Yunnan, China (11.25 - 11.30)

It's been a few days since I got back from the China trip. I had to reorganize myself and upload a bunch of pictures. It was hard not having my laptop with me, but it was so much easier to travel without it. I've had to write down all my blogging entries on paper. Paper! How primitive. Anyway, here they are. Beware of the long length ... I had no control over it. Also, beware in my first entry that I attempted to be profound, but, as you will soon learn, that I failed miserably. I've included a link to pictures after each entry. Enjoy, or try to.

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11.25 Day 1: Kunming 昆明

What is it about flying day that gets people excited? People talk and laugh louder. They also get cautious. My relatives and my mom are the same. Every few minutes it's "OMG, did you bring this?! OMG, did you bring that?!" Though flying day is usually exciting, it makes me frustrated. At this point, I've flown 6 times in the past 3 months. I'm well-routined in packing and flight preparation. I know my relatives mean well, but it dampers my spirit.

It never ceases to amaze me the wonders of flight. How can something so big and heavy fly so easily? The technology baffles me every time we take off or land. I always sit at the wing or behind the wing, and I always love to see the wings work its flaps. I seriously do love flying. The feeling of being up in the air makes me carefree. To look down at land or sea, makes me realize, time and time again, how small we are. How insignificant each of us can be.

Today was a quick day. After arrival in Kunming, we visited Beer Street. There's only a few bars (liquor) but several tea and coffee bars. Then we went to a coffee factory (yes, there's coffee made in China) which produces Trump Coffee. The factory connects itself to a flower market, which connects itself to a fake flower market. Later, we went to the centre of Kunming to see the two gates. Kunming isn't very big at all - approximately 4,000 people, including the nearby villages. We went to dinner at a restaurant that specializes in hotpot. (It's the regional style of food.) In front of the restaurant is a Wal-Mart. Surprise, surprise! Everything that's made in China is also sold in China. (I wonder if they sell things even cheaper here.) After dinner, we went to the hotel early. Weiling Hotel in Kunming is supposed to be a 4-star hotel. In actuality, it is so not. There's quite a lot of things wrong with the room - hard beds, peeling wallpaper, damaged walls. It's not even bright! It was early so my family and I went out for a walk. We ended up walking around Park'N Shop, a major supermarket in Hong Kong. Things really are cheap here. I bought two 1,000-piece puzzles at ¥6.90 each. I don't know how I'm going to pack them away. We got back around 9:30 pm.

Tomorrow's an early day. 6:15 am wake-up call, 6:45 am breakfast, leave 7:30 am. There's a 5-hour drive to Dali. Oy.

PS. This writing-things-down old school style cramps my hand. I haven't written this much since I finished school. =/

11.25 Kunming China

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11.26 Day 2: Dali 大理

I did not sleep well at all. My night consisted of half-sleeping and waking up. It was torturous. I got up early and took my sweet time getting ready.

The roadtrip was very long. 5 hours is a long time when you haven't had enough sleep. 7:30 am to 12:30 pm. Oy.

Once we arrived in Dali, we had lunch at 風花雪月酒店 (apparently called Regent Hotel in English), a 5-star hotel situated near the hotel we are staying at. The lobby and the carpark is huge. You have to walk through a jewellry shop to get to the dining area of the hotel. How upscale.

After lunch, we were off to watch the Dali cultural dance and music exhibition, where the performers treat you to a 3-course tea, welcoming you to the city. Then it was off to the centre of the old city, a shopping/tourist area. There's tons of cultural knick-knacks here, comparable to an Egyptian bazaar. Lots of handmade handicrafts by the natives. Their handiworks are beautiful. It takes a large amount of skill and concentration to make hand-stitched cushion covers or bracelets. Not to mention, they don't ask for a lot for their work either - only a few yuans. It's worth a walk around.

The hotel tonight is the Landscape Hotel. It's a pretty hotel with traditionally designed buildings. As a 4-star hotel, it lacks brightness in the rooms (are they saving electricity or something?) and fully-functional bathrooms. One of the groups' toilet didn't flush well. It's still a very nice hotel. Each building is designed to have a small inner courtyard in the middle, which looks like it came straight from the Chinese history books.

Dali is a very old city at 1,800 metres above sea level. I believe it dates back to pre-imperialized China. The old city was built inside a fortress and surrounded by extremely scenic mountains, which probably protected the colony well. That's all I know about Dali. The culture is amazing, the history is massive, and the view is spectacular ... if you don't mind the cold and altitude.

Tomorrow, we're taking a shorter roadtrip to Lijiang to visit the 玉龍雪山 Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It's at 3,600 metres above sea level. I'm definitely not looking forward to the cold, but I am looking forward to seeing the view from the mountain. I think we're taking a tram up (or is it down?) the mountain, which should be awesome.

11.26 Dali China

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11.27 Day 3: Dali 大理, Lijiang 麗江

We didn't go to the 玉龍雪山 Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. That's actually tomorrow. My bad.

We made 2 quick stops in Dali - a jewellry store that sells jade and crystal, and a cultural centre to amaze at the beautifully made tie-dye cloths. Then it's a wonderful 3.5-hour roadtrip to Lijiang. The city is set at a high altitude so the sun is stronger, and the winds are colder. We had lunch at a hotel. Then we were off to see the old city of Lijiant for some leisure time. It's beautifully structured, but it's very much like the old city of Dali - a tourist attraction featuring tons of shops. The main difference is the Lijiang old city is huge, and many people still live in the old houses. Dinner at another hotel. We stopped by another part of the old city to see a traditional group dance. Led by performers, they are joined by the onlooking crowd, dancing around a bonfire in the square of the old city. Finally, we go back to our hotel, the Adange Hotel. Some of my relatives, my mom, and I decided to go for a massage because it's cheap. ¥58 per person for 80 minutes for a foot massage. Really, it was more than a foot massage. The whole legs and back were briefly inclded. It was of so wonderful.

