A trip to Guizhou province took me back to my childhood

Having grown up in northern Arizona with the immortal Grand Canyon and the iron red plateaus of Sedona in my proverbial backyard, I am comfortably biased in my claim that the southwestern state is home to the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. I spent many a youthful day fantasizing that my cozy valley was a flatland base, protected all around by mountain titans and with an infinite blue sky that promised impossible potential for exploration. These scenes are etched behind my eyes, forever the litmus test for comparing the beauty of newly discovered sights. Thus far, no foreign landscapes had come close.

That is, until I was invited to explore Guizhou province by the China Storyteller Partnerships Tour. Had someone articulately described how beautiful Guizhou can be in poetic detail, they would not have done it justice. There is no substitute for seeing with one's own eyes. I will attempt to do so here.

My father used to drag my brothers and I on yearly fishing trips around Arizona. We would compete to catch the largest fish, which we jokingly called "Jeffs", and in the mornings, Dad would cook us a basic breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. I recall sitting in a small boat in the middle of the lake, fishing pole limp in my impatient hands, mostly holding my bored tongue while my father attempted to share with me the whispers of the wind, a fish dancing on the surface of the lake or the majesty of a hawk hunting for prey overhead. On my trip to Guizhou I had the opportunity to kayak on Wanfeng lake. At one point I rested, floating at the center of the lake, listening to the spaces between silence and taking in the surrounding karst mountains. I thought about my childhood, and wished I had listened more closely to my father's fishing musings.

During my trip around the city of Xingyi, in Guizhou, I saw the artwork of the Bouyei ethnic group. They use dyes produced from local plants to make clothing of striking blues and greens, and blankets that swirl colors together in a dancing vortex. Local elders still practice weaving with ingenious wooden machines and pass that tradition on to their grandchildren. The history here is palpable, one could reach out and touch it, breathe it, even. My mother loved to decorate our home with paintings, jewelry and pottery, crafted by the sunswept hands of the Hopi and Navajo nations. The designs were ancient, and carried tangible wisdom within them. This Earth is our home, and we celebrate its wonders. I caught that same feeling while gazing upon the art on display in Xingyi.

I've lived away from Arizona for 10 long years, carving my own destiny in China. I've managed to build myself a family, a career, a livelihood, and assorted passion projects. I feel as though I have everything that I need. For a moment, in Guizhou, I felt home.

Contact the writer at haydn@chinadaily.com.cn