Kunming Again

My first visit to Kunming, if you can call it a visit, was a 10 hour layover when I flew from Beijing to Kolkata back over Christmas break.  This time, a visit to Kunming was the start of a three week school trip to visit Yunnan province in far southwestern China, right near the border with Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Vietnam.  Traveling with the students is quite a different experience than traveling solo and at times I got completely frustrated with the logistical issues of trying to move 70 people from one place to another.  But having everything taken care of was a nice departure from having to make every decision when traveling solo.

First though was a 40 hour train ride from Beijing to Kunming.

Upon arrival in Kunming, the kids had the day to explore the city, but I decided to head out with some colleagues to West Lake Park and Dian Chi.  Here we're looking at the Western Hills.

 

We took a cable car and then a ski lift to the top of the hills to enter the park.

And on this clear day (we're a long way from Beijing) got this view of the city of Kunming.

The hike down was steep on this crazy staircase case carved out of the mountain.

The goal was this little niche in the side of the mountain called Long Men or Dragon Gate.

Legend has it that if you pray here you'll pass an upcoming major test.

There is also something about this bug jumping over to meet....

....this dragon and something good will happen, but I forget.

The second stop in the afternoon was to The Bamboo Temple.

The highlight are the hundreds of individually carved arhats.  Some normal, some crazy and some just downright creepy.

Love these guys!!

And they have AWESOME shoes.  They were way ahead on that fashion curve.

One of the most charming things to watch was this old woman (and her cute onlookers) who were trying to drop coins into the mouth of a turtle at the bottom of this well. 

Last stop, the famed Bird and Flower Market in old town Kunming.  It was actually a disappointment, although there are some great preserved old style buildings.  There's even one, although no picture here, of one that looks Art Deco.

The cutest things, although not for sale, at the market, Chinese kids playing on the street!