Folk time

Members of China National Symphony Orchestra make trips to Yunnan province to learn from local musicians. Chen Nan reports.

In 1983, when Guan Xia was learning to compose at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, he and four classmates traveled to the Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Yunnan province to seek inspiration from the folk music of the Hani and Yi ethnic groups.

After spending days on a train from Beijing to Kunming, the provincial capital, and then a few more days on a bumpy bus ride and a trek through the mountainous roads, the five finally saw the stunning terraced fields, among which the Hani people live, and watched them perform their ancient folk songs, accompanied by traditional instruments.