Blogs from Kunming, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 10

There is an attraction, a sort of park, in the south of Kunming. Originally, an ambitious developer decided to make Kunming the site of China's largest botanical butterfly garden. Apparently nobody got very excited about the garden, which is perhaps less than half an acre in size, and the developer decided to expand. A little over a year ago, the owner began to hire little people to dress up in costumes and entertain guests in the park. These performers proved a lot more popular than a seasonally temperamental butterfly garden, and the Dwarf Empire was born. Today, I'm told the park has several dozen little people, probably soon to be 100 of them. The "freak show" school of entertainment, as it stands in China, is about where I imagine it was in America about 80 years ... read more

I only went to Kunming to get a train out of the area. I stayed for a few days anyway. When I first got to my hostel, after I had just sat down in the bar area, a cat came up to me and I showed it my empty hand to let it know I didn't have any food. That is when it turned carnivorous and took a bite of my thumb. I knew I should have gone with my first instinct and kicked it, but you have to be careful around other travelers, most seem the type to be in PETA. I went and walked around the city the first day and realized there wasn't much to see. Most of the places of interest are rather far from the city itself. I decided the next ... read more

Chinese cuisine belongs to the world's most famous ones. However, what many people mean by "Chinese cuisine" is chicken in a sweet-sour sauce or Peking Duck. And that's not true... It's also believed that Chinese people eat absolutelly everything. And that IS true... Some years ago, in a Guangdong province, people started eating some kind of (poisoned!) squirrel which eventually caused the SARS epidemic. In the same province, if women decide to do abortion, people eat those human fetuses believing they are healthy. Another controversial "dish" is... (live) monkey brain. In the middle of a special table with a hole inside, people put still living monkey (only the monkey's head is actually on the table), crash its head and eat its brain. Doesn't that sound... delicious? Since I came here, I got to try many Chinese ... read more

6/22/10 Today we listened to a lecture from Lina, a blind masseuse. It was very surprising for me to receive a lecture from her because I had never heard of blind masseuses before. Not only that, but it is actually very common for blind people in China to take up Chinese massage. It is a practical way for them to make a living. According to Lina’s lecture, there are approximately 16 million people in China with disabilities. About 8 million of those people are blind and a large number of them are masseuses. Many of these masseuses come from the countryside to the city to become educated in TCM and Chinese massage. To help disabled persons, the Chinese government established the China Disabled Person’s Federation (CDPF) in 1988 in Beijing. Every province has a branch and ... read more

6/21/10 We began learning Chinese massage with Dr. Yang Yuncai, whom we quickly noticed during the lecture had a habit of saying “how to say” when we would normally say “um.” During the lecture he gave us an introduction to Chinese massage can treat and then taught us a few massage manipulations. Chinese massage has been around since ancient times and became an advanced clinical practice by the Sui and Tang dynasties. Different techniques are applied to people of different ages. For example, the hands and arms are massaged for babies, while the whole body can be massaged for adults. This is because adults have different meridians and channels in their bodies than babies. Chinese massage can be used to treat uncomfortable menstruation, insomnia, kidney problems, high fever, and many other conditions. The doctor used some ... read more