Nujiang 1

This church was built in 1984, but the missionaries came here in 1920s.

It was from the western missionaries that local people learned a large collection of western folk songs and holy hymns in Lisu lyrics.

Just like the hymns, Christian doctrines were also injected with local culture and thrived in its own way here.

A simple dance of hand gestures is called "Debi", also taught by the early missionaries and only to be found in Dananmao Village.

Local people told me many elderly western visitors found the dance familiar.

Xiaolan: The lyrics are, of course, about praising Jesus the Lord; and the dance, I don't know where the dance came from to tell you the truth.

Gaoligong Mountain is the natural borderline of Nujiang Prefecture and Myanmar. Because of the difficulty to reach the area, the forests and the wildlife are among the best-kept in China. The area is also listed as the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve.

The Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve covers an area of 124,000 hectares. The vegetation in the Reserve presents a clear vertical spectrum of six typical zones.

Interview:

Pan: If you can climb up to the top of the mountain, you'll get to see a lot of great stuff, especially precious herbal medicine. Altogether there are 16 different kinds of Hongjingtian in the country; and we've got all of them on Gaoligong Mountain.

Host: Have you seen it yourself?

Pan: Yes. I've even seen a field of almost 1,000 acres.