A NEWSLETTER TO INFORM AND ACKNOWLEDGE CERS’ FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS CHINA EXPLORERS CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY VOLUME 11 NO. 1 SPRING 2009 3 Zoological Kingdom of the Underworld CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: 8 Backdoor into Burma’s Irrawaddy River A Lisu of the Kachin State in 14 Escapade In North Burma Myanmar, dresses up herself 18 Yaks Affect Economics and Ecology in Tibet for a festival Galali, boat Captain on the 23 Arjin Mountain Experiences Irrawaddy River 24 German Pilot Pictured China 75 Years Ago CERS team readying to trap 28 Looking on China from Above Black-necked Cranes for satellite 32 Forty Nine Turning Sixty tracking 34 Reflections of the Burmese Cat A school along the Irradwaddy 35 News/CERS in the Media River in Myanmar A NEWSLETTER TO INFORM AND ACKNOWLEDGE CERS' FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS Directors: CHINA WONG HOW MAN, Founder/President MAGNUS BARTLETT, Director, Odyssey Publications EXPLORERS Dr WILLIAM BLEISCH, PhD, CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY Science Director, CERS VOLUME 11 NO.1 SPRING 2009 CYNTHIA D’ANJOU BROWN, President’s Message Philanthropy Adviser, HSBC Private Bank JAMES CHEN, Managing Director, his is the Year of the Ox, or Year of the Yak for those of us who are even more stubborn than the ox. In this issue, we Legacy Advisors Ltd. include two articles, one I wrote and the other by our new ERIC CHEN, Chairman, Sampo Corporation Field Biologist Dr. Buzzard, about Yaks on the plateau. A BARRY LAM, Chairman, Quanta Computer, Taiwan third piece also touches on the character of those born during such year, myself included. DANIEL NG, Former Chairman, T McDonald’s Restaurants (HK) Ltd. China’s southwest region is one of the most important karst areas of the Dr MICHAEL J MOSER, Partner, world. However, little is known about the limestone landform except some historical caves turned tourist attraction. This year CERS would invest a O’Melveny & Myers lot of our time and resources into caving. Our caving team turns 20 since MARJORIE YANG, Chairman, The Esquel Group coming into being in 1988. Zhang Fan, our China Director, provides a report on a very important cave, called “Precious Ox Horn Cave”. Our ZOOLOGICAL CERS Field Staff: team recently explored this cave near Yunnan’s border with Laos, yielding several species new to science. Unfortunately such discovery is already being threatened as I witnessed during a visit there this Chinese New Dr WILLIAM BLEISCH PhD, Chief Biologist Year. KINGDOM OF THE Dr PAUL BUZZARD, Field Biologist CAO ZHONGYU, Logistics Support We also share with you archival photos taken over China from 1933 to 1936 by German pilot Graf zu Castell. UNDERWORLD CERS acquired these and many other images from the Munich Museum with the approval of Castell’s daughter. LIU HONG, Speleologist Matching satellite scenes of those areas revealed changes during a span of seventy-five years. Another piece QIJU QILIN, Tibetan Expert shows how we look at earth from space, allowing us to have a humbling experience when we reduce our larger- ver lunch, I raised my glass to toast Mengyuan villagers each day to deliver food inside the cave for us. For us MARTIN RUZEK, Earth System Scientist than-life ego back to scale. Village Chief Ayan, our host who is of Dai who lived in darkness all day long, such simple meal with rice and ZHANG FAN, Kunming Conservation Center Director A photo essay on cats add a final touch to our project which successfully reintroduced Burmese Cats to minority, after we completed exploring the roast pork surpassed any banquet. YAO XUE MEI, Education Officer Myanmar, their rightful home after almost eighty years of absence. cave. Four of us in our team started our CERS Office Staff: I cannot help but mention that an explorer’s mother passed away recently at the advanced age of 88. At the CERS exploration on August 29 soon after we arrived When the Chief heard that we had finished measuring the Bull BERRY SIN, Logistics Director annual dinner just a week before her death, she sat quietly at a corner table as she had done at all previous at the nature reserve of Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan. In Cave, he lowered his glass and spoke with urgent sincerity, “This TRACY MAN, Accountant annual dinners of the Society. I hope she was proud of her creation when I spoke on stage, as I was proud of O all, we explored a series of four caves to map and identify the cannot be. You must have neglected a very long side branch. my creation of CERS. Editorial Director: biodiversity within these caves. Otherwise you cannot be this fast