent to the urban area, nor terraces to gaze at from the suburbs. Dai and Yi do turn up in to, though, and the market area uptown on any particular day attracts a number of them.

The best of the county's mountain roads is the one going west, which slowly ascends into the highlands and eventually passes out of the prefecture and meets the Kunming-Jinghong highway between Mojiang and Yuanjiang. For some 40 km or so the land is mostly dry, uncultivated and empty of people or even grazing animals. But after the ascent the familiar Ailaoshan landscape appears. Villages speckle the mountain slopes, with bamboo groves, patches of forest and the marvellous titian in between them.

Quite the opposite scenery lies on the Manhao-Jinping route, at the other end of Lower Ailaoshan. Once across the river, the road climbs into the mountains and it is nearly all forests for the next 60 km, with scarcely a settlement visible in the hills. Then as the road winds down to Jinping Hani villages with flat-roofed "mush-room houses" start popping up on the slopes, above their water-filled terraces. Here and there Yao villages, recognisable by their one-story, tile-roofed houses, also cling to the hills.

Terraced slopes and traditional villages continue right up to the outskirts of Jinping town. The county seat lies on a slope above a tributary stream of the Tengtiao River, which flows through the southern part of the county. Above the settled area the forests begin, broken by Hani and Yao villages further uphill. The town itself is unattractive, no parks, just modern, boxlike, concrete buildings. Its only saving grace is its proximity to typically beautiful Ailaoshan scenery, plus the colourful ethnic mix in the central market area. This is a daily feature, but especially well attended every horse and rat days.

Jinping is a Miao, Yao and Dai Autonomous County, yet the Hani are the most prominent ethnic minority in town. Hani women dress in loose, side-fastened black or blue jackets and trousers, augment their braids with cotton yarn and coil them on top of their heads. The Yao are the next most numerous, the women wearing em¬broidered trousers and tall red caps held in place with a thick silver band at the base. Yi women from the hills to the south, wearing bright, side-fastened jackets with embroidered lapels, carrying their pack-baskets, come to the town centre looking for temporary work. On mar¬ket days Miao from the hills south of Jinping also turn up, as do some of the Dai from Mengla, in long black sarongs and short jackets.

South of Jinping the road descends into another mountain range above the Tengtiao River, mostly Miao-inhabited, then at a junction close to the Vietnam border, turns west to Mengla, a largely Dai township at the eastern end of a long, low valley. Market day here is two days after Jinping's and draws tribals from Vietnam as well as smaller, little-known ethnic groups like the Kucong of Zhemi township and spillover groups from over the border.

The third route into Lower Ailaoshan proceeds from Nansha, on the Red River south of Jianshui, up to Yuanyang and on to Luchun. This is the loveliest stretch in the entire mountain range, with villages and terraces beginning just ten km up in the hills. Nansha itself is a new city, whose high-rise concrete buildings obscure the original Dai village. In the late 90's it became the administrative seat of Yuanyang County, replacing Yuanyang city, 32 km south up in the mountains.

Yuanyang itself is on a high ridge between two valleys. It's mainly a new town dominated by unimaginative cement buildings and two long streets. This part was appended to a couple of existing Yi settlements and these are right beside the modern town, on either flank. In Yuanyang the marvellous scenery of Ailaoshan is just outside the narrow boundaries of the urban area, liter-ally right around the nearest corner. Hani villages lie nearby and their women, dressed in Hani style all the time, are frequent visitors to town. With most Yi women also in their own flashy costumes, not to mention the Dai, Zhuang and even Yao who turn up, Yuanyang, despite its grey buildings, is among the most col¬ourful cities in the whole province.

Ethnic minorities, who make up the bulk of the people in town (the Han everywhere in Lower Ailaoshan are a minority), and the rural scenery are Yuanyang's attractions. Within the town itself is a park, just beyond the southern bus terminal and above the main road. Here locals gather in the evenings for mass dance exercises while others watch, stroll around, or gaze at the mountain scenery lying just beyond the city's edge.

Behind the park the ridge continues up to the broadcasting tower and on south. To see the western hills and the Hani villages ensconced among them one takes the dirt road past the southern bus terminal, which quickly reaches the rural area. In winter the sun sets right in the trough of the valley, beaming the sky's last colours onto the water in the terraces.

