Blogs from Kunming, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 5

Day 14 Kunming Last Day This is the last day in China and we are going home at 11.30pm via Seoul in S Korea. Yesterday we went to the Golden Temple in the north of the city on a small hill where the air is less polluted. The small temple is all copper and used 250 tonnes in its construction. At the top of the hill is a large bell which is 400 years old and a small replica which visitors can ring for 20p by striking it with a big wooden fish on a rope. Alongside the temple are two small trees dating back to the mid 1600's which are still living but rather fragile looking. The temple has a Buddha which is an image of the Chinese General who,opened the gates of Yunnan in ... read more

Here I am at home just about ready to set off for Kunming for the 2012 tour of the area from Binchuan to as far north as the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the Yangtze just above the first bend in the river. I have packed my bike in a soft bag and a small suitcase for my hand luggage. On a tour like this you need to travel light and wash your clothes frequently, which I do in the showwer each night, wring them out in a towel and hope they are dry next day. This was a problem in N Vietnam due to the high altitude and cool weather for the first week. I am not looking forward to the flights, which seem to take forever, and the airport boredom and officialdom. We get in ... read more

Oct. 7 This morning we tried a Skype call (voice only) with Ron. We managed to get through and could hear him fine, but he had trouble hearing us, and it's a bit awkward with the few-seconds lag. Good to have some contact, anyway! Then we looked at the "Ladies' Market" near hotel, so named for clothing stores and beauty parlors, but these were not open yet. We concentrated on the fruit stands and convenience store, where we marveled at the giant mangoes, dragon fruit, durian (stinky fruit), and one we had never seen before called Buddha's hand (yellow basketball-sized fruit with protruding fingers? See photo.). We got together to go out at 11 and went right to lunch, to everyone's dismay. We are certainly not going hungry on this trip! After leaving much food uneaten ... read more

After a few days in Hong Kong and a week in Beijing it was time to head to Kunming in the Yunnan provence ( a 3 hour flight from Beijing). While in Beijing I had almost forgetten about the reason for the whole trip to China - the wedding of my Brother. He had and met a Kunming girl in NZ and they had lived there together for 6 years before making the move to China. We had a few days in Kunimng before the wedding and got to see some of the sights (eg Green Lake Park and the Shilin Stone Forest) but this blog will be about the wedding The day started with a light lunch before the girls left to the house of the bride where she had been waiting. Shortly after most ... read more

Hello Everyone! This will be my final blog entry for this trip. I finally arrived home on Saturday night around midnight. It had just rained right before my plane landed. I walked home from the bus station and everything was fresh and clean. Kunming's air really is quite good. It smells like a botanical garden sometimes (usually just at night when there are no cars on the roads). My apartment was as I had left it. It has been well looked after while I was gone. My Korean friends had their friends stay here for a couple of days, my French friend put other couch surfers up in here (one stayed for a week!), and my other Korean friend slept here for two weeks while the university dorms were being repaired. They kept it clean and ... read more