KUNMING
My plane landed in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, also known as the “City of Eternal Spring”. No wonder it is called this way - I started my trip in the beginning of May and the weather was perfect for traveling: about 20 degrees with no rain at all.
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| Streets of Kunming |
One of the first things that stood out in Kunming was people. They looked slightly different than in those areas of China which I had visited before. Many Europeans think that all Chinese people look the same, and most of the Chinese think the same about Europeans, yet we know this is not true once you travel a bit and see it for yourself. About 90% of all Chinese belong to the group called Han, but there are 55 other recognized minorities (Hui, Miao, Tibetans, Mongols, Koreans…), most of which have their own non-Chinese language. Usually they are blood-related to the neighbouring countries, such as Laos, Vietnam, Kirghizstan, etc. In Kunming, you can find representatives of around 25 different ethnicities. For example, the most prominent of minorities in Kunming is called Yi. They speak Yi language, which is closely related to Burmese, written in Yi script.
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| Kunming has a lot of representatives of various Chinese minorities |
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Chinese minorities are interesting not only because of their different looks or language. They have preserved their culture and traditions very well. These customs are very interesting both to Chinese people from the more developed side of China, and for us, foreigners.
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| Quite a large part of Kunming is under construction - and you really need to know where you are going to see something nice |
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| Fruits on the street - look tasty to me! |
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| Taking photos of Chinese in Yunnan was very easy - because every single kid and most of the grownups too would turn around and look at me |
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| I guess it is because you really don't get that many foreigners in those areas |
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| Once every three or four shops, there was some sort of tool shop - for repairing bikes, maybe? |
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| Chinese understanding of beautiful photography |
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| A very exclusive car next to a posh hotel |
The first day I walked the streets of Kunming and tried to capture as much of the view as I could. The second day I joined some other foreign travellers and began what turned out to be one of the greatest trips of my life.
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| Our group at first dinner |
There were 10 of us travelling together. 10 people from 7 different countries, of very different ages and backgrounds, but what we all had in common was our passion for travelling. My roommate was a 30 years old New Zealander whom I got along with incredibly well. Sometimes, though, travelling with her was a little bit “tiring” – with her tall height and orange hair it was impossible to remain inconspicuous. We enjoyed lots of attention from the locals, which rarely happened to me when I was travelling on my own.
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| Our guide in China. As you can probably tell, she is a representative of one of the minorities too. |
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| Yunnan's countryside |
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| Food on the road |
I did not get to see much of Kunming, it was a starting point of all the things to come. After the tasty dinner and a good night’s sleep, we had a long bus ride to Lijiang. One day before, we were told to buy ourselves some food for the trip in a little bakery. China is not very well known for its bakeries and it was already evening, so I just grabbed whatever it was that they had left. Next day on the bus we shared everything we had bought – at least me and my roommate did. In the evening we went to a karaoke bar in Lijiang, and that’s when I realized I probably should have put more thought into what I was buying in the bakery. We both got serious food poisoning which affected us differently; needless to say, we were both running to toilet every 15 minutes. I decided not to wait any longer; our guide helped me get some fabulous Chinese medicine from the pharmacy the same evening.
Few days later I got better, and my roommate, who thought she was fine without medicine, got worse. My advice for travellers who get sick in China is – do not be afraid to go to local pharmacies. Their medicine works really well! In my case, I was taking a mixture of Chinese traditional medicine and a smaller than recommended dose of antibiotics. They solved my problems really fast, and in the end of the trip, I went to a pharmacy just so that I could buy more of that stuff (for the future :) ).
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| Beautiful rice fields |
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| Now you know why this place is called "Dinosaur Valley" |
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| Lijiang's new town |
LIJIANG
Some of my friends called Lijiang a little bit “fake” and touristic. Yes, it is comparatively touristic, but it is much more popular among the domestic tourists rather than foreigners. No surprise here - Lijiang has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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| Lijiang's lovely rooftops |
Our homelike guesthouse was on top of the hill, and from there, we could see Lijiang’s old town – a sea of wavy roofs, hidden in between mountains. Lijiang’s old town was a charming maze of wooden houses and canals.
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| In the guesthouse, where we lived |
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| This is where our food was prepared every day |
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| Each meal is always accompanied by tea |
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| Local girl demonstrating her skills |
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| Artists, doing their work right in front of their shops, were attracting tourists' attention - it's all handmade and unique! I don't know, maybe they do it just to trick tourists - even if so, it is still interesting. |
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| Lijiang at night |
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| Funny sign in front of the toilet in the "House of Tibet" cafe |
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| Lijiang in the morning |
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| Downhill, into the old town |
In the daytime, we took time to explore all those narrow passages and do some souvenir shopping. One of the most popular things, advertised by the local community, is the Dongba paper. “Dongba” is the name for Naxi people’s culture, script and the paper as well. As you could have guessed, Naxi (pronounced “Nah-sih”) people are one of the many China’s minorities. It is said that they descended from Tibetans, and Lijiang is one of the main cities where they live.
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| Dongba script on Dongba paper. Yes, it is pictographic! |
To be in Lijiang and not buy Dongba paper would be a crime. Locals say, this paper was first made around 1400-1600 years ago, but during the Cultural Revolution, most of the old books written on Dongba paper were burned. Only 20 years ago Chinese Government realised they might lose something very unique to this region. As there was only ONE Dongba paper manufacturing master left, he was given all tools to try to make this paper again. He succeeded and later on started teaching other people his craft. The process is long and tiring, it requires very rare raw materials that have to be grown for this purpose, but the result is worth it – the paper itself is extremely resistant to nature’s forces.
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| House of Tibet cafe - they had really good coffee and various foreign books available for swapping |
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| Park entrance gates |
Later, we went to a park, from which we could see the peak of the infamous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, hiding in the clouds. It was also possible to travel to the mountain and go to the top of it by a cable car. Admiring it from afar was enough for us.
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| Can you see the Jade Dragon Snow mountain behind me? |
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| Fishes in the lake |
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| "Traditional" Chinese toilets... Yes, no doors. Sometimes there are no partitions between cubicles either |
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| Beautiful plates |
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| This guy was not amused |
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| This whole park was a little bit "fake", I agree... But when and where else could we be so close to their culture? |
In the evening we went to listen to a traditional Naxi Orchestra’s performance in the village. As I was sick, tired and dehydrated, I slept through most of it in my chair. Nevertheless, it was good. One of the most impressive things was actually the ticket – it was not a usual ticket, but a tiny thick book full of performers’ photos, Naxi music’s history and so on.
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| Naxi Orchestra |
Despite of me being unwell, I tried to enjoy Lijiang as much as I could. I still wanted to wake up early to see the beautiful sunrise, before we left this peaceful town.
It was time for us to see the part of Yunnan which we all had been waiting for – The Tiger Leaping Gorge. I want to show you all the pictures of the beauty we saw – but you will have to wait for the next time…