Back at the terminal the main road bends around the hill behind Yuanyang and turns south along the eastern side of the ridge. Now the view takes in the equally well-populated, heavily terraced slopes to the east. The road wriggles over the contours of the slope another 8 km to Dayutang, where a lateral road turns left to lead to the villages just espied from the road. Just beyond this village a turn right ascends a rough road past a small reservoir, comes to a high ridge, passes a Hani tea-growing village, then comes to the high pass at the Niujiaozhai junction, overlooking the Tengtiao River valley. Niujiaozhai is 8 km north of this junction, while Shalatuo is another 18 km west. Both are mixed Hani and Yi town-ships with many villages, sometimes with tea and tobacco plantations instead of the titian.

Minibuses ply this route to both townships a few times each day, but it's a rough ride. The main road south, though, is smoothly paved. It crosses the pass beyond Dayutang and winds around the mountain down to the somewhat lower promontory at Panzihua, a small administrative township grafted on to a Hani village. The view from here takes in a vast panorama of terraced mountains with large Yi and Hani villages. About 70% of the slopes are under cultivation. Long, thin, silvery streams ripple down the creases in the hills. More moun¬tains, equally sculpted, loom on the northern and west-ern horizons.

From Panzihua the road slowly descends to the Tengtiao River valley and the market town of Huangmaoling. Dai villages, rice fields and banana groves lie beside the river. The road continues south 12 more km to Laomeng, a larger valley township, with Dai in the lowlands and Miao in the immediate foothills. Its Sunday market is one of the biggest and most colourful in the area, drawing Miao, Yap, two kinds of Dai, three kinds of Yi and up to six different kinds of Hani.

Laomeng's commercial importance is due to its location at a junction of three main roads into the hills. The route east goes to Jinping, with largely Hani and Miao villages in between. Crossing a stream from the west that flows into the Tengtiao at Laomeng, another road, unpaved, climbs high into the hills to the south, 21 km up to Laojizhai. This highland township is home to rather isolated and very traditional Hani and Yi sub-groups, exhibiting cultural traits they have borrowed from each other.

The main road from Laomeng turns sharply west and follows the stream, often climbing high above it, all the way to its source in the forests at the boundary of Luchun County. Huangcaoling, the first township past Laomeng, lies on the flat top of a high, narrow spur on the north side of the stream. The high mountains rising behind it on the south side are heavily terraced and Hani-inhabited. They are the dominant ethnic group from here to Luchun. One of the largest Hani villages is right next to the road, at Habo, just before the road dips into the last valley in the county.

After ascending into the forest and entering Luchun County, the road stays at this higher elevation more or less all the way to Luchun city. This is a new town appended to a large existing Hani settlement, like Yuanyang, also long and narrow, with sides dropping off steeply and filled with terraces. But they do not descend so far and the neighbouring hills are closer.

The county is 80% Hani and the dialect of the village of Dazhai, at Luchun city's western end, was chosen as the standard Hani dialect for dictionary and publishing purposes. The eastern highlands are the most densely settled. The road west first descends into a long river valley, then rises in the western hills, turns south down to the valley at Daheishan, and passes into Jiangcheng County.

Much of the area south of the valley road is heavily forested and largely uninhabited. One branch road 50 km west of Luchun cuts though the hills to the south-east. Terraced hills and Hani villages soon give way to steep cliffs and thick forests, a few hidden Yao villages, more forests and finally, 67 km from the turn-off, the end of the road' at Qimaba. This is a large Dai township on a moderate slope above its terraces, which sprawl in front-of Qimaba until the edge of the slope, where there's a sudden vertical drop to the stream bed a couple hun¬dred metres below.

The agricultural reforms of the 80's, the construction of motorable roads up into the hills and the natural diligence of the people have led to a flourishing local market scene. Every township has a market day, when hordes of villagers, mostly women in their ethnic dress, converge on the otherwise sleepy commercial area. A few energetic individuals make a good living buying goods at one market and selling them at another.

Thanks to the transportation boom, such business activity is relatively easy now, for every day or two is market day in the vicinity, especially between Yuanyang and Luchun. Some are weekly-Huangcaoling on Fridays, Wozha and Huangmaoling on Saturdays, Laomeng on Sundays. Others are every six days, according to the cycle of twelve days, one animal for each: Luchun, Habo and Jinping horse and rat days, Mengla monkey and ti¬ger days, Laojizhai chicken and rabbit days.

The biggest, with the greatest variety of people, is every four days at Yuanyang-dragon, rat and monkey days. The venue begins around the central bus station, goes down the steps, then all along the long commercial street, which runs just above the main road for vehicular traffic, nearly to the end of the city limits. Niujiaozhai, home to Yi and two colourful Hani groups, stages its market day two days after Yuanyang-horse, dog and tiger days.