CHINA

guangxi

South China. The neighbouring province of Canton. Snakes and soups. In wantian, I decide to go on by foot, I feel like seeing some landscape. An English teacher was doing a journey round China, a cardboard box on the rear griddle. Some fellows were fishing with dynamite by a small pound. Didn't ask if the fishing was good. In Longji, I've climbed the terraced fields to were red peppers dry in the sun. Some minorities, Dong, Miao, Yao...

guiling

The Guilin train station plays "ce n'est qu'un au revoir", every hour on a electronic carillon.

chenyangqiao

Another teacher came to me to have a tea at his place, he was the primary teacher of the village, and had some handycrafts to sell like local reed flutes. Being a musician, I've brought one.

chenyangqiao

One of The Dong villages of the region. Drum towers and wind and rain bridges.

chenyangqiao

I've decided to come back to Sanjiang on foot, the only way to really see the landscape is walking.

The area is full of graffiti that I think to be from the cultural revolution, on the houses, the walls, the ruins. It's a shame I cannot understand them.

In one of the stops on the way, the bus station was entirely covered with dubious writings. The wall, the columns, the ceilings, not a space was virgin. Since the cultural revolution? Some look like insults in huge characters, suspicious jokes, the good Chinese way. Things like "The right wing sits on ...".

On the train, a comedian on the radio once said: What Mao writes, I have to do it. Times are a changing. The cultural revolution is far behind but they haven't bothered to erase the revolutionary slogans. Still one of the mysteries of the Orient.

chenyangqiao

My Rolleyflex has stopped working. I must have been too harsh with my old camera. I will never do those photos the 50's way.

What a pity, I find those square format negatives attractive, they are more static than 35mm, the landscapes look great. The gear is not infallible.

chenyangqiao

At the train station, arguing with the ticket office employee, was a fellow much taller than the locals and that was standing out of the crowd because of the yellow colour of his hair. From Denmark, he was looking like a mutant among the Chinese minorities.

A man in the bus was exhibiting proudly his son still child in front of his friends. The unique Chinese son has created an arrogant class, masculine and over-protected; an aberration that Mao had not preview. Babygirls are still thrown to the river...

heping

A stop on the way. Ping-Pong is played in the middle of the street. The ticket-collector took his chance to score a few points.

longji

I've had my lunch at the home of some peasant from the Yao minority. The wife invited me when I was coming back from the terraced fields of Longji. It's more a way to make some extra money than proper hospitality. On the window of the living room, on the outside, a colony of bees had its nest.

longji

Longji stands on the top of the hill, above the fields and terraces, you have to walk a bit to get there. I could have stood overnight, it seems that the surroundings look amazing at dawn, specially with mist.

wantian

wantian

wuzhou

wuzhou