Thursday, November 20, 2008 noon afternoon sunny
Yunnan Tourism in 2008 (Travel Notes, 6)
Wild Elephant Valley and Tropical Rainforest
At 10:30 in the morning, the bus arrived at the Wild Elephant Valley. In fact, the full name of the Wild Elephant Valley scenic spot is the Wild Elephant Valley Tropical Rainforest Scenic Spot. On a low wall in front of the park, the words "Wild Elephant Valley Tropical Rainforest Scenic Spot" are written, which is the inscription left by Tian Jiyun, the former Vice Premier of the State Council. , I guess it's not his inscription, I read it several times, and the more I look at it, the less it looks like.
The Wild Elephant Valley is divided into the front garden and the back garden, also commonly known as the north gate and the south gate. The place where we got off is the south gate (back garden). The tour guide said: there are a lot of tourists in the front garden at this time, and it is very crowded to take the cable car. , let's look at the back garden first.
Walking into the back garden, in fact, the back garden is a small zoo. There are only a few native animals in it, all of which are domesticated and domesticated. There is no difference, because we are going to watch the elephant show at 11:20, so there is no need to waste time at these small animal spots. We scanned around and came to a place where a national performance was taking place.
I heard from the tour guide on the bus that the ethnic performances here in Elephant Valley are mainly ethnic minorities singing and dancing performances dominated by the Jino ethnic group. The actors in the park are "Ma Hei" and "Ma Niu" of the Jinuo nationality.
The Jinuo nationality is the last one recognized among the 56 nationalities in our country. The Jinuo people live in Jinuo Township, Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and Buyuan Village, Mengwang Township, Jinghong City. The rest live scattered in nearby Mengyang Town, Sanda Mountain, Yunjinghong Town, Dadugang Township and Mengla County Menglun Township and other places. The population is more than 18,000 (the fourth census in 1990). The Jinuo people call themselves "Jinuo", which translates to "Youle" in Chinese. It was officially identified as the 55th ethnic minority in China by the State Council in 1979. The Jinuo nationality has its own language, but no written language, and belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Because there is no written language, in the past, they mostly relied on engraved wood to record events. The Jinuo people believe in primitive religion, believe in animism, worship nature, worship ancestors, and respect Zhuge Kongming. They are mainly engaged in agriculture and have a long history of growing tea, including the famous Pu'er tea.
"Jinuo" is the self-proclaimed name of the nation, "Ji" means uncle, and "nuo" means behind, meaning "follow uncle", that is, they are a nation that respects uncle. But why this is so, whether it is related to the matrilineal clan, has not been verified. Jinuo Mountain, where the Jinuo people live, is one of the six major tea mountains in Yunnan for Pu'er tea. According to legend, during the period of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang paid homage to Kongming Mountain not far from Jinuo Mountain during his southern expedition. After Kongming left, some people in the large army stayed here because they were separated from the army. Descendants of Kong Ming. The Jinuo people who have lived in the mountains for a long time are a nation that worships the sun. Even their big drums are equipped with a circle of wooden thorns around the drums to represent the rays of the sun, so they are called sun drums. . Generally, when there are important events in the village, the most respected Zhuoba (elder) will be invited to ring the bell. The houses of the Jino people are very long, and several generations may live together. The top of a bamboo building contains the entire family. There is a long firepit in the middle, where the fire is lit for cooking in the house. There are bedrooms on both sides, and each room is a small home. When entering the door, the first one on the right is the elder's room. The costumes of the Jinuo people are very pure in color, and they will not use colors other than the seven colors. Still use the most primitive handloom. They believe that their ancestors - "Ma Hei" and "Ma Niu" came out of the drum, which is why they regard the drum as a fetish. Every year from February 6th to 8th, during the "Temaoke" festival of the Jinuo people's new year, people in the whole village will escort their most sacred drum parade.
Most Jinuo women can spin and weave cloth and make the famous "machete cloth". Men usually wear a double-breasted black and white plaid jacket without collar and buttons. A square red cloth is sewn in the middle of the back and a beautiful sun flower is embroidered on it. They wear white or blue loose trousers or shorts. The sunflowers on men's clothing come from a touching love story of the Jino people. The women wear collarless double-breasted variegated gowns and black short skirts with red borders, and some of them are now wearing long skirts. Jino women are used to wrap their legs in leggings and wear a bun on their heads. They also wear thick white linen on their heads, and capes with capes with wings as long as their shoulders on the back, which look solemn, generous and lively.
The famous Jinuo drum performance "Going to the New House" is naturally indispensable. Many dances show their primitive hunting life, which seems to be still in the era of ruthlessness and blood drinking. It is said that with the help of the government, they have gone through a thousand years of human history in the past ten years. But the Jino village is still poor and backward. This is also a common phenomenon in all parts of Yunnan, and this phenomenon cannot be solved by help. Why do you say that? From the perspective of climate and geographical location, Yunnan is a very easy place to live, and it is relatively simple to have food. Most of the local people are satisfied with the status quo of being able to eat, and it is inevitable that they cannot move forward. The Lahu people are considered to be the most closed ethnic group in Yunnan. Most of them live a poor life. However, if you donate with love, you will find that because of your donation, if you can let them live for a month If they don't, they won't go to the fields for a month until they run out of food and ammunition. As the saying goes, "Poor people must have something to hate." This has an absolute relationship with their constant poverty.
