26 February 99
I was inadvertently caught in the Lunar New Year traffic jam. Every year urban workers take annual leave of up to three weeks to go home; causing logistics nightmares for the whole country. I had spent 6 days in Guiyang and the train station was packed all the time. There was no other way but to fly out.
Recently (2008) the Golden Week arrangements where the whole country had 3 separate week long holidays system had been modified because of the logistics problems. So, instead of having 3 long holidays, the government has re-introduced short traditional holidays such as Duan Wu (Dragon Boat Festival), Zhong Qiu (Mid Autumn Festival) and Chong Yang.
Daguan Tower
The flight to Kunming cost RMB 350 and took only one hour. After checking in at a hotel, I went off to Daguan Park and took a boat ride of Dianchi Lake. The ticket stub says the lake lies 2 kilometers southwest of Kunming; and has an area of 700 odd hectares. Daguan Park was built in 1368 of the Ming dynasty and Daguan Tower was built later in 1696 of the Qing dynasty.
During emperor Qianlong’s reign a poor scholar, Sun Ranweng, composed an 180 character long poem describing the beauty and history of Dianchi and Yunnan. Word spread and the literati and general public were all taken aback by the artistic scope and depth of the composition. Sun’s exploit catapulted Daguan Tower into the list of China’s four greatest towers: Yellow Crane Tower; Yueyang Tower; Tengwangge and Daguan Tower.
The next day I took a trip to Stone Forest. Unfortunately, I had signed up with a local tour which was more intent on taking us shopping. We were left with only two hours to walk around the forest.
Took public transport route 5 to the West End bus depot, where I changed for route 6 to West Hill. The altitude up at Longmen is about 2,200 meters; whereas Kunming city averages around 1800 meters. There is a saying that one’s status increases 100 fold upon ascending Longmen. I made sure I did it twice.
Also did some walking in the downtown area and ended up in Cui Hu Park. I seem to remember that it used to be the residence of renegade Ming general Wu Sangui; as I’m not sure I stand to be corrected.
Boarded a gray coach bus for the city of Dali the next day; and signed up for a boat trip not too long after I checked into a hotel. The boat trip essentially took us from one end of Erhai lake to the other end with 3 stops in between. There was also a Bai minority song and dance routine with the complimentary 3 rounds of tea. The tea comes in three flavors: First bitter; second sweet and third to savor.
Dali Three Towers
At the end of the boat ride we were then bussed off to Butterfly Spring, Three Towers and the ancient city of Dali. My only complaint was that they tried to cover too much ground; leaving us with little time to study and appreciate the sights.
From Dali it was another 2 1/2 hour ride to Lijiang. At least the highway seemed fairly new; and the 200 odd kilometer journey was reasonably tolerable. There was an earthquake in Lijiang a few years ago ( 1996 I think ); luckily damage wasn’t too severe and the local government even took the opportunity to upgrade some of the infrastructure.
After lunch I went to explore the Ancient City. The city was everything the video on the bus ride had described. If Guilin / Yangsuo and Dali are backpackers’ hangout; then Lijiang must be heaven. Everything about the city had an authentic feel to it. The patina on old buildings, the smooth cobblestone pavements, the gurgling waterways and way of life effortlessly bring peace of mind to the weary urban traveler.
I had read a story about an Australian lady who married a local in Tiger Leaping Gorge; and was interested in finding out how they were managing. The one day tour, however, didn’t bring us anywhere close to where the couple were based; although the tour guide did know about them. At any rate, my ticket stub says that Tiger Leaping Gorge is 3,900 meters from the base to the peak of the jokul ( whatever that is ); and that the narrowest part is only 20 meters wide. The gorge is 20 kilometers long and divided into the Upper, Middle and Lower Leap; with a 213 meter waterfall and eighteen cascades.
The day was still not quite over when we returned to town; so I headed off to the nearby Black Dragon Pool. On the way back to my hotel, I stopped at Alibaba’s for dinner. A Naxi burger and fresh apple juice came to RMB 12.
The Naxi music academy performs nightly at 8 p.m. and I had arrived early. Luckily, Ma Ma Fu’s had the perfect remedy for the situation: apple pie with custard. The serving was unusually large and a bargain at RMB 8. Having appeased the body, it was now time to nourish the soul. The organizer Mr. Sun Ke, a humorous septuagenarian, has an honorary doctorate from Oxford. The majority of the performers are septuagenarians and have toured the UK, Norway, Europe and Hong Kong.
The trip to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain had been postponed indefinitely due to a mountain fire. However, I was lucky / unlucky enough to join a tour today. Unlucky in the sense that a lot of the mountain was not accessible due to rescue efforts; lucky in that I was able to see at least part of the mountain. Took a cable car up to Dragon Spruce Meadow at 3,300 meters which is at the foot of the mountain. We were given an hour or so to walk around the area and watch some minorities perform.
Afterwards we were taken to Yu Feng Si; where we saw the Ten Thousand Flowers Camellia Tree. Last on our itinerary was Bai Sha Frescoes which date back to the Ming dynasty.
Returned to Kunming city as I still wanted to head south for Xishuangbanna. Before I signed up for any tour packages, I decided to do some touring on my own. Took the bus in front of Kunming Arts Theatre to Bamboo Monastery. The monastery is well kept with lots of flowers and there are a number of trees that date back to the Qing dynasty. There are also 500 statues each with a different facial expression, depicting scenes from Buddhist scriptures.
The bus ride to Xishuangbanna lasted 26 hours in the winding mountain roads of Yunnan; coupled with locals that brought all manner of livestock along for the ride, made for an experience that was best buried deep in the recesses of one’s memory. Our first day was spent driving across back-breaking dirt roads to Burma. Somehow, I was assumed to be mainland Chinese and let in to the border town of Manglar.
Back on Chinese soil, we were then taken to the Botanical Garden, Palm Olive Bazaar and a Dai household. So far, Banna hasn’t been quite what I expected. Perhaps I’ve signed up with the wrong tour. My impression of Banna is that it is a mixture of cultures. The common attire for Dai womenfolk resembles the Thai sarong. Buildings also have a Thai flavor.
The last day was spent touring another tropical botanical garden and a minority village. The performers at the village also staged a water splashing activity that afforded some photo opportunities.
Since I have a limited tolerance for recurrent nightmares, I decided to take a plane back to Kunming. Once back in town, I went off to the Golden Temple, Yuan Tong Zoo and had some Over the Bridge Noodles.