Dam Safety

This is part three of a three-part blog describing my recent trip to the Nu River valley in April 2011. All names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees. Part 1 sets the scene and Part 2 introduces voices from the ground.

Where to Go From Here?

The Nu River from above (Katy Yan)

We ended our journey with a trip to the top of a mountain. Among the clouds, at an organic tea farm set among the foothills of the Himalayas, I had a perfect view of the Nu River as it meandered through the mountains.

Many mountain towns have been relocated by the government to (sometimes literally) soulless assembly-line houses by the river-some say as a form of better state control. Some villages have managed to stay, including this one. Up there in the clouds and away from the threat of dam-building, like the mountain hermits of ancient scroll paintings, we lost ourselves for a moment in our own personal reveries about the fate of the Nu valley below.

This is part one of a three-part blog describing my recent trip to the Nu River valley in April 2011. All names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees. Part 2 introduces the voices from the ground and Part 3 discusses the Nu River's future.

The Nu River's first bend in northern Yunnan Province, China (Green Watershed)

As a Chinese American growing up in the US, I saw China's mountains, rivers and valleys through my mom's traditional scroll paintings. Idyllic villages and small cottages dot green mountainsides of bamboo, pine, and palm.

My recent journey to the Nu River valley, also known as the Nujiang da xiagu ("Nu River Grand Canyon"), was nothing like stepping into one of these paintings.