En Route to Kunming, Yunnan, SW China

Yi Ethnic Group Mask

Skirt of Miao Ethnic Group

                          En route to Yunnan Province of Southwest China. 

     American Air 777 destination Kunming, Yunnan, China.  First leg of journey is to Shanghai...   total air journey of 13 hours from Chicago (where we stayed near airport at the Baymont Inn Suites).

     Arrival in our Starway Hotel near Pudang airport, Shanghai.  Taxi driver had a fit almost barking... when he found out that our hotel wasn't in the city itself and that  he had such a short and cheap fare.. He made several calls before we left airport to locate the Starway.   After Mr Grumpy finally located our hotel,we signed in at a sweet rate of $35. The surrounding neighborhood is filled with a small shopping area and many vegetable gardens by the two story stucco houses.....lots of green. 

     What a grand sleep... 10 hours on a rock hard mattress.   Dreamy.    Neighbors are  tending their gardens ...a healthy and filling and breakfast:  congee, green salad, eggs, noodles with meat, sprouts, egg with rice, pastries, great  coffee with milk and sugar.   Sweet people everywhere.  

                      SPRING CITY STAR HOTEL, KUNMING, YUNNAN, CHINA

            Off to the airport nearby and a flight to Kunming  arriving in the afternoon.  Our plans are to spend 5 days here and then head south towards the  Xishuangbanna region for the remaining days of our journey.   Kunming activities  on our agenda include: planning our visits to various ethnic regions of the region, visit Lake Dian with the National Minority Museum, Bamboo Pagoda, Night Market, Stone Forest, Yuan Temple and Green Lake.

     11\12\11..  Kunming.....beautiful green city with wide boulevards filled with floral displays of the region.....camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas,, begonias, Norfolk Island trees...  The city played a role in WWII with providing US base and also as a transport terminal for the Burmese Road as well as playing a support role in Mao's rise to power.   Kunming is almost 6000 ft above sea level,  about LA's lattitude and gets cold when  the sun goes  down.   Many places are open to the weather and we feel the cold.   The streets and sidewalks are very clean,  but totally packed.  Fortunately, many areas have separated lanes for motorcycles,  bicycles,  carts, and pedestrians.  In five years they hope to have a subway  serving three city zones.

Central Kunming Near Hotel

     Spring City Star Hotel which seems to be near city center has an adequate setting but there is no heat, iffy wifi, and the television doesn't work.  Probably we'll be changing hotels.   Found  Bank of China situated within several blocks of our hotel and then wandered around  to find a travel agency. 

            As we were heading to the  Camellia  Hotel  (read about it in Lonely Planet, the world opened up to us......English speakers, travel agents, funky bar, massage site, hotel and youth  hostel.   Probably will change hotels tomorrow.  I felt we had found the help needed for this trip.

            That night was a delight.  We were invited to the Shanghai Symphony program at Exposition Center, which held 1300 Chinese and us..  A young woman I met at the Shanghai airport turned out to be the evening's  program director and  gifted us tickets for the event.  It was an evening of very cheerful music with Strauss, Rimsky-Korsokoff, Steven Sondheim, Chopin, and three Chinese composers.  The 72 year old conductor was a ball of fire and ended the evening directing a Strauss selection with musicians playing and audience clapping to mark the rhythm.