Editorial: Things I've Learnt In Qinghai

"Now watch, watch carefully. This is the only weak point in his swordplay."

A gust of wind blew by. The wind has suddenly turned cold.

Her body and sword began to move. A kind of extremely slow, extremely graceful movement, as natural as if it were the wind itself.

But when the wind blows, who can withstand it? And who knows where it comes from?

Yan Shisan's pupils contracted.

Her sword slowly, slowly thrust forward.

It thrust forward from the most inexplicable position, and as it thrust forward it suddenly made the most inexplicable movement. But in this movement there was indeed a point of vulnerability.

When a fierce wind roars across the land, even it can seldom avoid exposing a few weak points. But when a fierce wind blows, who pays attention to these few points?

Yan Shisan suddenly realized that his palms were covered in cold sweat.

At this moment, her movement ceased.

Gazing coldly at Yan Shisan, and said:

"Did you see it?"

Yan Shisan nodded his head.

— from San Shaoye De Jian by Gu Long (a martial arts novel)

In a few short weeks, I will be leaving Qinghai. As a tribute to my time here, I would like to list some of the things which I have learnt during the last 17 months. Some are things which I could have learnt elsewhere in China, indeed some are things which I could have learnt years ago in Australia. But I didn't. In other words, this list probably says more about my experiences here than it does about Qinghai itself. I have learnt:

How to light a coal stove;
The chinese way of folding a blanket;
How to peel a potato with a clever (vegetable peelers are catching on here, but only slowly);
How to cook quite a few simple dishes, and several kinds of noodles including mianpian;
The distinction between hot chili and flavoursome chili (the flavoursome chili grown in Xunhua County is rightfully famous);
That some parts of sheep (like stomach or lungs) are quite nice when washed down with broth;
A great deal about what life is like in villages and small towns;
Quite a bit about the local dialect. Not enough that I can imitate it, but I can understand it a lot better than when I first arrived, and I have even begun to use the sentence final particle sa, something which I will have to unlearn when I go to Beijing because nobody there will know what it means;
The basics of playing bamboo clackers (but since I don't know any songs or rhymes which would sound good with bamboo clacker accompaniment, my skills haven't developed any further);
The basics of mahjongg, although people get impatient because I play too slowly. I know some frequent players who not only play at breakneck speed, but can identify the tiles without looking, just by rubbing them with their thumb and feeling the pattern;
How to dance with a partner, even if all I can manage is the most basic of basic steps without any spins or anything fancy like that;
How to dance some steps of guozhuang (Tibetan circle dance);
How to sing several new songs;
How to open a beer bottle using another beer bottle, or disposable chopsticks;
Several drinking games;
What it feels like to be really drunk. I've always been a very moderate drinker, but the people I know in Qinghai sometimes just won't take "no" for an answer;
And, of course, a lot about rural development and poverty alleviation.

But there are also a few things which I somewhat regret not making the effort to learn while I had the chance:

How to speak basic mangghuer (the only sentences I can remember are "Have you eaten?" and "Drink alcohol");
How to make the local bread;
How to sing one or two local folk songs;
How to play niujiupai, a kind of card game (played with special cards) that is unique to the north-west;
How to play huaquan, the classic chinese drinking game where two people hold out a number of fingers and guess the total.