Mini China Welcomes You!

Âsurroundings of a village of the Dong people. A field of
Is it possible to walk the length and breadth of Chinapaddy rice and ducks and fish in the lake further add
within a single day?to the idyllic atmosphere of the environment.
One place you could do just that is at the ChineseThe park also features live cultural performances.
Ethnic Culture Park, south of the Bird's Nest and withinEvery morning real lamas from the Tar Monastery of
the Olympic Green.Qinghai province chant Tibetan Buddhist sutras to pray
The huge park has been a labor of love and preciselyfor peace at the Tibetan monastery, while a dongba
re-creates life in all 56 of China's ethnic groups.priest burns incense and says his prayers at the Naxi
From some of the "mountains" or "plateaus," you canvillage.
see Beijing's main Olympic venues, as well as theThen performers of the Miao minority put on a show
Three Towers of Dali in Yunnan province, vivid replicasof "walking on blades", a traditional Miao stunt, while
of the Jokhang Temple and many other ethnicallysingers and dancers of other ethnic groups such as
significant buildings.the Va, Jingpo and Tu entertain visitors with their
The park covers 45 hectares of land within the Northprogram in each village.
Fourth Ring Road and a leisurely stroll throughout willThroughout the year, festivals of various ethnic groups
take six or seven hours. It is also an anthropologicalare celebrated, including the Tibetan Shotan Festival,
museum, the China Nationalities Museum.the Water-sprinkling Festival of the Dai people and the
When construction started in 1992, it was part ofTorches Festival of the Yi.
China's plan to bid for the 2000 Olympics. China lost"Most minority people are very good at singing and
the bid in 1993, only to win it eight years later for thedancing. Participating in their activities helps us
2008 Games.understand and respect their cultures more," says Lei
"It is actually a good thing for us, for we had eightFeng, a 47-year-old visitor to the park.
more years to do research work for the museum andLiu Li, a 29-year-old visitor, took part in the
collect cultural relics from various ethnic groups," says"bamboo-pole dance" of the Dai people and found in it
museum curator Wang Ping.a long-lost joy like that of the "skipping elastic band"
It took three to five years for the park and museum togame in her childhood.
prepare the construction of each ethnic group's area."In the past, I had to travel a long way to experience
Although the first phase of the park opened back inminority people's lives but now I've found it in Beijing,"
1994, work has been going on non-stop ever since.she says. "Separated only by a wall from the hustle
"I have done fieldwork in all the ethnic minority regionsand bustle of the North Fourth Ring Road, it is a totally
in China - I have never been to some tourist attractionsdifferent world here."
like the Huangshan Mountain or Taishan Mountain but IWang says that after the outer construction of the
have been to many villages around the HimalayanChinese Ethnic Culture Park and China Nationalities
Mountains," Wang says.Museum is complete, they will still have a lot of work to
Every ethnic group has a "village" in the park to displaydo, especially in improving the presentation of ethnic
its architecture, religion, lifestyle and cultural relics.culture and enriching collections.
Various crops are also planted in accordance withThe China Nationalities Museum has so far collected
different ethnic groups, including paddy rice for theabout 100,000 cultural relics of various ethnic groups.
Dong people, highland barley for the Tibetans andEspecially valuable among them are 5,000 cultural relics
buckwheat for the Yi.of the Qiang people, housed in a typical watch tower.
"We hope to encourage visitors to enter the lives ofIn the recent earthquake in Sichuan, the Beichuan
different ethnic groups," says Wang.Qiang autonomous county was badly hit and many
Some buildings in the park are original, taken apart atcultural relics were ruined.
their original spots and then transported to, and"Had we not collected these cultural relics, they would
reassembled in, Beijing. Others were prepared in theprobably have been lost forever," says Wang.
original place and assembled in Beijing.As an anthropological museum, China Nationalities
For example, the symbol of the village of the Salar, aMuseum mainly collects items that reflect ordinary
Muslim ethnic group in Northwestern China, is a minaretpeople's lives and on July 15, the museum will open a
from the Shangbaizhuang village, Baizhuang township,new exhibition titled Ordinary People's Exhibition - Our
Xunhua Salar autonomous county, Qinghai province.History and Our Root, displaying items such as needles,
The minaret was built around 300 years ago, and wasbowls and pouches.
moved to the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park in 2003.The preface of the exhibition states: "Most of the
In the southern part of the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park,production tools and daily utensils of the common
one can visit a replica of the Ermin Tower, an ancientpeople arelost without any trace in history. However, it
tower in Turpan, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.is these articles that give us a vivid picture of our life
Standing a towering 44 m, it is exactly the same sizeand culture they tell us about our history and help us
as the original. The grey-yellow bricks were all madefind our roots."
manually in Xinjiang and assembled in Beijing by Uygur"What should we present to the world during the
craftsmen from Xinjiang.Olympic Games? It's our culture and our people, I
In the northernmost part of the park, a drum tower,believe," says Wang.
opera stage and "rain and wind bridge" represent the