China Trip, October 20-27, 2009

I participated in the first international conference of the International Organization for Folk Arts in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan, China on Oct. 22-26. All participants and organizers met in Beijing on Oct.20 and called on 2 important offices in Beijing: the Committee on Ethnic Cultural Peoples and the Chinese Peoples' Association for International Understanding. In between we toured the national ecological park of Jiuzhaigou to see the lakes and mountains. We attended several Tibetan events because they are the dominant ethnic people there. Jiuzhaigou was badly hit by the earthquake of May 2008 but has recovered quickly. The trip to Jiuzhaigou is long (8 hours) from the nearest functioning airport of Mianyong. In our last evening we attended a Tibetan Baima bonfire dinner and dancing up in the mountains, going by vans up the narrow and steep rough roads, which was frightening. We all returned to Beijing Oct.26 to stay overnite. There I was invited to a great Japanese dinenr by my student, Raymond Lopez, now a 2nd secretary at the Philippine Embassy. On Oct.27, I stopped in Hong Kong for a quiet rest. There I discovered the very pretty Kowloon Botanical Park and Aviary in the heart of town. Now am back home very tired but happy for the experience.
Cheers
Gabby
P.S. Everywhere, I kept seeing colorful butterflies that reminding me of Norman's ever present spirit.