When I came to the elephant performance field, I just found a seat and sat down, and the performance began. Following the whistle of the mahout, the five elephants lined up and appeared with their tails leading their noses. Elephants are very intelligent and intelligent animals. A well-tamed elephant can perform many kinds of performances. The elephant's cute performance was quite wonderful, and everyone cheered and was extremely happy. They have been trained to complete many difficult movements, such as standing on their hind legs, stacking arhats, dancing, handstands, crossing a single-plank bridge, bowing to the audience, roaring, elephants presenting flowers, playing football, massage, etc., and the 5-year-old elephant has completed it independently. There are many movements, and crossing the single-plank bridge is its forte.
The performance hall and the audience seats are separated by a few logs. After the performance, the elephants will stick their long trunks to the audience seats to ask for money to buy carrots and bananas for themselves. The elephant actually recognizes money, and it will reject banknotes less than ten yuan, and will not accept them with satisfaction until you take out more than ten yuan.
After the elephant got the money, he handed the money to the elephant trainer. The elephant trainer handed the bag containing carrots or bananas to the elephant, and the elephant passed it to the tourists. After the tourists got it, they gave the carrots or bananas. Handed one by one to the elephant, the elephant ate with relish. All the movements of the elephant are done with his trunk.
The most exciting performance is the elephant's football shooting performance. Four elephants take the lead and one guards the goal. The shooting distance is twice that of the penalty kick position on the football field to the goal. I saw the elephant walking in all directions very calmly, kicking it lightly, and only hearing a bang, the football went straight to the goal. If he didn't receive it, he shook his head regretfully. When the elephant kicks the ball, the swing of its hooves is very small, the movement is very concealed, and the shots are very accurate and beautiful. The goalkeeper elephant defends more wonderfully. The goalkeeper elephant moves the hoof lightly, or stretches the hoof for a step, or flicks the trunk to easily resolve the incoming ball. What's more wonderful is that the bishop's judgment is extremely high. For the ball that hits the goalpost or misses the ball, it will not bother to block it, but just stay put and watch the ball rebound or slide the goal. Pass. This also caused conflicts between elephants and elephants. One elephant shot the first shot on the post and popped it out, and then missed it with a second shot. The leisurely behavior of the guard elephant obviously angered it, so it insisted on shooting again on the spot. , There is a lot of energy to shoot if you can't shoot. At this time, I suddenly had an idea. If it is allowed, the Chinese football team will have an elephant to guard the goal, then there will be no problem entering the World Cup.
The following performance was even more exciting, with four elephants lining up to walk on three legs. Shooting is also a hundred shots.
Two or three tons of weight can stand upside down, what a strong arm! The narrator said that the elephant is very vain, and it needs some applause from everyone after its performance! Leaning forward and back together with joy, we all applauded.
Then came the elephant massage performance project. The massage was performed on the audience, so the participation of the audience was indispensable. The mahout trainer invites four spectators, two men and two women each, to lie flat on their backs on a mat with a space for one person in between, with yellow silk spread on their bodies. A mahout guides an elephant past a person. Elephants are also very interested in massage. The clumsy elephant lifts its feet and rubs gently on the stomach of the person lying on the ground. ! But the elephant's massage is appropriate. The most interesting thing is that whether it is a male tourist or a female tourist, it can find the absolute point of massage. When the person being massaged is embarrassed, the audience can't stop laughing. After the performance, he backed off and gave a salute, so educated! While lamenting the absolute massage techniques of elephants, I also lamented those smart elephant trainers, because they made rough elephants obedient and cute, and I felt the harmony between humans and animals.
In particular, it is not easy for an elephant to walk a tightrope. After it completed this difficult performance, the elephant below offered flowers to it with its trunk, and it proudly took it with its trunk.
In the end, it is even more fun to play the game between tourists and elephants. On one side are more than 20 tourists who think they are extremely powerful at the same time to compete with an elephant, and on the other side is a juvenile baby elephant. At the beginning of the competition, the baby elephants fought hard with the tourists. I hope to cheer for the baby elephants as well as the tourists. All of a sudden, just hearing the mahout's whistle, the more than 20 tourists exerted all their strength, even eating their grandma, but the elephant still remained motionless. Later, the elephant may have taken two small steps back symbolically to comfort many tourists, giving everyone the illusion that he was pulled, until finally, with another command from the mahout, the elephant body went straight forward , no one seemed to be pulling him. It turned out that they were teased by an elephant once, which caused the more than 20 tourists who were overwhelmed by their own strengths to stagger. Only then did everyone truly appreciate the power of elephants.
Elephants are inextricably linked with the ethnic groups living here, and many legends of the Dai people are related to elephants. For example, in the Dai language, among the three characters for Lancang River, "Lan" means millions and "Cang" means elephants, so it is called "a river of millions of elephants". However, due to excessive hunting by human beings and great changes in the ecological environment, there are only more than 200 elephants in Xishuangbanna, and they have become endangered animals in my country. It is hoped that through the protection of the people of all ethnic groups in Xishuangbanna, the elephants will continue to survive in the fertile soil of Banna and gradually expand the population, making the Lancang River a veritable "river of millions of elephants".
