Broadcasting Time: 2006-08-30

Hello and welcome to this edition of China Horizons. I'm Wang Lu. On today's show, we will first travel to the country's Guizhou province in the southwest to meet a pair of sisters who can face the music and sing for their lives. Then we will follow a group of archaeologists to Wuxi in eastern China and find out about their efforts to protect the local Hongshan Ruins. Finally, on our traveling road, we will continue our journey in Guizhou, this time visiting a vast expanse of bamboo forest, which the locals call the "Bamboo Sea above the Mills." For all this and more, stay tuned to China Horizons.

Owing to its complicated geographical conditions, Guizhou in southwestern China is one of the poorest provinces in the country. Recently, CRI extended financial help to some of the children living deep in the mountains of the impoverished province to finish their studies. Ten reporters traveled to the remote areas and brought back a series of exclusive reports. Let's follow our reporter Xiaohua to meet a few of the local children, the focus of CRI's efforts.

This song is sung by two sisters of the local Miao ethnic group who are keen on singing. The elderly one, Luo Huaxiang, is fifteen years old. And her little sister, Luo Xiaoxiao, is one year younger than her. They live in a remote area of the mountainous Panxian County, from which they must walk two hours on a rugged mountain path to get to school. Their daily food consists only of some potatoes and corn—the main local crops owing to the region's lack of water. The whole year's rations for the sister's six-member family are tied to a piece of land the same size as a basketball court. Occasionally, the sister's parents go out to the mountain to gather medicinal herbs to sell to help out with family expenses.

A simple and crude log cabin is set up against the hill. Some plantains and corn stands in front of the house. Stepping into the room, the floor lacks any decorations except the naked uneven terrain. Pieces of blue sky fill in the cracks of the roof. A traditional weaving machine and some simple furniture are all the family's wealth. Even the curtain that serves as their home's door is made from fertilizer bags.

On the wall there are several awards reflecting a few of the joyous moments the poor family has had together. The two sisters won them for singing in all kinds of competitions. They have inherited their mother Tao Chunyan's good singing genes. She was once the champion of the whole county. She likes singing traditional ancient Miao songs while weaving.

The family belongs to Xiaohua Miao, which literally translates to "little flower," one of branches of the Miao ethnic group in southwest China. Xiaohua Miao was named for their love of colorfully embroidered costumes. Tao Chunyan started to learn to weave and embroider when she was only ten years old. Though country women usually only finish primary school studies, she knows that going to school is the best and only way out for her children. But raising four children is never an easy task, and this is especially so for this poor family. Tao told me how she feels.

"My family is poor. We have to live, while my children also need to go to school. But sometimes, so the whole family can live, we have no choice but to give up their studies. We cannot afford their school fees."
The two sisters both performed very well in school. But, starting when they were in the first and second grades, they stopped attending class for three years. During those days, they helped the family work in the field or dry herbs in the sun. Whenever she remembers that time tears well up in the eyes of Huaxiang, who remained in middle school,.
 
"At that time I really wanted to go to school. Everyday I saw many of my fellow companions happily go off to study. I felt envious of them. But I knew that my family didn't have the money, so I never told my parents about it."
The year 2000 was important for both girls. It was the year their lives were changed. Thanks to a government subsidy for their tuition fees, they finally got to go back to school. But, even with the subsidy, the tuition fees per child per year remained forty yuan or about 5 dollars, still a heavy burden for the poor family. Just one year later, Huaxiang was forced to give up her studies again. But this time her head teacher Zhang Youfu helped her out.

"When he knew that my family could not afford my tuition fees, he dipped into his own pocket and paid the fees for me. I didn't know how to express my heart-felt gratitude towards him. No words can express my feelings then. The only words I said to him were: ‘Thanks. I'll try my best to study hard."