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Lancanghorizontal rule
On the road to Burma

From left: Mr Su, AEF's Rachel Kennedy,
Harry Lin Xin Gui, Mr Bai, AEF's Kathe Kirby, Jing Yu From left: Mr Su, AEF's Rachel Kennedy, Harry Lin Xin Gui, Mr Bai, AEF's Kathe Kirby, Jing Yu

From Mojiang we head for Lancang, via Pu'er and Simao. If you continue along this road, you would eventually reach Burma. Mr Bai meets us on the road outside Simao, the county capital.

Beyond Simao, we cross the Mekhong River, which here is called the Lancang Jiang. It's still a long way from its source in Tibet. The mountain road is unsealed and sometimes rough and we can only average 25 km/h.

Lancang JiangLancang Jiang


We visit Lancang Number One Middle School and Lancang Ethnic Middle School, and teach at both. This region has many different minority 'nationalities' including the Dai, who are closely related to the Thai and Lao people further south. We visit a Dai village and talk with village people, who are Buddhists.

In the evening we again wonder what we have done to deserve such a welcome. It's a cool night but the students at Lancang Number One Middle School put on an outdoor concert in the school's quadrangle. We are seated in cane chairs in a U-shape around a velvet curtain: 'Warmly welcome friends from Australia'. A student whose English name is Rose introduces the items in Mandarin and excellent English.

Dance after dance, song after song, it's all a blur. Somewhere there's a revolutionary harvest dance; young girls in yellow and pink pyjama-type outfits. The introduction went something like: 'China went through difficult times but since 1980 things have really improved. This is a dance about improving economic times.' Then, from nowhere, comes a dramatic performance of Guy de Maupassant's 'The necklace', fully costumed, the young Chinese voices ('Oh Jeanne', 'Oh Mathilde') somehow adding to the sad drama as the story unfolds. More pictures of the concert

 
Background Information about Yunnan Province arrow

 
Lesson plans (open in new windows):
Years 7-8 Studies of society and environment 'Thinking about the future'
Years 7-8 Arts 'Dai courtship dances'

 

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Yunnan | Beijing | Shanghai | Lesson Plan Catalogue

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