in finishing,” said the Chief. CATHY HILBORN FENG She was a fiercely independent lady who instilled in me that same quality, and never to become a liability to He caught me by surprise as I and Liu Hong have been exploring others. She would bid me goodbye on every expedition with such grace that I did not have to look back and “Bao Niu Jiao Dong”, or Precious Bull Horn Cave, is the largest caves for almost twenty years without fail. Most caves we covered worry about her well being. Ever supportive and permissive, she always urged me to move along every time Design: s she felt I showed any sign of impatience, even at family dinners. and took fully three days to explore. The other three caves took were far larger and more complicated than Bull Cave here. SNP VITE LIMITED (852) 2973 8600 an additional three days. For the last few days, Ayan send two The night she passed away at home in her sleep, I was making my first pilgrimage to Katmandu, learning to light my first buttered lamp while circumambulating the renowned Bodhnath Stupa of Nepal. Perhaps that is karma. Printer: At my side that evening was Lodi Gyari, Rinpoche and Special Envoy of the Dalai Lama. Lodi is very much like SNP VITE LIMITED a brother, though only one day older than I. I am glad he was on hand to console my loss and provided prayers (852) 2973 8600 for my mother to go in peace on her last journey. HOW TO REACH CERS: Unit 7 & 8, 27/F, Tower B, SouthMark, 11 Yip Hing Street, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong Zhang Fan l phone (852) 2555 7776 fax (852) 2555 2661 Translated by Wong How Man e-mail: [email protected] Wong How Man Website: www.cers.org.hk Founder/President, CERS Upper: Buddhist pagoda marking entrance to Precious Bull Horn Cave CERS TAI TAM RESEARCH CENTER With respect to the entire contents of this newsletter, including its photographs: Bottom: CERS caver inside the cave in (852) 2809 4181 All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2009. @ China Exploration and Research Society. Xishuangbanna Please contact CERS for reprint permission. PAGE 2 CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY CHINA EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH SOCIETY PAGE 3 Left: Cave map of Precious Bull Horn Cave prepared by CERS team Middle: CERS cavers dining inside the cave Right: A Buddha statue worshipped by local Dai minority villagers abandoned climbing through it. Upon this discovery, we decided perfect climate device of nature. Though we did not measure to move back inside the cave right after our meal. the air quality inside the cave, the cleanness and crisp air was evident to all. In Europe, a cave with such quality air would Soon we were inside the cave and arrived at that particular turning already be utilized as a “medical cave”. point. It was indeed a very long branch. By the time we finished and exited the cave, it was already night time and outside the cave At our official departure party, Mr Yang, head of the was almost as dark as inside. Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve proudly introduced to us the huge biodiversity of the area. The vegetation coverage Bao Niu Jiao Cave is a very matured cave, more so than we is most diverse in Yunnan and the province is often called originally thought. Though the space is not too large, it is very “Botanical Kingdom” of China, whereas Xishuangbanna in well developed. The main cave is like the trunk of a tree with the southern region of the province is compared to being the many side caves like branches growing out in all direction. While crown of this kingdom. This is where the very limited tropical the main cave is only about one thousand meters in length, the rainforest of China is located. The Asiatic Elephant, the largest branches add up to be more than twice the length. Thus the entire land mammal indigenous to Asia, also exist right here. length of the cave is 3360 meters. While there are chances of omission, but to explore a cave for and forth trips we made. Liu Hong brought out his notebook and If one would identify Xishuangbanna on a model globe, it is three full days and were told we missed a large branch is a “first” searched to a page where he had noted down a sign of “?” upon The temperature inside the cave is 21.2°C which is the mean right along the Tropic of Cancer. Spin that globe along its axis and quite unthinkable. His claim made me felt embarrassed and it. “That could be the missing link as it was so small, barely one temperature of the area, whereas humidity is between 80-97%. and you would see that in the world along this imaginary line wished that I was still inside a cave to hide my brushing. meter crack on the walls.