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Published: September 3rd 2008
3oth August 08 Kunming - Something to write home about
I love Kunming. We arrived at 5am, on the night sleeper coach from Lijiang, just before the city began to wake. As our taxi drove across the city, the roads were empty and dark. I like a city that sleeps. As daylight broke, we could see our new surroundings in the dawning light from the window in our room, which is on the 12th floor of the Guolin building on Dong Feng Dong Lu. Our lessons start on Monday on the 16th floor from 8.30 - 12.30 every week day for 3 weeks. I’m not used to sky rise blocks and everything is all new to me. By 6.30am, our new view point and the sounds of the city became clearer.
At 7.30am, we walked towards the centre of town to a Carrefour. On the way, near our building is a small public area - not green, as parks usually are here, but an area close to residential housing where people gather - a public space. It had the same uplifting feeling as Chengdu parks. It was full of people who gathered in groups to play badminton, do tai
qi, fan dancing, group dancing and the age range was again around the over 55’s. The badminton players would have certainly whooped my ass - total pros. My favourite group were the men who brought their precious birds, hung them on the railings in the hedges, whistled to them and generally had a chin wag amongst themselves. I chatted with them, complimenting them on their birds in English and took photos. They sat, joked and read their daily papers with glass tea flasks with knitted tea cozy’s on. Everyone is again welcoming and inviting us to join in. I didn’t want to leave, dragging my heals and making cheeky English remarks to their cheeky Chinese remarks that neither party understood but both interpreted. I know that at around 7am every morning, I will try to be down on the street trying to join in with one activity or another because it makes my heart soar and then I’ll go to class at 8.30am.
In Carrefour, the excitement in me bubbles over. So many things that I’ve not seen for so many weeks like eggs and meat and bread. When I was in China 2 years ago, I noticed huge
queues in shops for eggs and it seems to be the same now but the queues and scrummages extend to the fruit and veg and nuts too. My eyes, as big as saucers, wanted glittery hair slides and everyday things like a bread roll - which I settled for. I now know that Chinese people want fresh food - the fresher the better and there were huge tanks of live fish to choose your own, net and catch, and have killed and gutted in front of your eyes. In addition there were tanks of living frogs and turtles. This may seem unusual to us but it’s a way of life here and if we eat meat, we should recognise that it comes from a living animal and not shy away at the differences of buying food. It does, however, seem cruel to see that the last living hours for these fish were in shallow water and the frogs and turtles were in plastic boxes - but these things are hidden from us usually.
On exiting Carrefour, the city was completely alive and I knew that all the bird gatherers and badminton players and dancers had gone home to make
way for the city’s bustle and jostle.
Later, my most exciting purchase was a huge bunch of lilies from the market for 5yuan (40p) I think they were cheap because you can’t eat them. My most improved skill was buying chicken and sausage for breakfast and my most humbling moments were the old and lonely begging men. The man without eyes who blindly played his string instrument whilst kneeling on the ground, whose hand I touched and he clasped mine was too grateful for the pitiful amount that I gave to him. I wondered afterwards what happens to these lonely people.
Our first afternoon was spent with our personal tutor, Huang Qiu Yan, who intuitively gathered information from us both regarding our levels of mastering (or not) the Chinese language. She welcomed us, listened to us and gleaned what we need to get out of our 3 weeks here. Mainly, it is life skills - how to buy food, recognise what it is, barter confidently, catch a bus, recognise responses as well as speaking and listening classes. Her ingenuity in skilfully extracting how much we know was astounding. She laid out a basic plan for us then took
us on a walk around the area, showing us Buddhist and Taoist temples, restaurants, and Wal Mart whilst all the time speaking to us in Chinese and logging our responses and helping us to fill in the gaps. She was intuitive enough to sense that Chris is very enthusiastic and confident and wanted to talk to her all of the time whereas I hung back and listened to everything, so she made sure to always walk in the middle of us and speak to us both. I liked her very much. She encouraged and considerately corrected when we were wrong. This flexible, modern, individually assigned method of teaching is appreciated and encouraging whereas the teaching style of Jane Bai in Lijiang is not only inflexible but obsolete in comparison. We both know that we will be happy with the school here.
Whilst I write this, the rain is as big and as noisy as the city and accompanied by huge thunder cracks; it bounces back up from the pavements to meet us. All of the neon lights of the city are beginning to start their night time shows and I can smell the scent of my market lilies.
In
my dreams now, on more than one occasion, I have dreamed that I have slipped on the pavement tiles when they are wet from the rain. I know this because I have woken myself with the dreamed skid and the real jump and then I smile to myself because I am dreaming Chinese moments and that I am now living in China.
