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.
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| First though was a 40 hour train ride from Beijing to Kunming. |
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| 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. |
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| We took a cable car and then a ski lift to the top of the hills to enter the park. |
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| And on this clear day (we're a long way from Beijing) got this view of the city of Kunming. |
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| The hike down was steep on this crazy staircase case carved out of the mountain. |
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| The goal was this little niche in the side of the mountain called Long Men or Dragon Gate. |
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| Legend has it that if you pray here you'll pass an upcoming major test. |
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| There is also something about this bug jumping over to meet.... |
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| ....this dragon and something good will happen, but I forget. |
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| The second stop in the afternoon was to The Bamboo Temple. |
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| The highlight are the hundreds of individually carved arhats. Some normal, some crazy and some just downright creepy. |
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| Love these guys!! |
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| And they have AWESOME shoes. They were way ahead on that fashion curve. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| The cutest things, although not for sale, at the market, Chinese kids playing on the street! |
