Si Chuan. A Window to Real China.

China is a contradictory and unpredictable country, giving willingly up a vast cultural past thousands of years old, for keenly and bluntly embracing the most alienating values of global world. But both civilizations still coexist in China, with their respective values, so different. Religious superstitions and animistic beliefs face the growing materialism; taoism yields to money worship; the millennial life style and folkloric traditions give way to concrete, microwaves and electronics; medieval temples, shrines, buildings are torn down… and nobody seems to give a dime for them. Mao killed this nation. But even comunism is fake, and it’s only good for brainwashing and dogmatism; not as a production model. Competition and capitalism are merciless in China. There is no social care, and even highways are private, with tolls.
China es, first and foremost, noise; but also waste, garbage, polution and litter. However, amidst all this, people is merry, friendly and very sociable. They are relaxed and hardly ever get stressed or angry. And, surprisingly, they preserve some traditional values like a high respect for the elder and submission of females; though of course, like everywhere, cities go “ahead” in this (supposing such is the way ahead to go).
And food is always–always a feast of colurs, tastes, variety, surprises and, often, a challenge to the less flexible palates.

Changing masks opera, a popular and famous show in Chengdu. The stage.

Masks opera. Actors making up in the backstage.

Changing masks opera. The musicians.

The BIG moment for the changing masks.

One of the most popular restaurants for Hot pot in Chengdu. Two floors, dozens of waiters, tons of food.

Everything so tasty, right spicy. You can’t have better food, better service nor better price.

Your typical mahjong table at a tea house. Every retired Chinese comes to this places for spending endless hours.

Very old temple at Zijang

Old woman keeping the temple’s gate.

Chinese answer to “may I have a glass for my beer?”

Construction fever. Hundreds of millions of Chinese await to leave the countryside for living in one of these beehies. Zijang

You’ll see quite a few nice photos in this album, but THIS is how most of Chinese population live. Dirt, garbage and polution. This is their improvement.

Or places like this. Such are their homes, in the best of cases.

And this is another example. So, fool ye not. This is the real China. 900,000 Chinese live in such buildings.

They eat in places like this, daily.

But not like this. A nice tea house by the river, where I was writing my journal. Qingcheng

Qinchen is one of the many so-called “old towns” in China. Beautiful. But most of them are toally fake, newly made. There’s only brick and cement behind the wooden facades.

A shrine in Ziyang.

Dragons heads, keeping the shrine.

Old traditions mixed with modern life. Some methods are deeply rooted in their culture.

And, once again, scenes of real china. The rainy flat lands of Sichuan.

A neighbourhood right by a university.

This is what students and all passers by go through every day, around any corner of an average town.

What do people have in their frontyards? Cement mixers, of course.

Definitely, progress is not bringing much progress to China.

Mopeds have substituted bicycles.

Cleanness is not in Chinese list of top ten values.

Boiled water kept in thermus for tea and cooking.

Dragon boat festival. Brought by the people to the authorities.

Now, food? That’s another thing. Ever so appetizing, diverse and colourful.

What about this? The best fish soup EVER. Mark the wooden rice-bucket.

And that was served and dispatched in this beautiful restaurant.

With this nice inner yard.

This fine fiew through the latticework.

In this fine street. But then again, this is one of those “old towns”, which have turned into shopping areas or tourist centers.

Home scene.

The blue and black ones are called “evil eggs”. They’re buried for days before being sold. Never tried them. Look really evil.

Bamboo forest.

Trekking within a bamboo forest can get real gloomy in a matter of seconds.

Above the bamboo forest.

Once you get to the top, where you think nobody is, you come across this guy…

…and across this old lady.

Dujianyan. There are two must-do social activities in China: playing mahjong and “dancing” taichi. Spontaneous.

Dujiangyan. Gate to the old town.

Dujiangyan. People love to sit at these bridges behind the gates.

They sit and look. All kinds of people.

Dujiangyan. A preserved forest by the city, full of old temples.

Dujiangyan.

Dujiangyan. Beautifully preserved and cared for gardens.

