KUNMING-HOME OF FLYING TIGERS.

Leaving Stone Drum Village, we take a short sweet flight to the Provincial Capital of Kunming, (Koon-ming) a city of eight million people with another six million in the surrounding territory. On the plane I sat next to a young Chinese man who spoke perfect English. Vicki tells us all Chinese learn English in school since Mau. He and his friend were on vacation in Korea. He claimed it was scary. People on the streets avoid eye contact with you, afraid to look at you and very repressed even in a bar or restaurant. Military guards were in evidence everywhere they went.  They felt like they were being followed. You are not allowed to take pictures of buildings.  He was tempted a few times to take a forbidden picture, but didn’t. Then, when he got to the airport, the guards looked at every photo in his digital camera before letting them go. He was glad he obeyed but, it was an unpleasant vacation.

Our city guide takes us by bus to the center of old town Kunming to see the bird market. We pass by a famous curved building called the Sister Building. He walks so fast, I can’t hear half of what he is telling us because I’m trying to fill my eyes.

I managed to grab a quick shot of this guy selling dog and cat pelts. Argh! I know, we all grimaced. I wanted to stop and buy old Chinese coins from a vendor, but I was getting left behind and had to abandon my purchase and run to catch up with the group.

This area of Kunming has modern ads and minority frescoes on the street wall which is what is left of the old part of the city. The government demolished  most of the older part of town in 1953. It looked like the Hutongs of Beijing,  built on a courtyard with a common well and underground water running back to the river. The old people have to use city water and they hate hand carrying their water home  in big plastic jugs.
At this point, my memory disk is full and my camera bag is back in the bus. The bird market is not to our liking very much anyway because bird flu is in all the news and we see people  wearing masks. We saw birds in cages hanging from just about every business doorway, including restaurants. Stacked tight cages of bunnies and kittens, none of which we were excited to see. Most interesting were very large crickets in beautifully made wooden cricket cages, which they race. Rats, too, which they eat. “White meat”  snails with beautiful striped shells for sale. Vicki tells us this is the poor section of town. We move on to the flower market which is much more to our liking. The rest of the city is quite modern after being rebuilt after the Japanese bombed it.  Kunming  also has the base where the Flying Tigers were cosseted during WWII. And, it was once part of the Golden Triangle, a famous opium growing area.

The City Tour takes us to a beautiful Green Lake  Park, mobbed with people. Huge flocks of seagulls winter here but haven’t come in yet in huge numbers.

We love seeing cute kids. And the Chinese, with a limit of one child, dote on their beautiful children and love showing them off.

It is a lovely place to relax, play cards, dominoes, mah jong. Have tea. Most Chinese have small apartments and houses.  They socialize in their public places.

And  exercise together. It seems such a healthy practice, both, being outside and exercising regularly.

Green Lake Park is beautiful and enjoyable. People watch and feed the birds and koi.

I’m tickled by this Chinese woman dressing her child in a blonde wig cap as they feed and watch the koi.

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We eat at a restaurant that minimizes the heat of asphalt parking by burying cement blocks and growing grass in them.  I  wanted to build my driveway in Murphys that way but the cost at the time, labor intensive, was too high.  We eat an area specialty called fish skin, which is quite spicy and tasty, along with the usual noodles and vegetables. A surprise was watermelon for desert.
Back at our hotel, we nap and read  before getting ready for a very famous evening show called the Peacock Extravaganza that features 200 ethnic peoples. The Peacock Dance is a tradition in this area  from the time of Kublai Khan. Fabulous costuming throughout, but especially this woman peacock dancer with an enormous drum moving in very strenuous  body positions. The dancers have painted bodies, the background is stormy suggesting how early peoples feared  thunder and lightening. They made loud noises to scare off evil spirits and wild animals that also fear storms. The stage settings for all of the dances are rich and dramatic.

In this moon dance, human figures float down from the ceiling appearing to fly,  flapping their iridescent wings like huge butterflies.  They dance a ritual child sacrifice  and a sensual babies birth. They danced the Muslim people bringing Buddhism to China. All done with grace and beauty. This show travels all over the world with its 200 performers.  We paid a $20 bill to see it. Stunning.
Tomorrow-the stone forest.

