Ten days in Yunnan

With classes over for the first term and the Spring Festival holiday still days away, I took off for the warmer climate of southern Yunnan province. In Wuhan, there were already signs of the impending Spring Festival crush: the bus station in downtown Wuchang from which I usually catch the airport bus was jammed. In China, even bus stations are equipped with baggage scanners; a huge line had developed behind the single scanner, moving so slowly that finally people began pushing past the gate as a guard tried fruitlessly to stem the tide. And at Kunming’s airport, an equally huge line stood waiting for taxis into the city.

I spent three days in Kunming, five days in Xishuangbanna in the southern part of the province, and two days in Dali in the north. Paula and I had visited Kunming in 1980, but like every other place I’ve visited in China, there was nothing recognizable in today’s Kunming. I spent my time walking the city in warm sunshine, trying to figure out bus routes and find an internet café.

Kunming Street Market

I came across a lively street market near the main downtown plaza and got lost several times. Taxis are hard to get in Kunming, and I got repeatedly lost. On one corner I waited for half an hour to get a cab, along with several other people. When one finally stopped, the couple closest to it insisted I take it, the taxi driver growing increasingly impatient as we tried to outdo each other in politeness. They won.

Singing ensemble, Green Park


My favorite place in town was Green Park, near Yunnan University, where I was staying. Parks are where I spend most of my time when I visit a new city, having seen enough Buddhist and Taoist temples to last me. The parks are where people find an endless number of ways to entertain themselves: flying kites, doing coordinated group dancing, spontaneous singing, walking about, or feeding the Siberian seagulls that populate the park.



Siberian seagull in Green Park

 The Siberian gulls are trim little fellows who seem more like squawky terns; they migrate to Kunming in winter. People like to toss out bits of bread and watch the birds make adroit midair dives to catch the offering, or quarrel noisily with others over bread that has dropped in the lake. Hawkers are positioned all around the lake to sell loaves of bread.




Yunnan military academy

  Mostly, untutored by map or guidebook, I stumble on things by accident, like the old Yunnan Military Academy on one side of the park, a piece of China’s republican history that isn’t mentioned in guide books.

It was established by the Qing Dynasty to train officers for the New Army the Qing hoped to use to retain its power and expel foreigners, and was the predecessor to the famous Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou. New Army officers ultimately took the Republican side as the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and the Yunnan school produced two of the most famous Communist leaders, Zhu De and Ye Jianying. There’s increasing interest in the pre-Communist Republican history of China and a fairly extensive museum had been set up on the Academy’s history which honored pre-1949 Republican military figures as well as the Communist ones.

From Kunming’s small and rather disorganized airport I flew to Jinghong, the main city in the southern Yunnan area of Xixshuangbanna. One of the great pleasures of traveling in China now is that wide-open competition for passengers among the innumerable local and regional airlines means you can buy cheap tickets at one of many ticket brokers on the street the day before you want to fly somewhere, or change your plans and acquire a new ticket, sometimes with no penalty. I arranged my roundtrip ticket from Kunming to Jinhong the day before I left, at a cost of $115, though all flight and hotel prices will skyrocket during Spring Festival.

Jinghong street

Jinghong feels like culturally like Southeast Asia. The days are steamy, the streets lined with palms lit green at night. The only t-shirts you can get in the markets say “Thailand.” There are dozens of small shops selling Burmese jade, or what is claimed to be Burmese jade by the multi-ethnic salesmen. Jinghong is a favorite hangout for foreigners who like its relaxed ambience and for trekkers on their way to Dali, “Shangri-la,” Tiger Leaping Gorge, or to one of the many small minority villages in Yunnan. It’s simple to get to these places: you just walk down any street and look for shops selling bus tickets.

Fighting Cock venue, Jinghong

I had plans to get out of Jinghong for a couple of days and visit outlying villages but was seduced by the comforts of good restaurants, nice parks, and the lassitude that instantly overcomes me in tropical climates. I visited every park in the city, walked around neighborhoods where cockfighting was the main recreation (“No pictures!” I was instructed by someone preparing to drop his rooster into combat, since theoretically cockfighting isn’t legal), and only roused myself once to travel by bus to Menghan, which someone had recommended.



