Thoughts on Jiuzhaigou trip - Tibetan Family Visit & Tibetan Culture Show

Surprisingly, it didn’t turn out to be as commercialized as I had expected. Probably because we spent so much time in Jiuzhaigou (we left at 6pm on the second day of our visit), so we were the last two guests to arrive, and we were still eating when the other tourists had to leave.

We were served some Tibetan food, I forgot the names of most of the food. Because I don’t like lamb, they served us roasted chicken instead of lamb. The surprise came when the host told us he hunted that chicken that morning. (!)

Until then, I didn’t REALLY appreciate how much their life differ from ours, sure there is cultural difference, of course language barrier as well, but if we want a chicken, we will go to the market and buy one, but he HUNTED one for us.

It was delicious, by the way.





See the chicken on the lower part around centre of the table- that's what he hunted!


After some outrageous =P performances with really modern pop song-like pseudo-Tibetan singing, plus some teasing and games between the host family and some of the guests (which was really funny and entertaining, despite the spontaneity =P), the others left leaving the two of us.

The host family chatted with us while we were eating, they seemed really curious about city dwellers like us. None of them had education more than primary two level, the guy (younger brother in the family, aged 21) has never attended school before. However, they knew some basic English (!) from the guests they received. And the younger brother said he was the one who had traveled farthest among the family members, he had been to Chengdu, and he loved it, his comment was “such a big city and tall buildings!”

He was raised on horses, and so his first comment upon knowing where we came from was “Oh Hong Kong, that’s where the Olympic equestrian event was held!” (I was thinking if he thought Chengdu was so marvelous, what would he think if he had the chance to come to HK?)

The guy in front is the younger brother and the other two girls are his sisters.






It is really weird/unbelievable/maybe kind of sad when you think about it. When you look at the smog-filled sky of Chengdu (Really it’s a LOT worse than that in HK, just SMOG SMOG and SMOG), and these people (who is practically living in a fairytale land for us) actually want to move to Chengdu.

SMOG at Chengdu




No matter how much they try to preserve their own culture, it is going to disappear. And soon.

Which reminds me of the Tibetan show on the day before, the Tibetan “F5” (what my friend and I called them =P) who has got their own 主打歌 (not sure of the proper English translation, main promotional song?). The scenery may be preserved if they can generate money from it, but their culture once lost will be gone forever.

This is the guy who claimed he has a 主打歌 (main promotional song?).


This is "F5"!