KUNMING

We take  a short sweet flight to Kunming, (koo-ming) a city of eight million people. Kunming, the old kingdom,  was named by Kubla Khan. At the airport, one member of our group, left the tour because his Chinese fiancé, who was supposed to meet him,  was having trouble with her visa.  In order to marry a Chinese woman now,  a foreigner  must prove his income, own a house, buy the marriage certificate, pay other fees and provide medical proof that he can father children. Mark’s  visit was part vacation and part business.  Vicki is upset by this and claims she has never had anyone leave her tour.
On the plane, I sat next to a Chinese man who had just come from vacationing in North Korea. He and his friend were young and spoke good English. He claimed it was frightening. The people on the streets avoid eye contact afraid to look at you, very repressed. He was not allowed to photograph buildings. The guards were always in evidence, like they were being followed. Then, at the airport the guards looked at every photo in his camera before letting them go. He said he had been tempted to take a forbidden picture and didn’t. At the airport he was glad he had obeyed.

We settle into our hotel and  head for the bird market past this unique curved building, called the Sister Building.  Kunming means eternal spring. This city is home to about 25 different ethnic groups with North Koreans, Arab Muslims from India, Burmese  many minority Chinese. The Burma (now Myanmar) border is near. Kumning was once an opium growing area, part of the Golden Triangle and also the base for the Flying Tigers.

As we hurry across the street, ( no pedestrian right of way),   I grab a quick shot of this vendor who is selling dog and cat pelts. Kids, unaccompanied, walk along the busy highway to schools and cross busy city streets independently.
The bird market is normally an interesting tour but because there is bird flu going around, Vicki makes this a very quick pass through and we agree with that. My memory disk is now full and I can not take any photos until I get back on the bus.  We saw birds in cages, bunnies and kittens in tight cages, not exactly what we like to see anyway. They had “white meat” snails with beautiful striped shells. Very large crickets and beautifully made cricket cages, which they race. Trained rats, too. The city is quite modern because it was rebuilt after the Japanese bombed it. The old town section looks like poor Mexico and gives us an idea of what the city looked like at one time. The old feudal walls were torn down in 1953.

Our next stop is a Green Lake Park.  Huge flocks of seagulls winter here, arriving mid to late November. They are messy and dirty and we are glad we’ve missed them.

I got a kick out of the blonde curls attached to this child’s hat. The park was full of cute kids; a lovely place to relax, play cards, have tea, do tai chi. Most Chinese socialize outside rather than in their small houses and apartments.

In China, you are never far from something ornate and beautiful. We guess at whether this huge vessel had a function of some type at one time.

At lunch we taste a local specialty, fish skin,  which is quite spicy and tasty. We had the usual meats and vegetables and condiments with a surprise, watermelon for dessert. A nice change. We have a couple of hours of  free time before dinner and a show;  a chance to rest, shop, or walk around  town on our own. There is much to see and do here, but as the saying goes, “You can’t see it all.”

Dinner is a western buffet in the hotel where everyone is dressed for Halloween. I preferred this beautiful jug over the carved pumpkins pandering to American tourism. During dinner the loudest,  awful television in the dining room told Halloween stories in Chinese. All the wait persons danced to incredibly loud music. It chased us out of the place. We return to our rooms to  dress for the Peacock Extravaganza that features 200 ethnic peoples, a tradition in this area from the time of Kubla Kahn.
No pictures were allowed, but I’m inclined to describe this impressive program anyway. The first dance features this famous woman peacock dancer with an enormous drum moving in very strenuous body movements. The dancers have painted bodies, the background is stormy suggesting how early people feared thunder and lightning and they made loud noises to scare off the evil spirits and wild animals that also fear storms.
The peacock dance was followed by the moon dance with  great costuming and beautiful sinuous moves.  The stage settings are rich and dramatic. In one scene dancers in bird costumes with iridescent wings flapping in the darkened theater gave the impression of birds flying away in a captivating beautiful way.
The Chinese use very shrill high pitched screeching instruments that do not set very well to the western ear.  I usually find it hard to tolerate but in this huge theater it was okay. They dance a ritual child sacrifice and a sensual birth of a baby. They danced the Muslim people coming into China through the mountains,  facing hardships and bringing Buddhism to China. And the last show brought back the great peacock dancer with balance, grace and beauty performing, with her fingers displayed in huge shadows on a screen, a peacock grooming, and strutting and eating.
This engaging, historical, world-class performance,  cost us a small $20 bill. The peacock show travels all over the world. We returned to our rooms entranced.
The main attraction in this area is the famous Stone Forest-tomorrow.