Travel stories · 4/20/2025

Huanhuan | Sting

Sting bought bread several times, always transferring 200 yuan and letting me deduct the cost. His feedback on the texture reassured me that he truly liked the bread. The one-year bread studio brought kindness from strangers, and Sting remains a warm memory.

I met Sting ten years ago when he brought fresh salad greens to my shop, wrapped in cloth in a bamboo basket. He refused payment, saying it was enough if I could use them.

In 2020, I started a bread studio. Sting bought bread, transferring 200 yuan for me to arrange. I wasn't sure if he needed it or was just helping. After I sent him a selection based on his taste, he thanked me repeatedly, making me uneasy.

He bought bread a few more times, always transferring 200 yuan. But his feedback on the texture finally convinced me he genuinely liked it.

The bread studio lasted a year before I opened Huanque. That brief time brought kindness from strangers, and Sting is one of those warm memories. Thank you.

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Celebrate the Torch Festival in a Nanzhao Royal Clan Village

Over the past two years, we have taken guests to celebrate the Torch Festival in Songhe Village, Eryuan. Together we slaughtered a sheep, and with the whole village, erected a huge torch in the center of the village square. Everyone made their own torches from hemp stalks, and together with the older and younger villagers, we rushed to grab the blessing baba (cakes) from the big torch, passing blessings to each other with fire. Even for me, a native Bai person, these are rare and precious traditional festival experiences. Dali has endless festivals, and I want to experience them more before they fade away. I remember the Torch Festival of my childhood: torches were no longer enough for me. Before the festival, I would tell my dad to prepare a bucket of waste engine oil and diesel, mix them together, and then I would tightly bind cotton and old cloth with rope into a ball (some kids would secretly take cotton from their quilts at home to make it). Finally, I would make an iron wire ball, soak it in the bucket of oil, and secretly take it out every day to look at it, looking forward to having a great time on the day of the Torch Festival. We would compete in the village and by the rice fields to see whose fireball or torch was more impressive. When the torches and fireballs were almost burned out, we would rush home, walk around the potted fruit trees in circles, and say blessing words, hoping they would grow even better in the coming year.