Chinese village life - leaving the big cities behind

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Folks, Friends, Family ... how are you doing ? Hope everybody is doing well and the approaching spring will spoil you with its first warm sunbeams. Well, depends on which part of the earth you are right now 😊
After 2 weeks in China and some heavy duty city experiences we decided to take a closer look to what China can offer in the beautiful countryside.
We choosed Yunnan, started in the capital Kunming and keep crawling north, via Dali, Lijang, Tiger Leaping Gorge and finally Zhongdian. Since we are already very close to the Tibetan border we might be able to sneak into Tibet ... pls dunnot spread the info, it's certainly top secret. The reason is ... after watching some chinese news on tv we are wondering what's really happening beyond the border. We have a tiny suspect that the reports are slightly filtered.
Nevermind ... Yunnan is enchanted with pure beauty, the more you penetrate the countryside the friendlier and curious the people are.
Another adventureous trek is waiting for us tomorrow in the Tiger Leaping Gorge, 3900m above sea level. Yunnan has variuos ethnical minorities, some has their roots in Tibet, some other in Myanmar (formerly Burma). Plenty of tribes settled down a while ago, giving Yunnan its strong diverse character. We intend to stay one more week in China, still heavily struggling with the language barrier and other small issues. At the end of the day China impresses us a lot, although there might be some room for improvement here and there ...
Ok ok, my two cents, don't take it too serious. Irina and myself wishes you guys the best of luck, stay happy, healthy ... take good care.

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Photos

drippingham goes east
WHAT ?? Never heard about drippingham, the world's best rock band from Cologne, check out www.drippingham.com immediately !! While my beloved band and buddies back home keep on rocking, I try hard to find some music enlightment. Sound samples and tour dates soon ...

Guess what ...
Yeah, before getting completely bankrupt it was again time to find myself a new job. Conductor on the train route Xi'an to Kunming. First, passengers didn't take me serious, after I kicked some butts out of the train, my new role were very well accepted.

Chinese are living healthy
They don't smoke, dunnot drink and strongly avoid all kind of unhealthy food, like greasy oily peking duck for example. Mi Huong Dong (aka Lang zu Nimm zu) on the photo is a big example of course.

Aren't they cute ?
We were allowed to join a traditional buddhist ceremony near Dali. Of course we didn't tell them that we are Hindus, deep in our hearts :)

Irina schon wieder im Shopping Wahn
Mitten im nichts hat Iri ihren Lieblings-Kiosk ausfindig gemacht. 2 Lollies, Kaugummis, eine Tuete Chips und chin. Schnappes, was braucht man mehr.

Comments

[Holger]

Groß
Ihr Lieben! Die Photos und Stories sind, wie immer, groß groß groß! Gerne täte ich mit Euch tauschen! Liebe Grüße aus dem april-warm-sonnigen Köln, Peace, Holger!

[Mahe]

did u manage 2 get a local SIM as yet ?
glad to see you perform..i think if you go on like this, the premier may ask yoy to stay longer to give a performance at the opening ceremony for the Olympics.. thats in August ...(by then you will have learnt the language ;-)). i should be heading home on May 20, so if you people wana visit me you are more than welcome during the first week of May. take care.

[Wendy]

interesting content
Hi Irina and Tony I've read your blog, it's so interesting. can you give some idea what do you mean by "At the end of the day China impresses us a lot, although there might be some room for improvement here and there ... " I am going to visit there this weekend.