plants of Guizhou, karst desertification, and reforestation


books about Guizhou plants -《黔东南常见森林植物图谱》 Common Forest Plants from Southeast Guizhou Province, 2013 ;贵州植被 Vegetation of Guizhou, 1988;石阡县森林植物种质资源 forest plants of Shiqian County, Guizhou

 Also see:  Guizhou Plateau broadleaf and mixed forests – Encyclopedia of Earth, www.eoearth.org/view/article/152980
Vegetation in karst areas
The regional vegetation types in Guizhou karst plateau belong to subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest. Fagaceae, Theaceae and Lauraceae are the predominant vegetation. Besides, mountainous warm coniferous forest characterized by fir, Pinus massoniane, Pinus yunnanensis,conifer- broadleaf mixed forest predominated by pine, fir, polar and birch, deciduous broadleaf forest characterized by Liquidambar formosana, pollar, Batula lumilifera and the artificial and secondary bamboo forest are also widespread…However, except for Maolan Karst Forest Preserve in southeast Guizhou, the karst forests in Guizhou are mainly secondary forests, and the flora (fascicular) are simple.


Guizhou’s Ferns and Mosses 《贵州蕨类植物志》《贵州苔藓植物图志》


online photos of China’s plants  普蘭塔 www.planta.cn from http://www.planta.cn/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30207&sid=1b2ad8d69d0727896c374e558799f194
Also,  Nature Education Literature  家长环境教育图书推荐目录 [supplied by Katie Scott of NatureWize, a Guiyang nature education organization, www.en.naturewize.org,   katiescott@naturewize.org ]

《森林里最后一个孩子: 拯救自然缺失症儿童》
作者:(美)理查德•洛夫,王西敏 (合著者), 郝冰 (合著者), 自然之友 (译者)
出版社:湖南科学技术出版社; 第1版
出版年: 2010-4
Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
—Richard Louv

《与孩子共享自然》
作者: (美)约瑟夫・克奈尔
译者: 叶凡
出版社: 天津教育出版社
出版年: 2000-6
Sharing Nature with Children:
——Joseph Bharat Cornell

《中国鸟类野外手册》
作者: [英]约翰•马敬能 / 卡伦•菲利普斯
出版社: 湖南教育出版社
译者: 卢和芬/ 何芬奇/解焱
出版年: 2000年6月第一版
A Field Guide to the Birds of China
—-John Ramsay MacKinnon

《树:全世界500多种树木的彩色图鉴》
作者: (英)库姆斯
出版社: 中国友谊出版公司
译者: 猫头鹰出版社
出版年: 2005
Tree identification through colorful pictures of more than 500 species in the world
—Kums

《中国昆虫记Ⅱ》
作者: 李元胜
出版社: 上海社会科学院出版
出版年: 2004-5
The insects in China, II
—Yuansheng Li

《常见植物野外识别手册》
作者: 刘全儒/ 王辰
出版社: 重庆大学
出版年: 2007-3
The handbook of common plants identification
—Quanru Liu/Chen Wang

《常见昆虫野外识别手册》
作者: 张巍巍
出版社: 重庆大学
出版年: 2007-3.

list from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_areas_of_China, uploaded at http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/10701866374/in/photostream

Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve is a treasure-house of plants and wildlife. The reserve is rich in plant resources and 80% of the conservation area is covered with virgin forest and other plants. There are about 795 families of plants and 1,955 species, including 14 families and 19 species of gymnosperms, 460 families and 1,155 species of spermatophytes and 123 families of fungi. Some plants are rare, such as the dove flowers which grow only in this region. Due to the influence of the sub-tropical alpine monsoon climate, the distribution of vegetation is vertically zonal. The plants vary from the evergreen broadleaf forest to deciduous trees.

