Kunming, China
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| Kunming |
Travel buddy Larissa’s
friends Deb and John had been teaching college-level English for a year in
Kunming, so we made a point of visiting there on our trip to China. I find it
mind-boggling that I'd never even heard of Kunming before -- it's a city of 4
million people! We fell in love with it -- the climate is more moderate than in
other parts of China since it's at a fairly high altitude, the population is
very colorful as Yunnan Province has a high percentage of ethnic minorities, the
food is absolutely delicious, and the shopkeepers are known for being lazy --
i.e., they don't continuously pester you if you make the mistake of so much as
glancing at their wares.
We stayed in a visiting
faculty apartment which, complete with maid, cost us $3 per night. Larissa gave
a lecture at the College one night on writing a business letter -- it was
standing room only. The students were just so eager to learn. Deb, John and
their friends Barry and Nancy (also teaching English for a year) showed us all
around the city, including a charming temple, a fabulous flower and bird market,
a lovely park, some wonderful restaurants, and their favorite stores. (Great
shopping in Kunming!)
About 2 hours outside
of Kunming is the Stone
Forest, one of the places one must visit while there. Deb set us up with one
of her students as our very able translator and off Larissa and I went, bright
and early one morning. Only to discover that public buses to Shi Lin no longer
existed. No problem -- there was a Chinese tour leaving shortly. Big mistake! We
stopped at not one but two jade factories (we'd already stopped at one on a
previous tour), as well as a cloisonne factory, a terracotta warrior factory, a
traditional medicine factory, and a temple. The temple was actually pretty
interesting -- a monk put red scarves around our necks and we watched people
lighting 3 foot tall bundles of incense. By 1:00 p.m. we were
still at the temple, 25 km from Shi Lin. and our guide was nowhere to be seen.
We found a taxi and took that the rest of the way.
The Stone Forest is a
crazy place. It consists of acres of karst -- massive pillars of limestone
weathered into weird shapes jutting out of the ground at all angles. Chinese
tourists love it, and it was completely overrun by the time we arrived.
Attempting to escape the crowds, we headed off on a little traveled path. Now
bear in mind that I am a skier -- I can deal with chairlifts and standing on
tops of mountains -- so my acrophobia is very very mild indeed. Nonetheless, the
Stone Forest got to me. Our path started heading upwards, leading us up tiny
stairs cut along the sides of rocks and over narrow railingless bridges made out
of slabs of limestone. I had to be coaxed over the last such bridge, which
spanned an array of tall jagged stone spires. As soon as I reached the far side,
there was a resounding boom! and a 15 minute downpour started. The slippery way
down was even less fun than the way up, and to make matters worse we got lost in
the maze of trails. We were taking a sleeper train to Dali that night, and to
make sure we got back in time we joined forces with a Chinese tourist and
commandeered a minibus returning to Kunming, buying all the seats for a grand
total of about $20 so we could insist that it leave immediately.
Mimi Santini-Ritt 2004