Golden anniversary of Du’an

Prepared by President Howard

Mid December 2005 saw President Howard and PP Bill Benter in Du'an to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Du'an Yao Minority Autonomous County, along with President Kazu and PP Stella Kan from RC Macau. Their arrival in the city hotel at 2:00am saw all of the staff waiting up to provide supper and when it was discovered that it was Bill's birthday an iced cake with his name on was conjured up within 20 minutes. Can you imagine trying to do that in Manchester or Melbourne?

The major ceremony was enormous - more than 800 honoured guests on the podium and around 20,000 people in the city square. The weather was cold but bright and the display of dancing in folk costumes was just spectacular.

As the only 'lao wai' in the place Bill and Howard got more than their fair share of the TV attention and appeared extensively in the Guangxi TV reports that night (and the Du'an TV reports -  they now have their own station!). In the evening a huge concert of singing and dance was held for an audience of 15,000. It was cold and it was loud and it was HUGE.

The changes in Du'an over the last few years can only be described as staggering. In the city centre it seems that every third building is brand new. Under the central government policy of 'develop the West' prosperous companies in coastal areas are 'encouraged' to help Du'an to develop by building whole 'Farmers Villages' to re-house families coming down from the mountains. The journey time to Nanning is now 60 minutes instead of 4 hours. This city is on a roll and it shows in the people's faces, the mood, and the details. (All of the thousands of dancers in the square were wearing new shoes of the same type - no more old army plimmies, as in the past).

This huge surge of prosperity raises questions about the way forward for our service projects in the county. Clearly, there is little need for our support on capital projects in and near the city. But the need for clean water and improved educational facilities in the mountains remains. Despite the busy schedule it was possible to have some useful discussion with the officials from the United Front and we should be able to progress with both water and 'furnishing an education' in the next few months.