Mozitan reservoir. Dujiangyan

Dujiangyan. After the Mozitan reservoir.

En route to the Tibetan area there is Maoxiang, a city that hosts one of the 1000 ethnical minorities in China. This is a typical house… of course newly made.

Maoxian. Idyllic way of life, government subsidized.

Contrast between the ethnic group houses (foreground) and the rest (background). No wonder that thousands of Chinese forge their documents to officially belong to ethnic minorities.

Maoxian’s new houses for the ethnic groups. Construction fever is everywhere.

Brand new shopping mall, built in the style of the ethnic minority in Maoxian. No escalators, by the way. 25 metres up pure stone steps.

Member of this minority in Maoxiang.

Maoxiang shopping mall

The ethnic’s traditional clothing, worn mostly by elder people. Young ones don’t care.

A stunning fact: the typical handcraft of these people is identical to those in northern Guatemala. So are their faces. Who can tell that America was not populated through Asia?

Popular flour tortillas, also typical in Central America.

Zipin, in the impressive hills of the Himalayas mountain chain. V-shaped valleys, not yet eroded.

Zipin is home to another inority group.

Hitchhiking from Zipin to Songpan, trying to leave behind the everlasting, dull and boring grey skies of the valley.

Songpan’s north gate. Songpan is the foregate to Sichuan’s Tibetan area.

Songpan south gate. Impressive at night.

A temple in Songpan.

In the country of electronics they still use abacus instead of calculators

Songpan, gate to the Chinese Tibet, is a very touristic city, end of some traveler’s journey, beginning of some others.

The more you go to the north, the more authentic people you find.

Right before the police control, Chuanzhunsizhen is the first Tibetan buddism temple you find.

They worship their monks, whose job is to spread the faith and collect the money for keeping the temples (and themselves) in good shape.

Chuanzushizhen temple. Tibetans are extremely superstitious-religious.

In the bus towards Zoige, after the police control. They check for cameras. Don’t want tourists showing to the world what happens in the Tibetan part of China… or the Chinese part of Tibet, for that matter.

Zoige old temple, now a library. Yet another ethnic minority lives in this town.

Free animals. Young deer in the middle of the street. Zoige.

Zoige. Typical folkloric colurs of Tibetans.

In the heart of the Tibetan region.

People live in tents while taking care of their cattle, jaks and cows.

The inmense grazelands for the jak . The second largest grazelands in China.

Colourful Tibetan settlements, temporary, while in summer. In wintertime they move to the villages.

Jaks grazing along the infinite grasslands. Finally some sun and blue skies.

The horse is becoming obsolete. Now the motorcycles take over. But the sun is as merciless as ever, so people cover their faces to prevent sunburns.

Suo kezangsi. View point over the Yellow river. Just another rich temple, in strong contrast with the poor houses.

A herd of jaks.

Suo Kezangsi. Oblations and prayers.

Suo Kezangsi. Top of the infinite garzelands. 10000 ft high. Awesome.

Suo Kezangsi. High flatlands where the majestic Yellow river bends in endless meanders.

Pa and son crossing the street in Hongyuan.

Hongyuan is a small town, where Tibetans around go for commerce.

Shopping in Hongyuan. One of the most typical products is jak milk yoghourt.

The mask is not for the polution, nor for religious reasons, but for the sun.

Same men and women protect their faces.

Hongyuan is very active during light hours. Typical long-sleeved Tibetan multiuse coat

Man-powered san-louen-cha (three wheel car).

Religion and superstition are always present in Tibetan regions.

They really look like bandits. And some of them are. But police don’t mix up with their quarrels.

Monks never pay. They just borrow. Dress well, eat well, live healthy. They have the respect. But they do nothing productive.

Not a beggar. Just chilling out.

Women spinning some superstitous thingie for good luck.

They have mobile phones, of course. But there no TV and no internet in the whole Tibetan region.

They really treat their motorcycles like horses, saddle and all.

A Tibetan family’s lunch

Rongliu, without whom this documentary wouldn’t have been possible, and two of her college mates.