The favorable climate and lush vegetation make the reserve an ideal habitat for wild fauna. The number of wild animal species identified and documented has reached over 800. The diversified fauna include 68 species of mammals, 191 species of birds, 41 species of reptiles and 34 species of amphibians, respectively accounting for 13.6%, 6.2%, 10.9% and 12.2% of the national total animal population. Among these species, some are rare and endangered. The Guizhou golden monkeys can be seen only in this region and are on the edge of extinction, hence a national treasure and protected species. Other species like clouded leopard, South China Tiger, pangolin and antelope are also important national protected animals.  (from http://www.chinesetimeschool.com/en-us/articles/fanjingshan-national-nature-reserve )

Karst rocky desertification around Guizhou Province

Expanding karst rocky desertification is shrinking living space and becomes the root of disaster and poverty in southwest China; it is especially true for Guizhou Province, which lies in the center of karst areas in the southwest. Karst rocky desertification, drought and water deficiency are the main environmental problems in karst areas in southwestern China.  (from http://www.karstdata.cn/messinfo.aspx?id=246 )
= = =
In karst areas of Guizhou, the soils are discontinued, shallow and thin. The land surface and soils have poor capacity of storing water and usually are dry because of the quick and serious leakage of rain water. And the landforms are deep cut and steep. As a result, development of the regional forest is influenced, and a special karst forest vegetation is formed….Main causes of rock desertification:
Firstly, the pure limestone,well-developed joints and strong karstification result in little and thin soil and bare rocks:The Triassic limestone is very pure, with less than 1% unsoluble matters by acid, so the rock can not form abundant soils. Meanwhile, well-developed karst fissures and sinkholes are easy for serious loss and leakage of water and soil. These are the natural conditions of the rock desertification.
Secondly,a big population density of 135/km2 and lack of cultivated land result in the local farmers to cultivate mountain slopes and rock fissures in large area: The group has only 146 mu cultivated land, but 40% of them are in the rock fissures. Even a small patch of soil between rock or the rock fissure where can only plant one corn or potato is also fully used . The situation for long periods is inevitably leading to deterioration of ecology and rock desertification .
Thirdly, the vegetation grows slowly and has low ecological efficiency under cold plateau climate and fragile karst environments: Though the farmers have coals for fuels and do not cut the trees for firewood, as well as plant some trees on the hills, the trees grows slowly, and the forestation effects are bad under bare karst environments and cold climate in high elevation area. The annual mean temperature is 12℃.And there are 125 days in frost periods each year.
The development of agriculture and improvement of ecological environments in Mishuga have been paid attention by local governments. An important way will possibly be that, to change the way of the agriculture production, and transfer a lot of land which are used for provision crops now into a base to develop liana herbs, valuable grasses and good fruits in the future. ( from  http://www.karst.edu.cn/guidebook/guizhou.htm )


Reforestation Project in Guiyang, Guizhou – Increase in the amount of vegetation cover in the degraded mountains of Guiyang. Helped in the promotion of biological diversity of the area.  See: http://www.oisca-international.org/programs/environmental-conservation-program/china/oisca-reforestation-project-in-guiyang-guizhou/

= = =

Reforesting rural lands in western China pays big dividends, Stanford researchers say

Planting trees instead of crops on sloping land helps prevent erosion from heavy rains, Stanford researchers find. And China’s attempt to find new jobs for displaced farmers is having some success.   (Stanford Report, May 11, 2011}

…”We can think of these life-support services as flowing from natural capital, like forests and wetlands, which provide very tangible, financially valuable services,” said Daily. “Forests soak up tremendous amounts of water, filter it and release it gradually into rivers and streams that we use for drinking water, hydroelectric power and growing crops.” In many ways, the environment can help mitigate damage from floods and even human disasters, like oil spills, she added.

China’s land conversion program has its roots in the late 1960s, when farmers in the mountainous western provinces began clearing vast stretches of land to make way for more crops. The increased agricultural production helped feed a growing nation but also set the scene for disaster. When record monsoon rains pelted the region in 1998, soil from the agricultural fields washed down the mountain slopes, killing thousands of people in the villages below.

