Wolong National Panda Reserve

Wolong national panda reserve is the biggest national panda reserve located in Qiang’s region, Wenchuan county. It is the biggest panda reserve in China. Established in 1963, Wolong National panda reserve becomes many of foreign visitors’ first stop in SzeChuan Province, because it is the home for more than 150 endangered pandas. It has humid and warm climate and also panda’s favorite food- bamboo.

Although Qiang people belive in goats, they also are a ethinic minority group that loves panda. Every year, Qiang people help with local government to protect endangered species in their region.

Wolong national reserve park is not only the national serve for pandas, but also home for golden monkeys, white-lipped deer, and red panda as well.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of panda lovers and animal protectors will visit here to see how much they can do to protect these wonderful species.

Special Notice: Wolong national reserve was terribly damaged during 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, the new panda center was rebuilt in Gengda county.

 

-By Yang

Ruo er Gai(若尔盖) prairie – Qiang’s beautiful natural gift

Three years ago, one of my friends recommended me go to a prairie in Szechuan Province, I said yeah, why not. I have never been to a prairie before. Ruo er gai prairie, also known as Ruo er gai grassland is located in northwestern part of Szechuan province. It is a grassland consisted of over 13,745 square miles, Qiang people live right beside this grassland.

The first stop I made at Ruo er gai prairie is at “Yellow river”. Yellow river is the second longest river in China and Yellow river made its first bend there. 

(Pictures: http://www.cots.com.cn)

There are numerous beautiful lakes embedded in this grassland. One of the most impressive lakes is called “Flower lake”.  It is the lake that surrounded by flowers and as a visitor, you can either ride a boat or walk on bridges on the lake.

What is even more amazing about this grassland, is during WWII, Red Amy under communist party crossed here during the long march. Which makes Ruo er gai grassland famous and draws a lot of history lovers here to experience the beauty of this amazing piece.

 

 

Best time to visit Ruo er gai prairie is from May to June, but starting from mid-September, it is also spectacular that mountains will be decorated by red and yellow autumn leaves.

 

-By Yang

 

Jiu Zhai Gou（九寨沟）- Beautiful Qiang Attraction

Jiu Zhai Gou（九寨沟), means nine valley in Chinese. It is a national park located in Southwestern China, right in Qiang’s region. Let’s take a look at Jiu Zhai Gou’s amazing scenery at first: 

(Pictures: www.airpano.com)

Are you astonished by amazing scenes in Jiu Zhai Gou?

I have been to Jiu Zhai Gou once, it is much like the Chinese version of “Yellowstone” national park, its most renowned attraction is colorful water. Due to unique geographic characteristic, water in Jiu Zhai Gou contains special ions in the water which makes water in Jiu Zhai Gou various colors.

Apart from that, Jiu Zhai Gou also serves as home for 220 kinds of birds and all kinds of endangered animal species. Including beloved Chinese giant panda and golden monkeys.

(Pictures: www.flickr.com)

 

Best time to visit Jiu Zhai Gou is during summer and autumn, which you can experience unbelievable natural setting, as you can see from the map below: there are three main historic trails you can take to visit. 

Shuzheng Valley, Rize Valley and Zechawa Valley are the three main valleys. There will also be English instructions service present at the main entrance of the national park.

Special Note: In case of tourists reach a maximum number, administrative bureau will restrict the number of people in the national park, so avoiding peak hours and holidays will also be a smart choice.

Go to China and Experience Qiang’s heritage, Jiu Zhai Gou by yourself!

 

-By Yang

 

The First Doctor – Guo En Liu

Guo En Liu (“刘国恩“), born in 1958, is the first Qiang doctor, also the first Qiang who got a master degree. His college major was in mathematics, and he graduated (from Southwest University for Nationalities) in 1982. Liu also had participated in doctoral research at Harvard University in the United States, and was once a professor at Peking University in China.

(Picture resource: edu.qq.com)

Liu is well-known for his down-to-earth characteristic. He was born in Wenchuan County, Sichuan, China. Liu’s mother is also Qiang, but his father is Han, who was exiled to Wenchuan County in 1950s. To Liu, he wasn’t raised in a very rich family, so when Liu was a child, he wanted to become a doctor (at that time, he wanted to become a medical doctor in a hospital instead of getting a doctoral degree) in his future. Liu started to sell some not-so-complex Chinese medicine (Chinese medical herbs) when he was sixteen but could not even earn the respect that he deserved (at that time, the local people were not very nice to any financially poor people). Liu worked very hard, and was very sad about what he saw and encountered – poor people couldn’t easily find a way for living.

