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Published: July 27th 2008
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Blog Kunming
We are in Kunming, a town in the South West of China. We are in a Chinese Youth hostel called “the Hump” where a large wall is decorated with pictures concerning the epic effort by American Pilots to fly supplies in for the allied forces in China who were engaged in the repulsion of the Japanese forces who had invaded Burma. The year was 1942 and just a week ago I read an article in the e-edition of the New York Times that finally, after so many years, an effort was to be made to recover the remains of pilots and crews who had crashed their Dakota’s or C46C’s amidst the peaks of the Himalayas, referred to then as “the Hump”.
It is difficult to explain why a simple and seemingly out-of-place reminder of world war 2 can be so compelling. Maybe it’s because of the black-and-white images of so many planes and pilots who didn’t make it, of the photo’s which show lonely Dakota’s between the sharp, snow covered peaks of the highest mountain range on earth. Weather conditions, fatigue, enemy Zero’s and relatively primitive navigation systems made failure to get the supplies back to Kunming a
recurring gamble with fate.
And it is here, so far away and so may years after it happened that we are reminded of a human effort that had such an ever lasting effect on the course of history.
It’s raining and busy in he hostel where travelers from all over the world mix with Chinese youngsters who are in the majority here. The ambiance is pleasant. Beer is flowing freely and music drums in your ears. Mainly old American songs and some rap.
Ann and I yesterday visited a number of Buddhist pagoda’s on a mountain nearby. The weather was in our favor although the view from up high was obscured by low hanging clouds. As always the Chinese visitors outnumbered foreigners overwhelmingly, but eventually we found ourselves in the company of two Japanese tourists when getting back to ground level by cabelcar.
Because Ann and I had to discuss some serious matters we had decided to meet in Xi’an a week or so earlier. This is by the way the place where in 1972 the army of terracotta soldiers was discovered by some farmers who were drilling for water. Those soldiers, some 10.000 of them had been standing there
in battle formation, together with their horses and a host of equipment, for 2000 years. No-where in any known writings an indication had been found about the presence of this army, that was created to accompany a ruler of around the beginning of our calendar, Xi, when he was dragged to the next phase of life. It is said the army was created to accompany him and protect him on his journey, but others believe he was convinced he was going to rule in the after-life and would need the army to set up his rule. Apparently he was a very strong ruler and he believed death was only a change in conditions.
The Chinese have made it a truly remarkable site, building immense large hangar-like constructions over the pits where the soldiers stand, many reconstructed after the pits were looted and many figures smashed by invading troops in the past.
I had traveled to Xi’an from Shanghai, that fantastic city I wrote about in my previous blog. It takes 15 hours on a “hard seat” (more comfortable than it sounds) in a train that was chockablock with many passengers who hadn’t been able to book a seat standing most
of the time.
Ann was there to take me to the hostel, a nice and welcome gesture. The meeting was the first one in half a year and we were both happy to see each other. I stayed a few days, visited the terracotta army and had a look at the town.
After having discussed our plans for the near future, we parted again. Ann stayed behind and I moved to Hong Kong, mainly to pass the border and re-entry China to activate my second period of 3 months in China as allocated by my visa.
That has been a pleasant trip, seeing all the things I remembered from my visits some 20 years earlier when I came here to buy paintings for my business in South Africa. Most of the painting dealers are gone now, making place for another kind of business. The Chungking complex, a beehive of active painting dealers in the past is now a beehive of small guesthouses, mainly run by Indians and Africans. I lost a few thousand Hong Kong Dollars (HK$) to a Chinese camera dealer who was too clever for me and sold me something I could have bought elsewhere for just over
half the price.
From Hong Kong I traveled to Nanning on the 19th, a day that proved to be one of those unlucky days that occur now and again.
I arrived at the railway station in time to be herded into the waiting hall. (All stations in China are large, mainly because of the huge waiting rooms where passengers, sometimes thousands of them, wait for the sign to board their train.)
When eventually arriving at the designated couch to board it, it was pointed out to me that my ticket was for the following day. Back to the hotel, sweating profusely and carrying my luggage on my back because the wheels of my back-pack wouldn’t turn anymore after the friction with the metal axel had molten the material.
On my way I was approached by a money changer and remembering I had some HK$320 on me, too little to take to a bank, I changed them for Y300. At the hotel where I needed to pay for one night more they proved to be counterfeit, a problem that seems to be widespread in China.
That afternoon I went out and bought another set of wheels with a sturdy frame and
wheels on metal ball-bearings. No more suffering for me.
The train from Nanning to Kunming takes 13 hours. It wasn’t a fast train but it has been a matter of interest to me that so far, from long distance trips to smaller ones, I never had to change trains ever. You get in, make yourself comfortable and wait to arrive at your destination. No anxiety what-so-ever.
Again Ann was there to meet me. And so we are here in this hostel with a very pleasant ambiance, good kitchen and Wi-Fi so I can sit in the lounge working on my laptop. It’s raining again but Ann couldn’t sit here any longer (she still reads most of the time but her book is not very interesting it seems) and I have to catch up with my blog.
So this is it for the time being. We’ll see what we are going to do next, stay together for a while or go our separate ways again, I don’t know. But all is well at the moment, and that is a most pleasant state of affairs.
Best off luck to you all.
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