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In the south of China many traditional cultures survived the Cultural Revolution. Anna Greer reports on the ancient matriarchal culture that has now become a tourist attraction.

The one dirt road that runs through the town of Ligedao in China’s southern Yunnan province is scattered with barefoot children playing together, the occasional free-roaming pig bathing in mud-puddles, chickens, dogs, ducklings and local people playing cards or gossiping outside the wooden buildings that line the side of the road.

We were the only foreign tourists in sight. Most of the tourists who visit the area are Han Chinese, part of China’s new burgeoning upper class, who are increasingly trying on tourism for size.

Yunnan has much to offer the traveller from its overcrowded chaotic urban capital Kunming, to the world heritage listed city Lijiang, or its self-proclaimed Shangri-La: Zhongdian, then there's border-towns which have different cultures spilling over the edges. The province borders Laos, Burma and Tibet and is home to 52 of China’s 55 recognised ethnic minorities.

We started our journey in the region with a visit to Lijiang. The old town has become a tourist hotspot since world heritage status was announced. When the the communists first tried to colanise this town they found it too much trouble to tear down the old buildings, so they just built a ‘new’ city around them leaving a pocket of houses and buildings which have maintained their traditional Chinese style. Charming cobble-stoned streets, a goldfish laden creek and many cafes, restaurants and shops make up the town. The culture of Lijiang’s inhabitants also attracts wide interest. Their Naxi culture is matriarchal and their Dongba religion and ancient pictorial script survived the Cultural Revolution and now the buildings in the old town are filled with souvenir shops peddling traditional Dongba wares.

After a bumpy, 7 hour ride in a mini-van along windy roads, with vomiting passengers and dubious looking landslides, we found ourselves at Lugu Lake, a large natural lake nestled amongst the mountains that border Sichuan province. Lugu Lake is a sleepy area that is welcome respite from the intensity of urban life. During a brief stop at the lookout above the area, we are greeted by hungry-looking children who make a living from selling nuts and begging off the tourists. My travelling companion, in her best attempts at clown impersonation, started giving out balloons to the children. The gesture was met with excitement from the kids who stopped just short of tackling her to the ground and wresting the balloons from her hands.

The lookout also reveals a magnificent freshwater lake with water so clear that on a sunny day the sky and the surrounding scenery reflect off it perfectly, interrupted only by an island or two or the swell of water which trails the occasional canoe.

The beauty of the surrounding area is not the only draw card for the flocks of tourists that come here for a dose of rural-village life. The nine villages that surround the lake are inhabited by a unique minority called the Mosuo. Like the Naxi, Mosuo culture is matricarchal. ‘Women’s Kingdom’ proclaims the welcome sign.

Describing the culture as ‘women’s kingdom’, though, is not exactly accurate. The village chiefs are men and men are considered to be doing their jobs when they are gambling or playing pool on the lake’s foreshore. But Mosuo women enjoy many freedoms that the majority Han Chinese women don’t. Mosuo women have complete sexual freedom and can give birth before they are married without social consequence, which is very much frowned upon in wider Chinese society. The culture is matrilineal; women are the inheritors and trustees of all property and are looked upon with much respect as the providers for family life.

In traditional Mosuo culture the man lives with either his mother or sister, not his wife and children. The Mosuo people practice what they call a ‘working marriage’. In practice a ‘working marriage’ means that the husband and wife don’t live together and the husband has no responsibility to his own children, but is responsible for his sister’s children and the family home which supports him.

“Frankly the men are a little bit lazy. They don’t have to do anything, really. They have to decide which sister they want to stay with and the sister has to be responsible for the brother,” says Hua de Hung, a local hotel owner.

“Basically, in this village, the men have no responsibility at all. They have to build a house, and they have to do fishing and then gambling.”

“Here the woman symbolises life, like fire, but the men just symbolise death. So the women here can’t kill chickens or fish or anything, the man has to do it,” says Hung. Women also can’t touch the dead, all funeral arrangements, including cleaning the body and preparing it for cremation, are done by the men.

Every night, the mostly Chinese tourists are invited to watch and participate in a display of the dances and songs of the Mosuo culture. This was traditionally a matchmaking event where women and men would eye each other off as potential mates. It used to end in couples ‘retiring to the boudoir’ so to speak, but now, since becoming a tourist event, it ends mostly in people partying the night away at one of the hotels.

Hung’s hotel occasionally slaughters a goat for the occasion and guests sit around the spitted carcass eating, drinking and trying to outdo each other in bang-up karaoke renditions of traditional songs, or Celine Dion. A leisurely paddle on the lake, in one of the dugout canoes, is a good cure for the ailments resulting from the nights’ shenanigans.

Accommodation in the area is very cheap. A twin room in one of the more basic hotels usually costs $A6-8. A bus trip from Lijiang costs $A16 return. Food and drinks are more expensive than other places in China because of the relative remoteness of the area. Food is still cheap though, depending on where you eat, at about one to three dollars per dish. Variety is limited as the towns are mostly reliant on their own food crops or the local markets. If you ask for fresh orange juice at one of the cafes don’t be surprised if you get a glass of tang.