Guangzhou to Kunming and around.

---

Guangzhou to Kunming.







The Guangzhou we met was grey and strange, although not lifeless, and very unlike the scenes we had witnessed in Hong Kong. The huge square outside the station was full of people sitting and milling around, waiting for trains to who knows where. Perhaps a great deal of them were migrant workers. Although I don't think there are many itinerants in China I think perhaps a lot of people have to travel to the cities to find work and then return to homes in the country. Many of the people in the square looked disposessed and morose, and the whole scene was an intimidating start to our time on the Chinese mainland. Towards the station building stalls sold plastic pre-packaged bowls of noodles which were filled up from a thermos of hot water. There were huge queues for the ticket booths and a cram of people in the actual station, so we decided to get some noodles and wait for a while. After we had finished our noodles a friendly guy spotted us and headed in our direction. He spoke perfect English and told us what we needed to do to get tickets to Kunming and board our train. We got our tickets with no fuss and not much money, and moved towards a waiting room for the correct platform. The station was really busy, and people were carrying all kinds of belongings with them. When the train arrived the waiting passengers moved in a thick block towards the train which we eventually boarded without much hassle. Suprisingly when the crowd thinned out it seemed the train would not be too over-occupied and we found a couple of bunks. The train would take 35 hours to reach our eventual destination, and we got comfortable for the journey.



We pulled out of the station, and the outskirts of Guangzhou seemed the most bleak of all scenes, with grey apartment blocks lifeless and apparently uninhabited. Perhaps these were on the brink of destruction, as much of the rest of Guangzhou had seemed to be in a state of modernisation. This bleak scene gave an insight into an aspect of China that I hadn't expected to see but that made perfect sense, the cheap housing of many families from the country for work in the cities had clearly created a China unrecognisable from its other aspects. Travelling through the country for 35 hours gave an impression of a country living in several different centuries or even millennia all at the same time. You would look out of the window at as scene of rice fields with oxen and carts pulled by donkeys in age-old fashion, backed by a Victorian-like brick factory belching out coal smoke. In a few minutes time you would pull into a station built in unfriendly communist fashion, with its guards in their uniforms giving an impression of an era of cultural submission and enforced order contrasting severely with the medieval agricultural scenes and Victorian industrial scenes on the outskirts of such a provincial town. Occasionally we would pass through truly epic scenery unlike anything else in the world, with dramatic mountains towering over small farming communities clinging onto and around them, and lakes and interesting rock outcrops. I think China provides scenery more epic than anything else to be seen in the world, giving an impression of a vast scale and diversity of culture adapting to its various environments over millennia of occupation. I almost felt glad that I hadn't tried to take on more in the short time I would be there, given the enormity of it, but amazed too that I would be here just to glimpse some of it.



Before too long we were in Kunming, and relieved we got off the train to stretch our legs. We found a guesthouse easily enough and settled down to get some proper sleep. Kunming was large and industrialised. With skyscrapers going up here and there, and large Carrefour supermarkets where you could buy anything. We stayed at the hump over the Himalyas hostel, an outcrop of backpacker life that had more history and tradition to it than all of the buildings you could see from its rooftop!



We wandered around in the parks, where people bring their caged birds and hang them up while conversing once a day. In one park was the Kunming zoo, where animals of all kinds could be met. There were monkeys to feed, birds of all kinds, and even lions. The only thing that really sticks in my mind was one enclosure in which could be seen two White tigers, huge and graceful prowling around in their confined space. I wondered if their habitats were so threatened that their captivity was helpful in their conservation, but without any experience in the wild I imagined that their offspring would not fare so well. The park was practically empty, although we were there at the end of the day, and I guessed the city would exhibit whatever it could get hold of, although how the lions and white tigers got to be here must be some tale I'm sure.







Our first stop outside of Kunming was at the Dragon Gate, a series of temples carved into the cliff face above the lake south of Kunming. We got up early and made it there before anyone else. The morning was cold and misty and we managed to find somewhere open and got some noodles. As the morning cleared we ventured out of the restaurant and found a pathway, cut into the sheer rock face, with shrines and temples containing ornate figures and offerings of flowers. After this we resolved to get out and see more of the surrounding area and made our way to Dali and Lijiang, significant ethnic towns to the south of Kunming.



We arrived in Dali in the evening, it was becoming cold and we got to our hotel quickly. We were staying in a Tibetan hotel, where you could get a bowl of Yak stew wider than a dinner plate for next to nothing. The rich sauce and thick meat reared at altitude was very fortifying, and nothing like the other Chinese fare we had tried so far, and perhaps the best meal I can remember having. The owner was a thick-set and heavy guy who talked to us about the plight of his people, and how many of them had moved to provinces outside of the Tibet Autonomous Region or to other countries. We were very glad to meet this guy who helped us with our inquiries about how to get into the Tibet and with many other questions. Dali was not unlike my hometown, York, a medieval city surrounded by impressive stone walls and gates, with a temple of religious significance within. We walked around a section of the walls one evening, and could see layers of mountain fading off into the blue distance. The pagodas were solemn and impressive, set within a well manicured park. Modern China encroached from the outskirts, and slowly fell away into dusty roads and shacks. One day we hired bikes from a shop next to a huge statue of Chairman Mao, and after some difficulty managed to make it out of the city and into the countryside. We were heading for an apparently beautiful and significant temple on the hillside to the north of the town. After some distance we reached a village and left the bikes to continue on foot, through some beautiful cedar woods, until we reached the temple. Upon entering we found walls daubed in an earthy red and ancient gnarled trees growing up out of the inner courtyard. We wandered, and found a wood behind decorated with prayer flags, and bonsai magnolias in pots just coming into flower. It seemed an example of a culture that found beauty in patience and this was clearly still manifest every year after hundreds or even thousands of years of the existence of this temple.



Lijiang was very different to anywhere else we had visited, and I felt that it would be the last or even only real glimpse of the China I had supposed it would be like. Families lived in single story buildings that surrounded internal courtyards. The roofs had beautiful grey tiles that showed their age. Small children and elderly folks stared out shyly from rooms around the courtyard, with various interesting potted trees and other plants. The food in Lijiang was perhaps the most memorable part, with interesting breads and dumplings of the region, thick noodles and innumerable tea varieties, all for very little money. Naxi women danced in the squares in their blue tribal costume, and goldfish swam in the river through the town, lit by red paper lanterns at night. A few foreign tourists could be seen wandering around the old town.



Venturing a bit further we walked out of the old town and into a more modern area, past which we found the Black Dragon Lake, where carp swam against a background of pagodas, bridges and distant mountains. On another day we managed to get up to a temple above the town, from where commanding views were to be had of the surrounding area, with a sea of grey tiled roofs joining together in geometric complexity against the backdrop of the mountains beyond. More modern buildings could be seen around the town but overall the effect was not spoiled so much.



My companion had to leave so we got a bus back to Kunming and said our fond goodbyes. After this I headed back to Lijiang, where I moved into another room in a different family courtyard. I met an Israeli couple in the town later, and recommended the place I was staying to them. One afternoon the Israeli guy and myself were in the courtyard messing around with a fire staff he had brought when suddenly the air above us began to fill with bees. I don't know what had set them off but soon enough the whole courtyard was swarming with them. Various members of the household stood by from their rooms and watched. The bees took about an hour to disperse, during which I had a little nap. I arranged to meet up with the Israeli guys in Chengdu, and boarded a bus back to Kunming.

---