A NEWSLETTER TO INFORM AND ACKNOWLEDGE CERS’ FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS CHINA since 1986 EXPLORERS CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY VOLUME 13 NO. 4 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE 3 25 Years Retrospective 39 Uncompensated Morality 8 25 Years of Surprises and Surprising Legacy 41 Golden Monkeys & Lisu Village 10 Return to the Arjinshan Calving Grounds Boundless Lake 14 Angel of the Plateau finds new home 42 From Junk to Jewel 16 Explorers of the Arjinshan 20 Crisis Aversion at Antelope Watershed 30 My “Will” – Arjin Shan Nature Reserve CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Students and staff in front of Zhongdian 32 Filming in Arjin Center Yunnan. Students listen to tales at 34 The Road to Arjin Lisu site. How Man with newborn Antelope 35 What the CERS education program has meant to me calf. Zhang Huibin and How Man with 36 My CERS Experience from student intern to staff guests Karl von Habsburg and Wellington 38 My time with CERS Yee on expedition. CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY PAGE 1 A NEWSLETTER TO INFORM AND ACKNOWLEDGE CERS' FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS Founder WONG HOW MAN CHINA Directors: BARRY LAM, CERS Chairman EXPLORERS Chairman, Quanta Computer, Taiwan CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY MAGNUS BARTLETT Director, Odyssey Publications VOLUME 13 NO.4 25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE WILLIAM BLEISCH, PhD Science Director, CERS President’s Message years of CERS. A milestone some may call JAMES CHEN it. But it was measured in inches and tiny Managing Director, Legacy Advisors Ltd. steps. CERS was first conceived in 1986. I intended it to be small, but somehow it grew BILLY YUNG bigger than I expected, or even recognized. Group Chairman, Shell Electric Holdings Ltd. 25I intended to conduct just a couple of worthy projects and it ended up being dozens of projects. Some projects seem big CHRISTABEL LEE now, but for me they are all like small children, as I remember Managing Director, Toppan Vite Limited them best as tiny beginnings. I hoped to find just a few supporters but ended up collecting many friends who share the MICHAEL J MOSER, PhD same commitment and mind set. WELLINGTON YEE For over a year, I agonized over whether we should even plan for another 25 years for CERS, allow it to mature. Now the CERS Field Staff: decision has been made, and I would adamantly work toward that goal. WILLIAM BLEISCH, PhD, Chief Biologist PAUL BUZZARD, PhD, Field Biologist If our mission in exploring China and conserving its natural and cultural heritage was relevant during the last 25 years, it should even be more so today given the break-neck pace CAO ZHONGYU, Logistics Support of change. For the first quarter century, we worked on the ground. For the next 25 years, CHEN LI MEI, Zhongdian Centre Vice Director CERS will take flight. We will expand our horizon by bringing in a younger and more SHARON KO, Exhibit Designer capable generation to continue the work we have embarked upon. LI NA, Kunming Admin. Officer I have many to thank, my Board of Directors, past and present, my supporters, and my staff. LIU HONG, Speleologist I even have to thank my good fortune in allowing me to do something I thoroughly enjoy, and at the same time adding more meaning to life. QIJU QILIN, Zhongdian Centre Director MARTIN RUZEK, Earth System Scientist Our board has decided that CERS should go bi-lingual in 2012. With 25 years of deliverable Logistic Support Manager results, we don’t need to be humble and low profile any more, not even in China. Our SO SHU XUAN, Chinese compatriots should judge us by our track record, rather than speculate about what WANG JIAN, Kunming Director are CERS’ intent and mission. As with my many projects, I always like to jump-start things ZHANG FAN, Kunming Conservation Center Director and get ahead of schedule. That motto still stands today: “it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” So we begin with this President’s Message for our 25th anniversary both in Chinese and English. Headquarters Staff: ALAN CHOW, Chief Executive Officer CERS二十五年CERS學會成立之初，我想像它永遠仍將是一個小型學會，有如父母眼中的孩子一 RABBIA CHOI, Admin. Officer 般，絕未想到它會發展和壯大到今天的規模。我當年的打算是學會將開展為數不多但有意義的項 目，沒想到至今學會所完成的項目，已達數十個之多。有些規模看來還蠻大的，但對我來說它們 JOE LUNG, Web/IT Manager 都如小孩那麼小和親切。我亦未料及學會能有如此眾多的支持者和理念相近的朋友。 TRACY MAN, Accountant BERRY SIN, Logistics Director 過去整整一年，我一直在作思想鬥爭：應否為CERS的下一個二十五年作一番認真的規劃？讓它長 大成人，現在我已經決定要這樣做，今後的歲月，我將傾全力為達至學會新的目標而奮鬥。 Associate Filmmakers: CHRIS DICKINSON 在過去的二十五年，CERS一直在中國進行探險活動和開展自然和文化保育項目為其使命。在世事 XAVIER LEE 快速變化的今天，學會應該更加堅定地執持這個使命。在過去的二十五年，學會的事務從零開始 穩步前進，今後的二十五年，我希望學會能有飛躍般的進步。為拓展視野，學會將會為它的團隊 Editor: 培養年青一代和更為能幹的成員。這對於延續和傳承學會的使命，也是非常重要的。 CATHY HILBORN FENG 我要感謝學會現今和過去歷屆董事局的成員，我的支持者和學會的職員。我亦感謝老天對我的眷 顧，令我得以從事這份我極為喜愛及為我的生命帶來意義的工作。 Assistant Editor: ZOE KAUDER NALEBUFF 學會的董事局已決定自2012年起，所有文章發佈都爭取以中英文並用。學會成立二十五年來，取 得不少成果，所以我覺得我們無須過於低調和謙卑。我們的中國同胞亦可以根據這些成果來判斷 我們的目標和使命而無須憑空猜測。董事局近期作出決定，自2012佃年起開始以中英文雙語作 Design and Printer: 業。我從來喜歡偷步起跑，正如我常提倡的格言，”請求原諒比爭取批准來得容易”。現在我提 TOPPAN VITE LIMITED 早執行董事局的決定，以中、英文發表我對學會成立二十五周年的感言。 (852) 2973 8600 HOW TO REACH CERS: Unit 7 & 8, 27/F, Tower B, SouthMark, Wong How Man 11 Yip Hing Street, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong Hong Kong phone (852) 2555 7776 fax (852) 2555 2661 September 2011 e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.cers.org.hk With respect to the entire contents of this newsletter, including its photographs: CERS TAI TAM RESEARCH CENTER All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2011. @ China Exploration and Research Society. (852) 2809 4181 Please contact CERS for reprint permission. PAGE 2 CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY 25 YEARS RETROSPECTIVE Wong How Man t was September 1985 in the coffee shop of the Green Lake Hotel in Kunming. My small expedition team and I had just completed the most difficult part of the Yangtze Expedition, my longest and final Iexpedition for the National Geographic. We were returning from the source of the Yangtze, full of confidence that my team had discovered a longer s and more important source of the mighty river. FROM TOP: River otter fisherman on the Yangtze. Hanging coffins of Sichuan. Matrilineal Moso of Luguhu. (all circa. 1985) CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY PAGE 3 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Along our way back to Kunming, we picked up in Mountain cabin in the Angeles National Forest, CERS’ first base. Chengdu Marion Fay, a guest from Los Angeles. Tai Tam Research Center, Hong Kong. Zhongdian Center, Yunnan. Lisu Architectural Ensemble. Clinic/Teahouse by the Mekong. Marion was an attorney friend, and at the time a Tai Tam library. Angeles Forest library. close friend of Jeff Chop, my chief assistant on the expedition. In a casual conversation, and later a more serious discussion, we pondered upon the possibility and necessity of setting up my own organization. Our last stop before Kunming was Luguhu, an alpine lake which is home to the matrilineal Moso tribe, then little-known to the rest of China and the outside world. This was my second visit to this remote place, and I felt the urgency to return more times to document their changing and vanishing customs. PAGE 4 CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY I also wanted to revisit and make further inquiries On that same trip, I purchased a one-bed-room into many of the new discoveries I have made apartment in Kunming, which logically became along the Yangtze, the mysterious hanging coffins the future Field Office for a fledgling organization. of the extinct Bo people, the families who knew Back in Los Angeles, Marion followed through with how to train river otters to fish, the dilapidated registration of CERS as a non-profit organization. monasteries throughout the plateau, the unique Using my mountain cabin in the Angeles National nomadic culture of the Tibetan grasslands, and Forest as a base, we began operation in 1986, almost much more. blindly, but faithfully. I started giving lectures around the region in the hope of gaining interest and support. The “what to do” list goes on and on, but the “how” The first newsletter came out as a stapled eight page seems faraway and largely unknown. The only way Xeroxed homemade affair. By 1987, we counted 65 to follow up on many of my discoveries seemed to members, including Bill Bleisch and myself, each s be the setting up of my own support organization. paying USD25 to join. Like an explorer walking into the vast unknown, CERS was conceived and born. CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY PAGE 5 In subsequent years, and within the following two decades and a half, we moved our base from Los Angeles to Hong Kong in 1994 and established an office and research facility. We started field offices in Kunming, Dunhuang, and later in Zhongdian (Shangri-la)—a sizable Center with multiple buildings. We maintained several permanent project sites with small theme museums. CERS is now capable of launching the most complex expeditions to the remotest regions of China with our own fleet of expedition Land Rovers. Our role has expanded to cover even neighboring countries, with our mission extended into education of a younger generation through case studies based on our own work results. From that tiny beginning in 1986 to today, CERS became an organization which I find hardly recognizable, sometimes even daunting. The long list of supporters, large or small, was all crucial to us at different times throughout the growth of CERS. Our staff and associates, long or short term, have all contributed to our exploration, research, or conservation results of the Society. It has been a journey of perseverance and endurance yet most enjoyable, a sojourn commensurate with the spirit of exploration; certainly matching the mission upon which I originally founded this organization. PAGE 6 CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Yak Cheese Factory/Lodge. Inle Lake Burmese Cat Café. Shangri-la Old Town Exploration Museum. Black-necked Crane/Migrating Bird Museum. Hainan traditional village. Tibetan Mastiff Kennel. CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY PAGE 7 t would be cliché and not entirely true to 25 Years of say that in 1986 none of us could imagine what CERS would become.