BTC Changsha to Kali

A little less overcast

We arose early for the eleven hour train ride to Kali through terraced green mountainsides heading towards one of the most sparsely populated regions. About half way we enter Guizhou province, 87% mountains, elevation about 3000 feet, in a subtropical monsoon zone, forty to fifty inches of rain. May contain 50 billion tons of coal, along with other mining goodies.

Kali, our destination for today, is the Capitol city of the Miao and Dong Minority Autonomous prefecture. Silver jewelry, dancing, etc. Seems to be a universal theme for minorities.

The train. I like it and thought it better than Amtrak. Others disagreed. To me, cleaner and cleaned more often, others: used sheets. To me, sleepers more comfortable than seats, others: terrible, hurt the backs as they did not want to lie down. To me, bathroom cleaner and was cleaned, to there’s: squatters. May not have mentioned that there are eight women and me.

Kali is home to 48 of the 55 minorities. Being promoted as a tourist area it does not attract the Han, too much like the way they lived 20 years ago.

First a shoutout to Bing Bing; if you are reading this thanks for your excellent cultural and linguistic discussions. On my list, now, is to learn a bit about Corpus.

After a lovely dinner highlighted by the soured cabbage and red peppers served with sticky rice balls, a speciality dish of this region, as well as eggplant good enough to export, lots of very fresh veggies, pork and chicken dishes took a break and went for a walk. QB was not yet up to an evening walk, hopefully tomorrow.

Kali is a very charming city of about 200000 souls. Lit up a bit like Las Vegas.

First I went downstairs to the dragon club. Girls lined up to greet me and take me to a table to drink. Too much smoking, I passed.

Onto the main street with its surprisingly western looking clothing shops, then a shopping mall with a multilevel grocery store down escalators.

A short distance away was a large square. No exaggeration, saw one group of 300 line dancing. Another group of about 100 doing the same to different music. A few feet away 50 or so couples doing ballroom dancing. Most of the dancers in all the groups appeared to be seniors. I demurred on the ballroom dancing.

I like this town.