31 August 2008 The unusual but not unexpected thing that could happen whilst in Kunming is experiencing some part of an earthquake. After the huge May earthquake in Sichuan, whilst at home, I followed what happened via the internet and through Sim’s in Chengdu. Today, Sunday, at 4.30pm, we experienced for ourselves what an aftershock tremor feels like in a high rise building which 350 kilometers away from the epicentre of an earthquake.
Yesterday, a 6.1 Magnitude earthquake occurred, with an epicenter located 30 miles south of Panzhihua, Sichuan, it was felt as a tremor here in Kunming but as we were at street level, we didn’t feel it. However, today, at 4.30pm, exactly 24 hours later, I was sitting at the table in our room and began to feel faint and dizzy,
this continued so I held onto the table for support. I thought that I was going to faint and hit the floor so I called Chris, who said, “Yes, I can feel it too, it’s an earthquake.” When I looked around, the coats on the coat rail were swaying. It only lasted about 1.5 minutes which seems a long time when you are on the 12th floor of a building that is swinging to the movements of a tremor, and you know that there is no quick way out and even if you do get out, there are towering buildings all around you. Apparently, aftershocks are only felt in tall buildings. It’s an experience that was a little surprising and something I had no idea of. The epicentre has suffered most of the fatalities, in Huili, followed by Chuxiong and Panzhihua. All three areas are on the southern end of the fault line of the May 12 quake that left 70,000 people dead, and about 18,000 people are still missing. This must be so difficult for the people of South China who are still rebuilding their lives and working to clean up after the devastation in May.
Go Kunming
website writes:
According to the most recent Xinhua reports, 32 people died in Saturday's quake, more than 400 were injured and over 100,000 homes were destroyed or damaged.
No information has been made available regarding casualties or damage from Sunday's aftershock. More than 800,000 people have been affected by the quakes. Watching the TV, we see real pictures of people suffering once again from an earthquake.
Apparently, earthquakes in Kunming are rare but I have looked them up on the web and see that they do happen. I knew this before I came and although I know that there is nothing that we can do about it if there is an earthquake, I know that this small tremor that we felt is nothing compared to what the real thing has been for thousands of others. It brings home to me how fragile life really is and how the people in the quake zones live with this fear as part of their daily lives now but here in Kunming, life goes on as if nothing has happened.
Here, schools opened 1st September for the first day of term whereas most of the schools in Saturday’s
earthquake zone have been closed. Life goes on.
Our own first day at Keats has been both stretching and rewarding. Huang Loushi (Teacher Huang) is really very good. She has drawn us in with her intuitive unceasingly aware style of teaching and we couldn’t be happier. I find it tiring as I have to think double time and time again and afterwards, I just need to be quiet.
Whilst at class, we could see out of the 15th floor window to the Kunming Middle School where all of the students were out on the huge sports area all lined up before term starts. There was lots of loud music and chanting. They are all so disciplined. Every morning before class, they do their morning exercises. If anyone watched the China School series on TV a few months ago, they will know what I’m talking about but to see it is quite amazing.
2nd September Before class, at 7am, I walked to the public space to watch the daily tai qi groups and dancing. There is one group that I would like to join in with but the moves are complex and there is no leader.
I also know directional words but they wouldn’t come to me as quickly as they are needed in dance moves. Everyone who is dancing knows the moves to the many dances by heart. I watch and watch. Lots of people arrive, all by bikes and join in with their group. The group that I watch has an individual man who dances on his own as if with a partner. He holds his arms up and around as if there is someone there but there isn’t. I wonder, if I watch and take note, then practice around the edge, they may let me in or the man who dances on his own, may use me as a dance partner, which may or may not be better than having no one for him.
If I get the video to work on this page, you’ll notice the man I’m writing about - HE’S MINE!
Our second day at school is much the same as the first but more. I realise that I will have to do at least 4 hours a day homework to keep up. As I do my homework, I have my back against the bed head below
the open window. I love the light, it is like an early Autumn light in the UK at around 3.30pm but the temperature here is not the same and it is 7pm so it’s all a bit out. As I do my homework, I wait for the red tips in the sky to begin but they don’t. For a change, it has stopped raining and the sky remains blue with long thin clouds. I crane my neck to see over the sky scrapers and think of the weather back home. There are no September red skies here. No end of summer last minute heat, just the same temperature all day. It is called Spring City and I see why now. Outside looks the same, but the light slowly dims in the room from the furthest point towards the window. Because of my position, I can still see by natural daylight. It is 7.30pm, we maybe have 10 minutes daylight left. I cannot remember what time it goes dark back home. The neon lights of the city flicker on and there is a tiny ribbon of peach in the sky, no deep reds - it will go grey then dark.
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