Northern, Yunnan

Yesterday and the day before, we met 37 girls in Yunnan. Some of their names were Pan, Leili, Run, Taiting and Song. 32 of them go to one school, 4 go to another and one goes to a separate school.

Did you know rice, corn, apples and potatoes are all very important crops in Yunnan? Most of the girls grow two of the four crops.


We saw rice growing in rice paddies. As it grows, the rice turns from green to golden. When it turns golden it is ready to harvest. Since we are here at harvest time, the rice and was all over the side streets and sidewalks. Some of the salks were even on the main streets.





The rice kind of looks like a wheat plant that is about three feet tall. This lady was cutting down the rice and bundling it so that it could easily be carried down the streets.







This man was carrying the rice down the streets so that the rice could be separated from the tip of the plant.







There was a machine that had a wheel that spun around and beat the little rice grains off the stalk.









This lady sifted the rice to separate the rice grains from the little pieces of stalk that came through the machine.











This lady picked pebbles out of the rice after she had spread the rice out on the pavement. Later, there is a machine that takes off the brown stuff, called the husk, and separates it from the rice.






This is corn that is hanging out in the hot sun drying. The people are going to use this dried corn to feed their families or to feed their pigs through the winter.







This is terrace farming. Terrace farming is flat shelves of land that are cut into the mountain to grow crops on.




That's it for now.

Allison, in China