22 hours on the train and a few instant noodle-pots later ("Have instant noodles, will travel" as Karen called it) I arrived in Kunming. I also managed to loose another hat on the train, the 4th one since I set off for this trip, perfect Ben. On the plus side, the Lonely Planet had said the trip from Guilin to Kunming was 26 hours, so I was positively surprised when the train pulled into Kunming station after only 22h. What is strange about these night trains is that all the Chinese travellers sleep fully dressed. In Russia and Mongolia, people would [View Full Entry]

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Saturday was our first real free day. I really took it as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep as well as school work. I took a trip to Walmart to buy a few things and watched a movie in my room. That evening we were to attend a performance called Yunnan Impression, an artistic interpretation and reflection of Yunnan’s ethnic minority culture through dance and song. It was really well put together, and had some fabulous music and percussion works. I especially enjoyed the drum performances, the Dage dance, the Tibetan dance, and the Peacock dance. Although the performance [View Full Entry]

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So Friday we had class in the morning. That afternoon was to be more relaxing than previous ones. It was raining pretty hard and we had a coffee group discussion scheduled. We met downstairs in the lobby and then walked to a local café. We discussed some of our initial impressions of Chinese culture and society with Prof. Zhang. We talked for about thirty minutes and then Prof. Zhang introduced us to a fellow anthropologist and friend of hers, Sandra Hyde, who was in Kunming doing research. I have read Sandra Hyde’s work on sex tourism and was really excited to [View Full Entry]

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Thursday July 10th was our most intense day so far. Today we were to be downstairs ready to go by 9:00 am for our trip to the Stone Forest, a one and a half hour drive outside of Kunming. The drive was very nice, with plenty of lovely scenery. Arriving at the park we had an early lunch at a fairly tasty restaurant where we were treated to a serving of roast duck, Kunming style. It is very different from the duck I had in Beijing, but still very tasty. The stone forest is an amazing place with interesting limestone rock [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday morning, class as usual. That afternoon we were to visit the Provincial Museum and the Flower Market. The museum was in some old soviet style building. It was cold and dreary inside. Yet when we actually got to the second floor where the exhibits were house, it was very modern and stylish, nothing like the buildings exterior would reflect. The first exhibit we visited contained more ancient relics dating back to the 5th and 6th century before Common Era. Various metal works, mostly bronze work, was displayed here and reflected an intense amount of detail and craftsmanship. The exhibit also [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday July 8th we had class in the morning. We had a short break in the afternoon and then had a tour of the university campus scheduled. We met at the front gates to the University and were met by Prof. Zhang’s sister and one of her colleagues. The gentlemen whom she was with gave us an in depth tour of the campuses most notable buildings. This university has a very rich history, and the tour was fabulous and very informative. We learned that the university was officially founded in the early 20th century, but that the specific site where the [View Full Entry]

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Monday morning we had class. That afternoon we had a trip scheduled to the Bird and Flower market and to a traditional neighborhood. It was a very nice day, the first full sunny day I have had in China! Here in Kunming the rainy weather is a lot like a cold and wet spring day in Davis, but when the sun comes out it really warms up and everyone is out to take advantage. The streets were packed! We took the bus from a stop near our hotel to the downtown area. It is a short ride, only about 15 minutes. [View Full Entry]

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Saturday was a free day for us. Unfortunately it was raining all day. We went to bakery to get some breakfast and from there some people went to the movie theater while a few of us went to Walmart to get some things we needed. On our way back we stopped and ate some fried chicken at Dicos, a KFC like place. It was raining pretty hard and we headed back to the hotel. We just kind of bummed around waiting for the rain to die down. Later that afternoon we went to eat noodles at the place I had visited [View Full Entry]

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Friday July 4th was my first day of class. It also happens to be America (‘Merica) day, but technically it isn’t really until Saturday so I get to celebrate twice! Anyways, we had a quick introduction session and then a brief introduction on the importance of studying Chinese society and culture and why we chose to enroll in this specific program. Class was about two and a half hours long with a short break midway through. After class my roommate and I switched to a different room because our internet was not working. Vincent and I walked to an electronics store [View Full Entry]

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So it was my second day in Kunming, July 2nd, and I woke up to a downpour. While in Beijing the rain is sporadic and brief, in Kunming it comes down! I woke up pretty early and had a quick shower in the shady bathroom and met up with Matt. We had some breakfast, checked out, and headed out to catch a cab to the program accommodations. Catching a cab in pouring rain while holding over 50 lbs of crap in your pack is not very fun. What’s more is that the whole world was trying to get a cab as [View Full Entry]

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