The first opportunity for Liu to fulfill his wish was that Chinese government decided to implement the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (an standard entrance exam that every college applicant needs to take after graduating from high school) system, which made Liu be able to compete much fairly againstother students who are more wealthier than him. By the way, Liu is a smart, and very hard working student, and he got the best exam result in his county.

Unfortunately, the outstanding academic performance didn’t make him able to get an admission to any medical college in China – these medical colleges required not only exam result from every applicant. Liu almost felt despair when he knew that he got rejected by the medical college he wanted to go to. That was his biggest wish when he was a child.

However, while being very upset about losing the way to enter the medical college, Liu got the admission from Southwest University for Nationalities for mathematic major. Southwest University for Nationalities is a college that has strong concern in applicant’s academic performance and the entrance exam result, which became an alternative for Liu.

When learning mathematics at Southwest University for Nationalities, Liu also became interested in economics. After getting a BA in mathematics, Liu entered Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China and started studying economics, and became a teacher at the same university after getting his master degree in economics. And after less than two years, because of his extraordinary performance, he got financial support by government and went to City University of New York in the United States, and go his PhD in economics.

Liu had taught at many universities in China, also was once an assistant professor at University of Southern California in 1994, and became a full-time professor back in China in 2006.

-Culture Fanatic-

Qiang Cuisine: “酸菜麵塊”

This “酸菜麵塊” is similar to the one “酸菜荞面” (Chinese Sauerkraut & Buckwheat Noodle) we mentioned before, but we don’t use buckwheat here. Instead, we use regular wheat flour, and it won’t even be noodle-like shape.

(Just regular wheat flour (dough))

So, what do we need for this “酸菜麵塊”?

• Pork – 200 g
• Chili pepper – 100 g
• Chinese sauerkraut – 200 g
• Flour – 300 g

You will also need:

• Oil (peanut butter or olive oil or other type of vegetable oil) – a spoonful
• Salt – 1/2 spoonful
• Welsh onion – 1
• Garlic – 1
• Coriander – 1
• Oyster oil  – a spoonful
• Chicken oil  – a spoonful

First, mix the flour with water and make it into a ball-shape, then just leave it for minutes. Chop the coriander , Chinese sauerkraut, welsh onion, and garlic into slices.

Put the pork into water and add some salt, then leave it like what we did to our wheat flour.

Put vegetable oil into a pan and cook it with small fire for 1-2 minutes, and then add garlic (you can add ginger here if you like).

Put the Chinese sauerkraut into the pan and fry it for 3 minutes, and then add some water (not too much) into the pan. After that, wait for another 5 minutes (small fire all the time).

Add the pork, salt, and oyster oil into the pan, leave the pan with small fire on until the pork is well-cooked. Now we can go for the flour that we left for while.

For the flour, basically we just make it in any shape you want.

And put it into a pot with boiled water.

Wait until the flour “麵塊” is cooked, put it into a bowl (or any container you use for your food) and add the pork and Chinese sauerkraut we just have cooked, and we are done. It is supposed to look like this if we did it right:

It is very difficult to translate many things about this “noodle” into English, I hope you enjoy it.

(All picture come from www.wed114.cn)

-Culture Fanatic-

Qiang Cuisine: “豌豆炒腊肉” (Fry Smoked Pork With Pea)

Since Chinese/Qiang smoked pork/bacon is very popular, especially in Sichuan, it is used in many different cuisines, and 豌豆炒腊肉 (Fry smoked pork with pea) is one of them.

(Picture resource: www.wuji8.com)

Ingredients:

• Chinese/Qiang smoked pork – 250 g
• Pea – 150 g
• Peanut oil – 50 g
• Sugar – 10 g
• Salt – 2 g
• Chinese cooking wine – 10 g
• Any other condiment you like – not too much

The way to cook:

First, chop the pork into slices, and wash the pea with water for minutes. Then, put the peanut oil into a pan and heat it with small fire for about 1 minute. Put the slices of pork into the pan and fry it for 2-3 minutes, then add the pea, sugar, salt, cooking wine, and any other condiment into the pan. Keep frying until the pea is well-cooked and it’s done.

This is an easy one, also very common in Sichuan. Instead of using peanut oil, olive oil can be another one goes well with this dish. Some people also add garlic while frying. Note: Chinese smoked pork can be very different in different places – some smoked pork might need to bee cooked for longer, and some may already be well-cooked before being sold.

According to Qiang people, this dish is good for human skin (especially face) and body shape (still less effective than exercise). If you have all the ingredients, it is worth trying, plus it’s not difficult to make.

-Culture Fanatic-

Qiang ancestor – Yan Emperor (炎帝)

Yan emperor is not only Qiang people’s ancestor, all chinese are what is called “Yan Huang Zi Sun” (炎黄子孙). Yan and Huang are two pre-dynastic legendary rulers in Chinese history, they lived over 5000 years ago and they are the ancestors of all Chinese descendants. “Yan” literally means flame in English.

