Am sitting on the small deck of Bruce Chalet, a small hotel just outside of the old town of Shuhe, one of several old, protected towns in this area, the best known and largest of which is Lijiang. I arrived here yesterday on the night train from Kunming -- a good night's sleep in a soft sleeper compartment. There's little of sightseeing value in Kunming proper, so I spent most of my day before boarding the train doing a very long walk from Yuantong, a Buddhist temple north of my hotel, back to my hotel. Along the way, there was the busy pedestrian shopping district, old market, and just the sights of a city new to me. My sleeping compartment companions couldn't speak any English, but we got along fine trading snacks before getting to bed.
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