And so after that brief one week transit in Laos, and another 7h bus ride later, I say hello to the Middle Kingdom. Crossing the Boten-Mohan border, it became apparent very quickly that I'd entered another country. Gone were the quiet small-laned streets and rural backdrops. Enter large, super-highways, flanked by equally imposing but tackily opulent buildings. Yes, welcome to China, centre of the ongoing Asian economic miracle. And my first stop was Jinghong, the capital of the Xishuangbanna region in Yunnan province, in the far southwest of this large country. Despite it being very much a secondary city, it could hardly be more different from my last stop in Laos. Bustling, with lots of people. LOUD-talking people (we are in China after all), many conversing in what I presume to be some kind of Yunnanese
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