tagged w/ Yunnan
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Drought cut the new year celebrations short for China's ethnic Dai minority in the southwest province of Yunnan, with authorities limiting the annual water fight to just two hours on Thursday (April 16).
Traditionally, the Dai ethnic group, concentrated in southwest China, celebrate their new year in mid-April with a day-long Water Splashing Festival that brings more than 1 million locals and tourists onto the streets for a festive soaking.
With much of parched southwest China struggling under a drought that has hit more than 25 million people and 18 million heads of livestock, the festival was restricted to just two hours. But that did not stop Xishuangbanna city's residents from preparing their buckets and water pistols.
The extravagant water fight plays a highly significant role in Dai culture, culture expert Zheng Peng said, representing abundance and blessings for the New Year and staving off drought.
"The Dai ethnic group believe that water is even more important than life. The forest is the source of water. Therefore, it has been a commonly held belief for thousands of years among Dai people that where there is forest, there is water; where there is water, there is farmland; where there is farmland, there is food; and where there is food, there are people," said Zheng.
Alongside the water splashing, the region also held dragon boat races, and a water collection ritual in which monks prayed for rain over a jar of water collected from a lake by young women in traditional outfits.
Yunnan province has been hardest hit by the drought, China's English language newspaper the China Daily said, affecting over 80 percent of rapeseed, sugarcane, tobacco, tea and flower production industries.
The drought, the worst to have hit the region in a century, could affect China's hydroelectric output and lead to power shortages, leaders have warned, and has driven up grain and edible oil prices.Drought cut the new year celebrations short for China's ethnic Dai minority in... more
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BEIJING (AP) -- A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100, state media said.
Rescue teams were headed to the quake-hit area but heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain hampered their efforts, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The quake killed 17 people in Sichuan and five others in the neighboring province of Yunnan, Xinhua said.
The agency said about 100 people in Sichuan and 35 in Yunnan were injured. The quake hit 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern corner of Sichuan on Saturday afternoon.
Nearly 1,000 houses were destroyed in Panzhihua, and it was not known how many people were buried in the rubble, the report said.
The China Earthquake Administration sent teams and seismic experts while the Yunnan provincial civil affairs bureau and the Yunnan Red Cross Society sent 3,400 tents and 2,000 quilts, Xinhua said.
Also Saturday, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale struck the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Xinhua said in a separate report.
No casualties were reported from the quake which hit the sparsely inhabited Tianshan mountains, it said.
On May 12, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in northern Sichuan killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. The region has been hit by scores of aftershocks, keeping people there on edge.BEIJING (AP) -- A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan... more
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ivxx
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added this
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3 years ago
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Its always interesting to find out how advanced we were so, so long ago. Life for humans hasn't changed. Our weapons and toys have.....
BEIJING - Thousands of ancient artifacts and wooden poles more than 3,000 years old have been unearthed in China's southern Yunnan province, possibly the world's largest site of a Neolithic community, local media reported on Tuesday.
The poles, found standing 4.6 meters underground, were used as part of building structures for an ancient community that may have covered an area of 4 square km, the China Daily reported, citing Min Rui, a researcher at Yunnan Archaeological Institute, who is leading the excavation team.
The site could be older than the Hemudu community in Yuyao, in Zhejiang province, which is among the most famous in China and is believed to be the birthplace of society around the Yangtze River.
An area of 1,350 sq m has already been uncovered and excavation is ongoing.
"I was shocked when I first saw the site. I have never seen such a big and orderly one," Yan Wenming, history professor at Peking University, was quoted as saying.
Excavation began in January, but the site was actually discovered five decades ago during the construction of a canal along the banks of the Jianhu Lake, about 500 km northwest of the provincial capital Kunming.
Archaeologists have found more than 3,000 artifacts made of stone, wood, iron, pottery and bone, as well as more than 2,000 of the wooden posts.Its always interesting to find out how advanced we were so, so long ago. Life for... more
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