Kunming, China

With the Chinese New Year holiday of 23 days for us, we decided to visit Laos (Lao PDR). Our travel agent recommended we fly to Vientiane via Kunming. This is the most direct way from Nanjing. As there is only one flight per day from Kunming to Vientiane and with lots of delays to flights here, the best option was to stay a few days in Kunming and see another part of China we hadn't heard of before.

This decision turned out to be an inspiring one as there was plenty to see there before heading on to Laos. The choice of hotel our agent recommended was top class too.

(We had a 2.5 hour delay on Saturday 26 January before we left on the direct flight to Kunming.)

The following photos are a selection of many taken in and around Kunming.

New gateway near our hotel looks far more interesting at night.

The Memorial Archways to the Golden Horse and the Jade rooster

As it was winter when were there, a lot of the trees were covered to keep out any frost damage. They looked like a citrus variety.


In many Chinese cities, the old parts are being demolished and replaced. This old building in Kunming Old Street has been retained.



Typical old building in Kunming- not many like this left now.

Sweet potato seller in Old Kunming

Typical street scene

Not far from our hotel are twin pagodas with a typical food market for the Chinese New Year running between them.


Xisi Ta Pagoda

Notice the rather bland sky again.

Dongsi Ta Pagoda

Pork for sale - no refrigeration here

Colourful stall selling necessary items for the Chinese New Year celebrations

One of the local girls selling food products that I had no idea of what they were nor any inclination to try. She is from the Yi minority judging by her colourful dress.

Kunming ducks for sale!

A short taxi ride took us to one of the more colourful Buddhist temples in Kunming.

Entrance to Yuantong Si temple

Inside the main temple.

Not far away is Cui Hu Gongyuan or Green Lake. There were many people there on the Tuesday. Good for a walk around although good photos in the winter were few and far between.

You can just see blue sky. The day we were here, was the day the pollution levels in Beijing went off the scale (500 being the max and over 1,000 being recorded at the US Embassy).

Green Lake

One of the most visited areas in Yunnan Province is the Stone Forest, about 2 hours by car from Kunming. The limestone karst area is spread out over around 12 square kilometers. It was formed during the Permian Period, around 270 -230 million years ago.

Looking out from one of the caves

The eroded limestone pinnacles are quite spectacular and show bedding planes where there has been a break in the deposition of limestone. Blue skies were a pleasure to see too after the dull dreary pollution in Nanjing.

Elephant rock

Wangfeng Ting - the Peak Viewing Pavilion.

 Some of the tops of the pinnacles have fallen over
during past earthquakes.

On the way back to Kunming we stopped at the old village of Qixing or Seven Stars.

First view of Qixing village

This village has not had any new structures added to it for a long time. It is much as it was in its original state. We did notice one building being restored back to its original condition rather than being pulled down.

A typical side alley in Qixing

Qixing village

It was very hot when we arrived here and in the afternoon. There were very few people around and many in Chinese seem to a sleep after lunch.

This young boy was out with his grandmother. Grandparents in China are very important and play a big role in looking after the younger generation. (I notice lots of 5 - 6 year olds being taken to school on the metro at 0630hrs by at least one of their Grandparents.)

Corn or maize out to dry. It is used to feed animals and the
dried cobs used as fuel.

A new version of "eating out".

  

Carrying water on a bamboo pole.

 After a few days in Kunming it was time to move on into Laos where Vientiane was our first stop.

Blogs covering this country to follow where the sky is blue and it was warm to almost too hot in the middle of the afternoon. (We arrived back in Nanjing and awoke to 15 -20 cm of fresh snow the second morning back. Following the snow, we had 2 days of clear skies before the pollaze {pollution and haze} returned.)