Sunday April 9th through Tuesday April 11th, 2017 - The Flower City That Had Just a Little 'Bloom'

Sue and I planned our trip around her spring break, and she was due to be back at work on Monday, April 10th. In order to maximize our 'sightseeing' time, I suggested we might want to take the overnight train for the longest stretch of our journey - Dali to Kunming. It was more like seven hours than the three we were used to.

As we left the old Dali for the train station, we were surprised to discover that there was a huge city, also called Dali.

The overnight train seemed like a good idea at the time - but one that became less impressive when faced with reality. Boarding time was 9:30 pm - didn't seem so bad - but dealing with Chinese bureaucracy to use our online booking to get an actual ticket had us pushed close to the limit. The railway station had no ramps or escalators, so luggage had to be carried and when we found our bunks - the Chinese people we were each immersed with (in separate compartments) were less than thrilled. I still have bruises on my arm from climbing up to the top bunk with only one step to help.
The clincher, however, was the pleasure of arriving 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled 4:30 am arrival time - and the considerate staff decided to give us that sickly sweet muzak to make sure we woke up and got off the train promptly! So like our bleary-eyed Chinese travel companions, we sat in shock for about an hour in the only place that was open, until we could store our luggage and explore a bit. We hoped to get out to a museum that opened at 9 am, so Susan suggested that we find an upscale hotel to get a map and assistance ordering a cab. That was a winning strategy, as the hotel we walked into had a revolving restaurant on top that had a very nice breakfast buffet and coffee.

Dawn over Kunming from Jin Jiang Hotel.

We ate and dallied for a while and then appreciated the concierge arranging a taxi ride to our museum - the Yunnan Nationalities Museum. It was interesting to see the cab-driver's face after the arrangements had been made - he became quite crestfallen when he saw us walking up - as if he did not want to deal with these foreigners.

Happily, the museum was well worth the ride - a magnificent display of ethnic clothes, writing, crafts, musical instruments etc.

Detail of Zhuang women's silver ornamented dress....

....and Yi women's embroidered attire.

I thought the section on written language would be boring, but it actually was interesting to see how people recorded and communicated before writing. These are memory knots - each knot represents an event its creator wanted to remember. Perhaps pre-internet blogging?

This was a love note - the little bag contains tobacco, the next item is betel palm and the split bamboo ring means 'I am fond of you'. The coins mean 'I have enough money to support our life'.

These are Tibetan religious books.

A beautiful musical instrument - a Yi yueqin

The museum was close to cliffs in the distance.

There was a whole section on roof architecture - I particularly liked this guy. He's a Dai style earthen peacock - an auspicious animal that will sit on the ridge or eave of the roof and guard the house. These items pray for blessings, drive away evil spirits and correct the "fengshui".

Then back to town by local bus........



...........picked up luggage and went off our separate ways - Sue to Shanghai and me to a hotel in Kunming for a few more days. Each of us immediately had problems with our taxis. Mine took off in the wrong direction and thanks to the hotel map I was able to make him stop and call the hotel for directions. I don't know if he really didn't know where to go, (even though I gave him the address in Chinese AND a map) or if he was just trying to make more money by driving me around unnecessarily.

Shortly after we had parted, I saw Sue's cab pulled over and some discussion taking place. It was hard to drive by and know that my involvement would be useless. She told me later that he had tried to charge her more than twice the correct amount and had even told her to get out of the cab, which is illegal. Happily the matter was resolved and she got the airport in plenty of time, for the correct price!

This was the entrance to the alley leading o my hotel. I thought it was very colorful.

After getting to my hotel - and having a nice nap - I set out to look for dinner via a nearby lake - the Green Lake. It was very active with lots of people out and music everywhere.

Green Lake

Ethnic dancers were out in great numbers.

This group of musicians had a good sized crowd around them.

This lone violin player had no one nearby - he was playing with great enthusiasm!

The following day (Monday) saw me looking for the Jingxing Bird and Flower market, not far from my hotel. (There is apparently another one further away which I did not get to.)

I was disappointed to find that there was major renovation taking place. This photo was taken by sticking my camera through the construction fence!

There was little to see, other than a few stalls that looked like a street version of what we would find at Petsmart.......

.....and the flowers were actually potted plants.

Not wanting to go into 'full on' tourist mode, I chose instead to just follow my nose for a while.........

In the center of downtown were large shopping malls and an area with no cars or motorbikes. These barriers marked the spot!

There was some nice statuary - I was entertained by this boys interest in the old man's birdcage.

The old man in the statue had a very interesting face!

There was a large, very Chinese portico......

........and funny egg-shaped police boxes.

I was pleased to find a few old places.........then back to the hotel to make up more sleep and start processing photos.

Dinner was in a lovely old building at a restaurant recommended by the hotel - .Laofangzi Restaurant in Bird & Flower Market. I had grilled fish........

........that possibly came from the fish tanks on the right hand side!

Tuesday afternoon I was due at the airport, but first decided to visit a 1200 year old Buddhist Temple in the morning - the Yuantong Temple. It was within walking distance.

 It was a very active place, as usual and did have a sense of great historicity.

It had the familiar pavilions.....

 ........lots of places for people to sit and contemplate

.........and places where people congregated in groups.

The candles her are made of wax and are bright red.

People pray with their incense before lighting it .......at least the older people do!

My experience in Kunming was not unpleasant, but there was little sense that foreigners were welcomed. Our taxi experiences here were the worst in our travels and smiles and greeting were not commonplace.

Kunming is known as 'The Flower City' and there was some nice statuary and floral decorations
around.

 It seemed like a pleasant city - not crazy with traffic and crowds.

 They are cleaning up the old areas......

...........and the new areas felt more like a place that had developed 20 - 25 years ago - buildings were not very modern. 

Overall - my experience did not find anything unique or exciting that would bring it to the level of a must see destination for me to recommend to others. It was a relatively pleasant place to stop, but not a city I would recommend one go out of one's way as a destination.