In the middle of September 2007 we managed to wangle a weekend
trip for all the family to the town of Jinggu. Lesley had to visit some
of her Grade 3 students who were undertaking their teaching practice at Middle
Schools in Jinggu County, so we made the 150km journey to the town (north and
west of Pu'er) by college car.
Having the car was a fortuitous part of the travel arrangements. The rain poured
down in sheets all Friday afternoon and we had to carefully negotiate a couple
of dangerous-looking landslides before we'd even passed Pu'er. Then there was a
small hold-up at a spot where a huge block had fallen from the cliff above,
completely blocking the road. The detour was short thankfully. Finally, a
traffic accident required our people-carrier to squeeze through a narrow gap
between lorry and wrecked car and the road ahead was clear to Jinggu!
We passed through a beautiful landscape of terraced rice fields. Most of the
crop had been harvested and the paddy edges were lined with hundreds of 'dao cao'
- rice-straw haystacks. Tall and thin, like elongated mushrooms on their central
post, they reminded us of an army of naked scarecrows silently guarding the
fields...
Freda and Edie enjoyed the trip by car - unlike the bus, we could stop the car
whenever we wanted for toilet stops or photo opportunities!
The Amazing Tree-Entwined
Pagoda and Pagoda-Embraced Tree
Jinggu's only sight of interest is a famous Dai Buddhist temple, the courtyard
of which is dominated by two ancient trees. One, the Tree-Entwined Pagoda
(above left) is more tree than pagoda; the other, the Pagoda-Embraced Tree
(above right) looks slightly less arboreal. Both are supposed to be over 360
years old, grown from bird-transported seeds dropped on their tops.
The temple was a lovely serene spot to hang out for a while. The weathered
sandstone tablets on the pagodas show scenes from the Dai people's history.
The simple life of a Dai Buddhist Monk does not extend to doing without a mobile
phone!
Lesley and Jayne combined business with pleasure and met some of the students at
the temple.
Jinggu Town
A selection of roasted ducks and chickens at a market in downtown Jinggu.
Jinggu food: Edie buying some glutinous rice dumplings from a Dai lady at the
market (left); Freda pointing out the various meats on offer at one of the
restaurants where we ate (right)...
Jinggu No.1 Middle school
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