The unprecedented damage caused by the floods prompted China to reconsider the wisdom of replacing forests with farms – especially in steeply sloping terrain. In 2000, the government launched a campaign to reforest the countryside and established several large-scale programs to help farmers in the western provinces find new work in surrounding cities…   (from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/may/reforesting-rural-china-051111.html )

from (from en.gygov.gov.cn/art/2010/10/15/art_15204_258101.html and en.gygov.gov.cn/art/2009/10/15/art_15204_258103.html)

Senior citizens in Guiyang’s Qianling Park singing/dancing to “Red songs” popular when they were young.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qianling Park,Guiyang,dancing & singing old songs, 大家乐乐团 (歌舞合唱团), Nov 2013 -l, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/10640109063/ 

Senior citizens singing/dancing to “Red songs” popular when they were young. Every Saturday & Sunday 9:00-11:00 am at Guiyang’s Qianling Park, just to the left and up a few stairs near the park entrance. Info (in Chinese): 151 8514 8156, Mr Liu Dezhen 刘德珍

Evening with Yang and Friends

I got in late last night because I had dinner with Mr. Yang and other friends.  Before dinner I helped some students with their English studies, played the “Fight the Landlord” card game, and then at dinner drank some white wine (104 proof liquor) made by the Moutai Corporation. It was a fine time.

Fight the Landlord is a card game played by three people. If you think you can get rid of your cards first, you can try to be the landlord, in which case  the other two players team up together to try to stop you.  The rules of this game are kind of complex, and are beyond the scope of this post.  After you learn the rules, the game gets very complex.  There are many possibilities in the way the cards fall, and strategies are not straightforward.  The Chinese adults that I was playing with have played this game for many years, so I was lucky that I didn’t lose every hand.

My best Chinese friend, Steven, had a Xinhua News clipping about the attack on the LA Airport and there was a troublesome grammar error. I had just run into this problem in my English class when the textbook referenced “The family are living in …” I had told the class that it was common usage to say that “The family is …” I was challenged during and after class when students said that their Chinese English teacher had confirmed that it should be “are” because it  was a collection, like “police are”.

I didn’t back down, even though the textbook said the student was right.  I thought maybe it was a text written by a Chinese scholar, but his name was “Jones”, who happens to be a world famous linguist. So I told the students they should try to find out what the test required in way of answers to this kind of question, but for my class they should say “The family is. . .”

I think that there is some kind of conspiracy to change the English Language to conform with Chinese Characteristics.  This is what the Xinhua news clipping said:

terminalWere

 

The students were more excited than usual at this controversy . . .

IMAG2584

 

It’s understandable that I would drink a lot of the “white wine” after this grueling session with the students.  The dinner was heavily peppered, as is the Guizhou style.  I especially liked the little insects that were roasted in pepper . . .

IMAG2588

 

You can probably understand why I slept late this morning.

The Fantastic Map

There is a significant number of Chinese that don’t like the idea that the USA has simply been printing money and borrowing to pay for the massive imports from China.  They are offended by the fact that we owe them so much money and their government loans us more.

See: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fantastic-map-shows-staggering-amount-200024702.html

Certainly we could stop importing and many Chinese would be out of work. They don’t want that.  It’s kind of like Greece and Germany.  As long as Greece was buying from Germany, and Germans had plenty of work, German banks were willing to loan them money.  Then they got all indignant when Greece said they couldn’t pay the debt.

When Chinese complain to me that we owe them too much money, I always have the same answer . . . “We can pay you tomorrow. Do you want cash or check?”

 

student performance at Guiyang American-Canadian International School 贵阳美加国际学校, English corner at Hualin Middle School 贵阳华麟中学

Guiyang American-Canadian International School 贵阳美加国际学校 (“Meijia”) performance, Oct 24, 2013. See more photos of Meijia at: www.flickr.com/photos/101438178@N05/?saved=1

Foreign English teachers in photos include Anna Pashkevych (from Ukraine, teaching at Meijia), Daniel Montes (from Mexico, a teacher at the Siweite/Sweet and Fulian kindergartens in Jinyang), and Katherine Cecil (from London, formerly teaching at Hualin Middle School 华麟中学).