Dali is a farm city. There's large farmlands everywhere. The people of Yunnan are simple people, so they are pretty much self-reliant. In Yunnan, there's a large lake called 洱海 (Ear-shaped Sea, because it's shaped like an ear). The first character is homonymous to the number 2 in the Chinese language (二), which transforms the name to "Second Sea" (二海). The Yunnan people have never seen the sea (if you look on a map, you'll see that Yunnan is an inland province located in the west) and the body of water is so large that the people called this lake a sea.

Apparently, the water in Lijiang is so good that it cleanses the human body well. All the women are thin. But the people of Lijiang thing bigger is better - the more, let's say, meat, the more beautiful the woman is. Their reasoning is due to an old way of thinking. A bigger woman means her family is wealthy and can afford such a healthy lifestyle. (If only the rest of the world thought this way.) Also, Lijiang people think the darker the skin of men, the more handsome they are.

I must get to sleep. Tomorrow, wake-up call at 6 am, leave at 6:30 am. Breakfast is lunchboxed. We go straight to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to avoid the long lines. And then it's a roadtrip back to Dali after lunch. It should be alright ... I hope.

11.27 Dali and Lijiang China

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11.28 Lijiang 麗江, Dali 大理

The lunchboxed breakfast was horrible. I barely ate any of it. There was a hardboiled egg, 2 cake slices, a mini bread bun, and 2 sausage things. It was all freezing cold.

From the bottom of the mountains, we took an electric bus to the bottom of Maoniuping, and then a tram up to the top. Maoniuping, a yak lawn scenic area, is where many go to see the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain adjacent to the yak lawn area. It was cold but bearable. Definitely not as cold as Canadian winters. We were told it was only -3°C. We couldn't see the snow mountain at all. There was a lot of fog, and the fog moves fast. We went back down after an hour. In the middle of the mountains is a 白水河 White Water River, and it was absolutely gorgeous. (The steps/little waterfalls that you see in the pictures is the only man-made area of the river.) The water is naturally clear and clean, which reflects the sky and what you see is light blue water. It's so pristine that you can see the bottom dirt bed of the river.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is actually a mountain with very little snow at the top. It doesn't compare to the Rocky Mountains. Many Chinese (China and Hong Kong) people have never seen or felt snow, so they take a lot of pride in their snow mountain.

We had lunch at a restaurant at the bottom of the mountains in the 玉水寨 Jade Water Village. It wasn't only that the food didn't fit my taste, but that the only thing I ate was burnt. How does one burn soup? They figured that out and I definitely lost my appetite.

We made a quick stop at JingHui Jewellery so use their washroom before the roadtrip back to Dali. It was actually the back of our Lijiang hotel, and I didn't recognize it at all until we walked to the front.

The 5-hour roadtrip to Dali was loooong. The poor driver was very tired and struggling to keep his eyes open. It's so hard to drive when you're sleepy, and I understand. I was a bit scared. But, he got us to Dali safely. We had dinner at 風花雪月酒店 Regent Hotel. It was my first full meal of the day. Back to Landscape Hotel for the night. A new room in a different building, and it was much better than the last room. The shower worked well, and the bathroom at better lighting. My family and I walked around Dali old city again since it was early. There was nothing new to see, so we went back to the hotel after an hour.

Tomorrow is another early day. (I really should start expecting early days on tours.)

11.28 Lijiang and Dali China

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11.29 Day 5: Kunming 昆明

I ate a bowl and a half of congee for breakfast. I had no appetite. 5.5-hour roadtrip to Kunming was super long. Had lunch at a restaurant. Yunnan region food specialty is rice noodles, and it was yummy. A quick visit to a silk factory. Then a 2-hour roadtrip to 九鄉 Jiu Xiang, a scenic region, known for its caves, mountains, rivers and deep valleys. A 10-minute boat ride and a guided tour of the caves. Everything was naturally formed - all the rocks and waterfalls. After the tour, we had a tram ride back to the entrance. It was wondrous and incredible. 2 hours back to Kunming for dinner at a hotel. It was my aunt's birthday, so we cracked open a Tsing Tao beer to celebrate. Back to Weilong Hotel. A new room on the same floor and it was, again, much better than the last room. The beds are still hard but the room is brighter and better-looking. My family and I went to Park'N Shop again just to walk for an hour and a bit. Tomorrow is a short day and the last day of the trip. Sad.

11.29 Kunming China

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11.30 Day 6: Kunming 昆明

Barely ate breakfast. Food was cold. I didn't have an appetite, most likely because I was sad to go back. Went to a Puerh tea factory. The tea was really good. It's subtle in taste but quite aromatic. Puerh tea is truly good for your health. It apparently cleanses your system and helps you sleep better at night. I learned that boiling the tea leaves is better than just pouring boiled water in a cup with the tea leaves. I must try that one day.

We went to 七彩雲南 Colourful Yunnan, a cultural site/tourist area, for an hour of leisure time. We mainly walked around and took pictures. There's tons of fish in the pond, and they swim close when they hear people. They think they're going to get fed and they clamour over each other to fight for the food. It's so cute.

It was time to head to the airport. Bought KFC to eat and checked in 2 hours early. Waiting game. We took a shuttle bus to the airplane in the middle of the tarmac. We got to go up those stairs to get into the plane. It was pretty cool.

The airplane food was horrible. The worst one of the Hong Kong/China trips. I had chicken pasta. It wasn't hot enough and it tasted stale.

In the Hong Kong airport, it took me 40 minutes to wait in line and go thought customs. I was the last of the group to arrive. It made me depressed, as did the end of the trip.

11.30 Kunming China