Chengdon't

The beast stopped abruptly in its tracks – it had spotted our rather feeble hiding place in the undergrowth. It eyed us suspiciously, snorted and then began to scrape the ground with its enormous hoof.  I couldn’t help noticing how sharp the tips of its horns were as they glinted in the dappled sunlight.  We were halfway up a hill in the middle of nowhere, cowering in the bushes on the side of a dirt-track just yards away from a huge, hairy and extremely disgruntled yak.

It had all started so well.  My girlfriend Isabel and I had arrived at Zhuo Ma’s T1betan home stay in the beautiful Shang Si Zhai valley the day before.  Nestled about 20 minutes drive from increasingly popular tourist destination Jiuzhaigou National Park in northern Sichuan, the valley boasts stunning views and some of the friendliest people you’re ever likely to meet.

(Jiuzhaigou National Park in winter, courtesy of Kieran Fitzgerald)

The morning had begun in peculiar but intriguing fashion when we were awoken by chanting monks, who were apparently blessing the newly re-opened home stay.  A mobile phone suddenly cut through the rhythmical recital, and the chanting stopped while one of the monks chatted away for a few minutes.  The call ended and the chanting resumed again.

After a breakfast of fresh flatbread and homemade honey, Zhuo Ma, the delightful owner of the home stay walked us up to the foot of the valley, and pointing a finger towards a set of prayer flags in the middle distance told us we should walk up to the circle of flags to get the best views of the surrounding area.  Then, as it was our first day, it was probably best to head back and get some lunch, as the climb up to the top of the valley was quite tricky and she didn’t advise it for people who were new to the area.

It was shortly after passing the prayer flags (and the breathtaking views) that we made our first mistake.  It was a lovely day, and as we’d made such good progress why not go on for a bit?  Surely at the top of the heavily forested nearby peak the views would be even better? However, the path soon changed from a well-trodden thoroughfare to a muddy single-track trail and the trees and undergrowth seemed to condense and move a triffid-like two steps forward.

Out of the blue the sound of thundering hooves filled the air, and from around the corner two enormous yaks came barrelling down the hill.  “Get off the track!” I shouted, and jumped up the bank.  My girlfriend jumped down, twisting her ankle in the process, and once the yaks had past I hopped down to make sure everything was alright.  It was at that point that the biggest, hairiest yak I’d ever seen came trotting leisurely along, coming to an abrupt halt right next to us.

It looked at us and we looked at it, and for a few seconds man, woman and beast stood stock-still, contemplating each other.  It ran through my mind to take a picture – after all it’s not every day you’re just metres away from half a tonne of hairy livestock, but then knowing my luck the flash would have gone off and all hell would have broken loose, so I decided against it.  After what seemed like a lifetime, the yak suddenly tossed its head into the air, snorted and then trotted disdainfully off down the hill.

A lucky escape and one that we’ll have hopefully learn a few lessons from.  Firstly that nature, however beautiful, should be admired but also treated with respect.  Secondly, listening to local guides is a good idea – they tend to know a little bit more about their area than you do!  Despite the unfortunate incident with the yak in the daytime we had a wonderful time pottering round the valley and surrounding parks, and would thoroughly recommend both the area and the home stay to anyone with a little sense of adventure!

Chinese Singles’ Day    光根节 – Match-making in the middle kingdom

You could say that romantics in China are spoilt for choice.  Not only do young Chinese celebrate the western festival of romance that is Valentine’s Day, but the Chinese also have their own day traditionally devoted to love.  Qi Xi (七夕), or the seventh eve, is often referred to as Chinese Valentine’s Day, but is also known as the Seven Sisters Festival or the Festival of the Double Sevens.  It is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar (August 26th this year), and while the annual gift-buying frenzy synonymous with February the 14^th does not take place, there are many customs associated with this day of romance that lovers can partake in.

However, if the prospect of a second Valentine’s Day fills you with dread then November in China has just the thing.  For groups of young western (and increasingly large numbers of Chinese) singles, it has also become customary to organise a sort of “anti-Valentine’s” get-together on the day itself fourteenth, but here the Chinese go one better and have a dedicated singles’ day on November the eleventh.  Also known as bachelors’ day, in Chinese the day is called 光棍节 (guāng gùn jié or ‘single stick festival’).

The idea originated from the early 1990s, when college students in Nanjing first put forward the idea of choosing the day as a festival for single people and began organizing match-making parties on campus.  The date was chosen because the date “11/11″ consists of four 1’s, and first became a hit on university campuses in the area then spread throughout the whole country.

As it is no longer such a huge taboo for an adult to be single in Chinese society, singles’ day is seen as a chance for young people to shake off parental pressure to marry.  They go out to clubs and karaoke bars to have a good time or attend organised matchmaking events, and at these events ‘guang-guangs’ and ‘ming-mings’ (internet slang for single men and women respectively) are paired up in order of suitability through pre-prepared internet questionnaires to try and find their Mr. or Miss. Right.  Some universities hold masked balls to help Chinese singles overcome their initial shyness, and ‘blind date’ parties where singles are introduced through mutual friends are also quite common.

In Shanghai’s People’s Park a huge crowd of people gather every Sunday morning to search for love, but the difference here is that these are not generally single people themselves, but rather worried parents or grandparents who come along to try and speed up their errant offspring’s marital timeline.  The done thing appears to be to write your vital statistics on a piece of paper (age, height, weight, telephone number, place of employment and income), attach a photo and peg it to a line for other match-makers to investigate.  If you’re so inclined there’s even a foreigner section!

Other customs that have evolved around singles’ day include breakfasting on four youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) which represent the four ones in 11.11 and one baozi (steamed stuffed bun) to symbolize the middle dot in the date.  This practice is supposed to bring the breakfaster good luck in their love life for the coming year.

With statistics showing that among Chinese in the 22-49 age bracket, males outnumber females by over 20 million, events organized on singles’ day are rising every year and will surely only continue to increase in number as millions of young, single Chinese go looking for love in an increasingly competitive and crowded marketplace.