Guiyang American-Canadian International School 贵阳美加国际学校, with foreign teacher Anna Pashkevych, Sep 2013

visit in June 2013 to Guiyang American-Canadian International School by students from a New England association of secondary schools , uploaded at http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/10608296134/in/photostream/

Startedu 起步教育 teachers, from left: Daniel Montes, damori88@hotmail.com, todosestanocupados@hotmail.com; Anna Pashkevych, anna_2017@ukr.net; Katherine Cecil, katherine.cecil@kcl.ac.uk; Ray Mahoney,马汉年, rmahoney58@yahoo.com; Benny Fan Xingqi 范兴旗,  Startedu 起步教育– Guiyang” , fanxq@startedu.cn; at Guiyang,Hualin Middle School,贵阳华麟中学. Photo taken after a Friday English corner at Hualin Middle School, Oct 2013.

For those interested in working in Guiyang for one of the Startedu (Qibu Jiaoyu 起步教育) schools—currently two middle schools and two kindergartens—please contact Benny Fan Xingqi 范兴旗 at: fanxq@startedu.cn; tel: 133 3961 3120. Inquiries in English can also be directed to Joe Zhao in the Shanghai headquarters: Joe Zhao Pengzhou 赵鹏洲 , pengzhou@startedu.cn ; tel: 138 1727 0315

The Guizhou Library has a very nice collection of English books on the 4th floor Foreign Language 外文 section. Open every day.  This Saturday English corner there has been organized by 85 year old “Camel” for many years (his first English corner was at the Qianling Park).   Library cards that allow borrowing of books for one month are available with a 200 yuan deposit.

children’s collection at Guizhou Library, 1st fl, Beijing Rd, with Jack Porter (Guizhou Normal U. English teacher) , Oct 2013, posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/10137882495/in/photostream/

Occasional story reading at the children’s section of the Guizhou Library (Beijing Road, next to the Guizhou Museum) by volunteer teachers on Saturday afternoons.

 

going native

Anna in Miao minority dress, Huangguoshu Waterfalls, Anshun, Guizhou, Oct 2013,

Anna teaches at the Guiyang American-Canadian International School, see: www.flickr.com/photos/101438178@N05/with/10051855993/

at a store in Guiyang with things to burn to the dead – money, paper clothes, paper gold ingots, paper cigarettes, dominoes, mahjong table, etc 冥币等等,  uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/10063978115/

American $1 dollar bills with the Chinese god of the underworld in the place of Washington’s face, and the denomination changed to US$1,000,000, was the surprise.

The store was close to a hospital.  There was no Buddhist or Daoist temple in the area.

old photos of downtown Guiyang, on Zhonghua Rd near Dashizi and Penshuichi 老贵阳的照片,中华路在大十字、喷水池附近

old Guiyang photos – Dashizi (Zhonghua Rd & Zhongshan Rd) in the 1940s, from 贵阳老照片, 2003, ISBN 7-221-06271-4/K-725, posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998463924/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – celebration of founding of PRC, 1949, seems to be on Zhonghua Rd near Dashizi, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998463964/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – Dashizi (Zhonghua Rd & Zhongshan Rd) in the mid-late 1950s, celebration of collectivization, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998463954/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – Dashizi (Zhonghua Rd & Zhongshan Rd) with Zhonghua Middle Rd in upper right,undated, from 贵阳老照片. 2003, ISBN 7-221-06276-5/K-727, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998463934/in/photostream/

Dashizi 大十字 today

1930s Guiyang street scene 30年代贵阳, 30年代贵阳繁华地段。from http://shanshuiqiancheng.soufun.com/bbs/3314011348~-1/53710480_53710480.htm, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9480807336/in/set-72157634952466595/

old Guiyang photos – from Dashizi looking S on Zhonghua Middle Rd 1996 & 2008, photos from 图说贵阳, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998178615/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – from Dashizi looking N on Zhonghua Middle Rd toward Penshuchi 2002 & 200_, photos from 图说贵阳, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998178225/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – looking N on Zhonghua South Rd toward Dashizi 1996, photos from 图说贵阳, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998178795/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – looking N on Zhonghua South Rd toward Dashizi 2008, photos from 图说贵阳, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998178805/in/photostream/

