Leaving on the afternoon of Wednesday 21 March, I will depart USAFA with 4 fellow students and our trusty Chinese teacher Mr. Boyd headed for the rural parts of China to research ethnic minorities existing in China.
The trip is still pretty skeletal, meaning full of zombies, but all we know is that we're leaving on the 21st and returning on Sunday, the first of April. So far we have 2 destinations, both in the YunNan Province: (read: next to Burma)
Th first stop is LiJiang's "Old City" Area -- an 800yr old city, that is now kind of an asian-take on a "hipster town." We're focused more on China's 'official' and promoted images of their ethnic minority groups, even watching a cultural production made by Zhang YiMou (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) see some highlight clips of the production here: link.
Next we'll be visiting the geo-thermic region of TengChong, peopled by the LiSu minorty group (link). I don't know much about this area, or this people, but it looks pretty epic.
Other possible destinations include to the MoSuo tribe, one of the last matriarchal societies still in existence (cool article here: link). There has also been chat about hiking in to a more remote village and staying the night among the people (trying to not hold my breath for this one, sounds too cool to be true)
So I'll let you know more as the plans get more concrete! 加油！！
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