Lovely pictures of a village in Yunnan

[animal world]

These pictures are from Heshun, a village luckily still untouched by time:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/27/travel/20091027-heshun-slide-show_index.html

[Daan]

Wow! Those pictures are beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Amazing how life seems not to have changed at all there. I definitely need to go there once and experience it, before it's too late...

[xianhua]

The wooden furnishings in that ancestral home are simply remarkable. What is more remarkable is that it managed to survive being turned into firewood during the Great Leap Forward, or being condemned by the Red Guard’s as ‘stinking ninth’ opulence. I’d love to hear that lady’s life story - which reminds me...

The last time we were in China we went to see the last of my wife’s grandparent's generation, now in her 90’s. She couldn’t remember much at all, but I was just awestruck by the fact that this lady sitting in front of me was born in a China which had just seen the fall of the Qing, she'd lived through a revolution, war, famine, and was still here. We took a picture of her holding our baby daughter. When I think that those two lives, having briefly met, will span nearly two centuries, history doesn't seem to be all that distant.

Edited October 27, 2009 at 09:00 PM by xianhua

[animal world]

I hope to make my first trip to China next year and i keep adding more and more must-see places. This is one of them. Correct me if i'm wrong, but this doesn't strike me as your average Chinese village in the hinterlands of a big country. It was involved in significant trade with other countries and must have enjoyed a level of prosperity not typical for the country as a whole.

I've returned again and again to that picture of the house with all its wood carvings. Just astounding. I'm afraid the writing is on the wall for this wonderful village as, already, it's often used for movie shoots. So, you better hurry up, Daan, before this place becomes a victim to "progress."

It must have been a great experience, Xinhua, to meet and be able to talk with, better yet listen to, someone who has lived through so much history.

[RuiXue]

Truly beautiful pictures from a beautiful village! Will have to travel to that part of China some day.

[Neil_H]

My wife's grandma was less welcoming to me in 2004. When she saw me she told my wife's mum to lock my wife up and don't let her return to England, stating we are huge aggresive monsters.

[RuiXue]

Neil_H That really cracked me up:lol: Luckily my husband's grandmother didn't react that way first time I came to China:lol: I'm taller than both my husband and most of his relatives with my 173cm:oops:

[anonymoose]

Interesting looking place.

Out of all the provinces I've been in China, I think Yunnan must be the most interesting. There is such great variation between regions, but the scenery is stunning everywhere (except perhaps Kunming).