After the performance, the elephants politely stand in a row to salute the audience, and the audience can also enter the venue to ride the elephants and take photos with them.
After watching the elephant performance, it was almost time for lunch. The tour guide gathered everyone together and pulled them to a dining place for tourists next to the entrance of the Wild Elephant Valley on the expressway. From the south gate (back garden), everyone enters the garden and enters the Wild Elephant Valley Forest.
China's wild elephants are mainly distributed in the tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna. Because of its dense tropical forest and suitable ecological environment, the Wild Elephant Valley has a large area, covered by dense virgin forests, and connected by mountains. The place with the most concentrated and frequent activities of wild elephants has also become a nature reserve for wild elephants in Xishuangbanna. Strange to say, it is almost an inaccessible place, but the wild elephant Nuo Da's body can come and go freely, I don't know if it is a stupid person or an elephant.
We were walking on a wet forest path about 3 kilometers long. The trees on both sides soared into the sky. Between the trees, the sunlight is fragmented, isolating another slightly dim world. There is also a small river beside the road. The river water is not as clear as imagined, but the color of mud, but this color is in line with the characteristics of the tropical rainforest. It is also because of this river that wild elephants often come and go here. From time to time along the way, you can see the footprints and feces of wild elephants, as well as the traces of branches and leaves eaten by wild elephants, but you didn't come across a wild elephant, but luckily you didn't encounter one. I don't know what would happen on that occasion.
After walking the trail, you have to pass another iron-locked suspension bridge, and you have to walk about 3,000 meters in the elevated aerial viewing corridor, which was built to make it easier for pedestrians to observe wild elephants when they appear. The promenade is an iron frame wooden structure, wide enough for two people to run side by side. There are tall trees on both sides, and the dense branches and leaves cover the scorching sun. Below is a small stream. Because it is too quiet, you can hear a slight sound of water flow . According to the tour guide, wild elephants generally walk along the stream, eating branches while drinking or playing in the water.
On the way, we pass the famous tree hotel, which is a forest villa for 200 people. The rooms are either built on the promenade or built on the tree. There are telephones, closed-circuit TVs, and bathrooms. If you can live here for a few days, it will be very interesting to be next to the wild elephants and the birds. In fact, it is a simple wooden house built on a tree. Good guy, it costs more than 400 yuan a day to live in such a room, just to observe wild elephants. But in fact, wild elephants are very rare to see. The waiters who have worked here for several years said that they have only seen them a few times in recent years. The long air corridor was built to facilitate the observation of wild elephants. On the side of the road, there is a Chinese white-headed tree with a strange shape. The locals call it the elephant tree. Because the tree itself has some beneficial bacteria that can kill parasites, wild elephants sometimes rub itches on this tree to kill the parasites on themselves. When the local people saw this phenomenon, they thought it was a wild elephant worshiping the tree, and thought it was the power of a god, hence the name of the elephant tree.
After exiting the elevated corridor, we will arrive at the downlink station of the cableway (on the top of the mountain), because we walked from the back garden to the front garden, and now we have to take the tropical rainforest sightseeing passenger cableway down the mountain to the front garden.
Sitting on the 2,063-meter-long high-altitude cable car and crossing the tropical rainforest, the cable car compartment is semi-closed and can accommodate two people. Sitting on it, you can clearly see the scenery in the valley. Watching tropical plants from a high altitude has a special scenery. The cableway is very long, connecting several hills, and the forest coverage here is also very good. The cableway rises and falls with the ups and downs of the mountains, sometimes suspending people in the sky, and sometimes almost touching the treetops. Looking at the vast tropical rainforest on the cable car, the feeling is really different, the air is extraordinarily fresh, and the air is full of strong oxygen ions. In the forest, all kinds of tropical trees grow together in layers. I prepared my camera and searched in the dense jungle, looking forward to unexpected surprises and new discoveries. It may be due to the daytime relationship, and no wild elephants were found, only some paths stepped by elephants and the footprints and dung left by elephants.
The cable car reached the uplink station (downhill) after running in the air for more than 30 minutes. Outside the uplink station of the cableway, there are Monkey Garden, Butterfly Garden, and Bird Garden. Here in the Bird Garden, the wife took a photo of a hundred birds grabbing the food with bird bait in hand. In the bird performance area, those domesticated parrots are really good, and they specialize in picking up money from tourists. Tourists hold 10 yuan and sit on the far seat, and the parrots fly to take the money away. I also gave one yuan, but the parrot ignored it. It turns out that the trained parrot only recognizes 10 yuan, and dismisses our 1 yuan bills. What a money-obsessed parrot!
After leaving the Bird Garden, you will arrive at the front gate of the Wild Elephant Valley, ending the tour of the Wild Elephant Valley Scenic Area.
The most regrettable thing is: we walked through the Wild Elephant Valley without seeing any shadow of wild elephants, only the footprints of elephants and a few piles of dung.