"Water-splashing" event, Dai minority park

 Menghan consists of a rather ordinary town with an interesting market and, at some distance, something called the “Dai Minority Park,” where for a considerable entrance fee one can walk about a Dai village, or a representation of one, each of the traditional-style houses now offering food or an overnight stay, attend a contrived “water-splashing” and an even hokier cultural show.

Dai Cultural Park, Menghan

It’s a well-organized way to extract money from tourists, although the most entertaining part of it for me was the “Tourism civilized behavior guidelines” sign posted at the entrance, which affirmed the need for a “civilized and homonymous tourist environment” and provided instructions we could all of us live by, including:

• Observe public order. No noise and following the queue. Do not obstruct road by parallel walking or speak loudly in public place.
• Do not trample the green land, pluck flowers, snap trees or pick fruit. And not to chase, catch or beat animals, and don’t feed them randomly.
• Never gain petty advantages while being greedy. And don’t waste food.
• Do not force to take photos with foreign guest. Do not sneeze in the face of others. Do not occupy the public facilities for a very long time.
• Topless is not acceptable in public. Provide a helping hand to those who are old, little, weak and disabled. Remember lady first and avoid vulgarities.
• Advocate healthy lifestyle. Resist feudal and superstitious activities, and say no to pornography, gambling and drug abuse.



"Minority cultural event" at Dai Minority park

  After a few days resisting feudal and superstitious activities in Jinghong, I took the bus to Dali, which is two cities, a modern one, indistinguishable from others of its kind except for being beautifully situated between a mountain range and Erhai Lake, and the old walled city, seven kilometers distant. A taxi took me to the old city where I had the address for a hotel outside the city walls; either the address was wrong or the hotel no longer existed.

It was cold, the streets were empty, I had no idea where I was in relation to the old city as I stood there with my rollaround suitcase. Nearby was an unpromising place with a faded sign, the Long Yuan Binguan, from which someone emerged to invite me in. It was there I stayed for my two nights in Dali, a cheap and very basic (no soap) but friendly place with a great view of the mountains.

Snack Island on Erhai Lake

Dali is a bit of a tourist trap, the streets of the old city lined with shops selling jade, minority crafts, and bus tickets to Lijiang, Shangri-La and Kunming. On my second day I joined a Chinese tour group for a boat trip on one of the giant tour boats that ply Erhai lake. The boat goes from place to place on the lake, each stop providing a fresh occasion to help tourists get rid of some of their money: a miniature “snack island” at one point (whole fish on a stick), “Butterfly Spring” at another, associated with a legend about a pair of lovers who turned into butterflies to escape persecution.

On one long passage of the trip, tourists are ushered into an onboard auditorium for a “Three courses of Tea” show by “Dali Bai Ethnic groups,” which includes a mock-wedding ceremony to recorded music so deafening that people were holding their hands over their ears. In the last part of the trip we were taken to Chongsheng Temple, one of the reconstructed temple complexes sprouting everywhere, but with a great view of the lake and mountains.

"Ancient"Dali street

At the end of the day, after using the internet at a little café and having a confusing conversation in Chinese with a young man there who praised President Obama and a ‘nu’ person, a female person, whom I took to be Michelle Obama but turned out to be Hilary Clinton, I stopped at a Muslim restaurant near my hotel for dinner. It was late, the restaurant was half closed, but the family let me in and showed me a cooler full of fresh vegetables and some cuts of beef. I made my choices, not knowing what I’d end up with. I was served five dishes: tofu and green onions, eggplant, a green vegetable soup, rice, and an excellent beef dish with finely chopped garlic stems. As I was eating, fireworks were going off in the street. One of the family’s children stood in the street with a slender stick that shot out fireball after fireball. Spring Festival was approaching.

It’s now February 4, and Spring Festival is in full swing. On the night of February 2 there were fireworks all around East Lake in front of my apartment building, reaching a thunderous crescendo at midnight as the reign of the Rabbit began. There are still occasional bursts of fireworks but most people are on the road, crowding bus and train stations and airports all over the country. I’ll be packing myself into the airport bus tomorrow for a visit to Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province.

Three pagodas at Chongsheng temple complex