However, Qiang people believed that Yan Emperor was born as an ancient Qiang leader. Yan emperor developed the most basic foundation of ancient Qiang society. Yan emperor’s major contribution to Chinese society is under his leadership, ancient Chinese people start to plow their own farmland and he also invented several necessary agricultural tools that farmers can use to increase agricultural production.

Yan emperor has also been called “shen nong”, which means he is the “God of agriculture”, according to historical records, Yan emperor has five major contributions:

According to legend, Shennong tribe contribution in five areas:

• First, using wood to make plows, and teach farmers to plant land.
• Second, invention of ancient Chinese agriculture,  including cultivation of food and crops. 
• Third, before people do not have bowls and bottles to eat and drink, Yan Emperor invented those wares as well.
• Fourth, Yan emperor tasted a hundred herbs, to investigate the drug level in each herb and make medicines to help saving people’s life.
• Fifth, Yan emperor invented silk and textile, therefore people have clothes to wear.

This is a sculpture of Yan emperor and Huang emperor, Qiang people are very proud to state that Yan emperor was from their ethnicity.

-By Yang

Traditional Qiang Dance – Guo Zhuang（锅庄）

I went to Sichuan Province, and region where Qiang People lived three years ago. I remembered I lived in a small town near Ruo er gai prairie. In that town, there are lots of Qiang people residing at, there is a large square for people to relax and take a walk. Every night and every morning, I can hear people dancing and chanting in the square, they all wear colorful customs, and people are getting really excited when they see all of these stuff happening. I asked one of the audiences, and he told me this is called “Guo Zhuang”, one of the most famous dance forms that Qiang people use to celebrate holidays, even weekends. 

Guo zhuang is also called “Celebration dance”. Especially when qiang people are getting married, there will be guo zhuang dance everywhere in the village. However, it serves another important purpose, to pledge for harvest in the harvesting season. Therefore, it is also called “Agriculture dance”. Performers will pledge to mountain god that ensures a good harvest season for the whole village so that they will not be worried with starvation.

Guo zhuang also has an unique characteristic, which is this dance is also a game among each dancer. Leading dance will instruct other dancers to rotate in a circle and everyone should crawl under neighboring dancer’s arm, until they are all chained together, and then unchain themselves by dancing from the opposite direction, and the first one that can get released will have be seen as the winner.

Sometimes, performers will even imitate some animals like tiger and goats to express their emotions. The whole purpose is to share their happiness with others.

 

-By Yang

 

 

Traditional Qiang Dance- Salang (萨朗）

Qiang people are really the ethnic minority of creativity and emotion. They not only have their song, they also have some wonderful forms of dance accompanied with it. Among all of those dances, one dance form called Salang (萨朗) is what draws most people’s attention.

Salang, is a word in Qiang’s dialect, it means “sing and shake it up”. “carcass ring action” and “shake” are its main characteristics, it is much like a self-entertainment dance, performers will also include shouting and singing in the dance as well. When they perform Salang, male and female will stand against each other and then one leader will dance first, others follow his action and dance afterwards.

What they sing in Salang does not really reflect what they dance, singing is just the accompanied with the dance to enhance the atmosphere.

Often there will be competition in the dance, people will compete against each other with their dancing skills, with the signal of male shouting “Hey Yeah” and female shouting “xi wei”, most popular dancer will get more noise from audience. Then they will change another song and start another round.

The name Salang came from Qiang People’s dancing goddess, “Salang”.

-By Yang

Traditional music of Qiang – Wine song （酒歌）

Qiang people love to drink wine, during the time they drink wine,  they will sing a song called “wine song” to boost up the emotion and atmosphere, they also called this “wine song” as “Yan”(晏), it is one precious cultural heritage among all kinds of Qiang’s art accomplishments. 

Wine song does not only serve as the song that goes off when people are drinking wine, but serves a way higher meaning in Qiang People’s daily life. During their marriage, their funeral, during their welcome ceremony for visitors, wine song has all being an important part of these events.

Here is a perfect example of Qiang people’s wine song: Wine song

The form of wine song is always Male Duo, when one man sits along with other man, they will rotate the wine bowl while sing out loud of what they think about love, life and nature. The rhythm is very moving, sometimes very emotional, some performers will even add sound like “HaHa” in the song to strengthen their emotional expression.

In events like welcome ceremony, singers will compliment visitors in the lyrics and visitors should also compliment back. Some singers will also tell their family history and heroic moments in the lyrics as well.

Wine song is indeed an artist form that exists as one of the best heritages that Qiang people still keep.

 

-By Yang