Today, we were able to go to a neighboring town, Pingba, for their festival, celebrating the history of one of their areas called a Tunpu. This is an area that was built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) as an army fort. This area has remained the same since the 15th century, as the people continue to wear their Ming Dynasty clothing, hair, and culture. We went with two of our students, Season and Whist, and their boyfriends. Pingba is a relatively small town but it was filled full of many different visitors for this event. We arrived early and got special tickets and were given the royal treatment, we were allowed to talk down the red carpet where we watched many different performances, like dancers, drummers, singers and lots of other things. It was rather warm so we left that early and went out to eat. We went to a special Duck "kaoya" hotpot restaurant, where our table has a large burner on it where they put a pan of water and spices and a large duck and other things that you order into the boiling water and you eat it with rice. We ended up adding some fungus things, tofu, seaweek, and green vegetables and as a special treat they bought duck feet to eat. We are glad they chose this instead of the duck heart or tongue, but it tasted ok.

After eating way too much, we headed back to the excitement and looked for some souvenirs. We looked at many different handicrafts from different minority groups and other crafts (batiks, dolls, bags, etc.) along with specialty teas, wines, and mooncakes. We ended up getting a handmade doll from the Miao minority group (the Hmong). One of the weird parts of this event was that we were one of the attractions as many tourists wanted to take pictures of us and followed us around excitedly.

Next, we went to the actual Tunpu village. By this time, it was less crowded. We walked around and looked at many different people selling all kinds of crafts--it is amazing to see their talents. They had wood carving, batiks (made by wax resistent watercoloring of the material), pictures made from bamboo, and lots of traditional costumes. The houses were pretty amazing--they were made of stones (slate and limestone mainly), but without mortar to hold them together. We were able to see how they make flour, dry corn, make tea, and watch a traditional opera (where they wear masks and put on a play). We were very tired by the time we made it through looking at many of the areas. It was fascinating and there were lots of fun things to look at. I saw some shoes that were 200 years old and looked a lot like football cleets for girls!! It does not appear that life has changed much from the 1400's as much is done by hand. It was definitely a special event to see and we were excited to see it. We will be posting some pictures and maybe even some video later to show some of these events. We hope all is going well with each of you--school is going well. The freshman are doing their military training so we are kept awake all day by marching and the ever present "yi-er-san-si," one, two, three, four. Many blessings!!