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Around the world in 2000,
via Asia and Madagascar.
China (2 Kunming)
Bec2004-09-18 12:33:19
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Kunming
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, is a modern city of more than three million and it is growing fast like all Chinese cities. I stayed in the Kun Hu hotel on Beijing Lu (red building on the right). It was conveniently close to the train station, to a bus station and to a post office. The latter was of particular interest to me for most if not all Chinese post offices now offer internet e-mail service at the very low rate of 10 yuan per hour (1.25US$/hr).
There are a couple of showcase supermarkets in Kunming but most of the city's food is supplied by small open air markets like this one just behind my hotel.
Kunming has a couple of fine museums and some ancient pagodas and temples that are worth visiting but I was especially interested in the "Yunnan Nationalities Village" which, although built for tourists, would give me at first overview of the architecture and traditional dress that characterize a dozen of Yunnan's minorities.
Following my Hangzhou friend Cathy's suggestion, I called up her friend Lilian Ji who knew all about me and who quite generously took time off from her work to show me around. One day we visited the minorities' village I mentioned earlier. Chinese parks are beautiful and every big city has at least one. Kunming has several. The pagodas behind Lilian are replicas of three very famous and much larger pagodas built in Dali in the 9th century when the Nanzhao kingdom of the Bai people was at its zenith.
The Bai people are one of the more sophisticated minority nationalities of Yunnan. They have a long history of cultural development quite distinct from the Chinese. The buildings shown here are representative of Bai architecture found in Dali and around Erhai Lake in western Yunnan (which you will see on page 5).
I was lucky to have Lilian with me for she pointed out and explained many details I would have missed by myself. This was a ceremonial courtyard
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See photographs from:
China Gallery