Penshuichi in the 1960s – 60年代的喷水池

former Water Fountain (now paved over) 喷水池, Guiyang, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9482921909/in/set-72157634952466595/ 【黔城往事】“喷水池”最后一瞥 作者:黔山毛豆  日期:2010-02-25, 现在就是历史。贵阳市最繁华的“喷水池”原名“铜像台”,因铸造有周西成一尊铜像而得名。1933年开始筹建,历时两年半,于1935年夏建成。1952年拆除铜像,改建为街心花园,中有喷泉,称为喷水池。此后,喷水池经过数度改造,终成为照片中的模样。2010年2月18日凌晨,喷水池拆除工程动工,将拆除现有环岛和雕塑,改为十字交叉口;在交叉口设置四个交通导流岛,导流岛内设喷泉小品和绿化,兼顾城市景观和延续“喷水池”历史传统。拆除以后,那个被贵阳人称为“巨大背篼”的城市雕塑将如何处置?择地放置?当废金属卖掉?或是融掉?(from http://www.qtwm.com/default.asp?tag=%e9%bb%94%e5%9f%8e%e5%be%80%e4%ba%8b&page=3 )

old Guiyang photos – Penshuichi looking NE 1996 & 2008, photos from 图说贵阳, 2010, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998463524/in/photostream/

old Guiyang photos – from Penshuichi looking N on Zhonghua North Rd 1997 & 2008, photos from 图说贵阳, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9998178035/in/photostream/

Penshuichi 喷水池 today

old map of Guiyang (Guizhou).18th century,French 贵阳历史地图, posted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/9473752520/in/set-72157634952466595/

old Guiyang map 贵阳老地图, from 图说贵阳, ISBN 978-7-5614-4916-5, uploaded at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/10000341595/

downtown Guiyang map today

Guiyang has grown exponentially since the 1990s. The city’s heart is around the 大十字 (literally “Big Cross”) which is a cross, resembling the Chinese character for ten, and 喷水池 (literally “Fountain Pool”) which is a traffic intersection which had a large fountain at its center, until the fountain was paved over in early 2010 to help improve the flow of traffic.

The city is situated on the Nanming River, a headstream of the Wu River, which eventually joins the Yangtze River at Fuling, Chongqing. Guiyang is a natural transportation center, with comparatively easy access northward to Sichuan, eastward to Guangxi and Guangdong, westward to Yunnan, and northeast to Hunan province.

History of Guiyang

The city was first constructed as early as 1283 AD during the Yuan Dynasty. It was originally called Shunyuan (順元), meaning obeying the Yuan (the Mongol rulers).

Originally the area was populated by non-Chinese. The Sui Dynasty (AD 581–618) had a commandery there, and the Tang dynasty (618–907) a prefecture. They were, however, no more than military outposts, and it was not until the Yuan (Mongol) invasion of southwest China in 1279 that the area was made the seat of an army and a “pacification office.” Chinese settlement in the area also began at that time, and, under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the town became the seat of a superior prefecture named Guiyang.

Locally Guiyang was an important administrative and commercial center with two distinct merchant communities, consisting of the Sichuanese, who lived in the “new” northern part of the city, and those from Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi province, who lived in the “old” southern part. Nevertheless, until the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), Guiyang was no more than the capital of one of China’s least-developed provinces. As elsewhere in the southwest, considerable economic progress was made under the special circumstances of wartime. Road transport infrastructure with Kunming in Yunnan province and with Chongqing in Sichuan (China’s wartime provisional capital) and into Hunan were established. Work was begun on a railway from Liuzhou in Guangxi, and after 1949 this development was accelerated. Guiyang has subsequently become a major provincial city and industrial base. In 1959 the rail network in Guangxi was completed, allowing seamless connection from Guizhou to Chongqing to the north, to Kunming to the west, and Changsha to the east.

(from Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiyang )

books with photos of old Guiyang – Guizhou Provincial Library, Beijing Rd near Guizhou Museum, 5th fl. Local Collections Reading Room. Open every day.

Guiyang dialect tapes 贵阳话磁带

Guiyang dialect tapes 贵阳话音档, includes above transcription and recording of “The North Wind and the Sun” 北风跟与太阳 in Guiyang dialect. To order:  ISBN 7-5320-5449-7/G-5691

see uploaded scans of this book at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98531730@N02/sets/72157644983638411/with/14151126748/

 

from  ISBN 978-7-5106-1247-3  新编普通话教程, 2012  :