Kunming, Yunnan, China Visit

We flew from Dali to Kunming, the capital city of the Yunnan province.  We had a brief stay in Kunming before heading to Vietnam.  A couple of the most noteworthy things about Kunming are its mild year-round weather and its role in the southern silk road and the aforementioned Flying Tigers.  Not hot and humid in the summer and not cold in the winter.

The new airport that greeted us was pretty impressive: big and impressive architecture.  Those pedestrian bridges are for the departing passengers than are dropped off to get to the departure/ticketing areas.

One of the dishes at dinner was hard to get excited about.  It looked like slugs or tentacles  or something equally disgusting.  It turned out to be different types of fungus and wasn't too bad after all.

We visited two temples in Kunming.  Both were unique even though the look of the gods, goddesses and guardians look similar.  This photo and the one below are from the copper temple.  It is made with over 20 tons of copper.  Both the images and the structure of the small temple are all made of copper.

The next temple was right in the middle of the city and is set 30 or more feet below the level of the streets and buildings around it.  Walking down the stairs and going into the gardens quickly resulted in a much quieter setting...quite apart from the city hubbub.

I did finally succeeded in the getting the attention of this floppy earred bunny that was eating on one of the lawns.  However, once it saw me there it bolted off for the bushes.

Although we've seen these goddesses before it was a first where the 1000 hands all had tools  or containers in them to manifest on the things that can be done to aid mankind.....I'm uncertain how the battle axe helps, but maybe it is just an axe...

This temple is more efficient in space utilization...maybe a result of it being nestled into the middle of the city.  They have the buddhist idols grouped together along with the dragon poles in the foreground on either side of the stand.

The entrance to this sunken temple area was a simple gate with stairs that go down into the grounds.  The picture above is the stairstepped layers of roofs that start near sunken temple ground level and progress up the hill such that the spire at the top is about even with the level of  surrounding neighborhood.  I struggled to find a vantage point to take a photo that does it justice.  Also, the sect of Buddhists in this area are more aligned with Thai & Tibetan style buddhism.

Dali, Yunnan, China Visit

After our visit in Lijiang we took a bus to Dali.  It was a beautiful drive across a range of mountains to reach the valley where Dali was.  This large valley has a very large lake, called, Ear Ocean (pronounced r - high in chinese) and there is a few-mile-wide band of fertile land between the mountains and the lake.  The weather was beautiful.  Yunnan province is the same latitude as Mexico so even though the elevation for many of these towns is quite high (Dali is about 6000 feet, lower than Lijiang 7000 feet) the weather in winter is moderate and the fields produce crops year round.

I mentioned before that this area was part of the southern silk road connecting India and China for hundreds of years.  For this ancient fertile land the nearest seaport was through Myanmar (the old Burma) to the ocean.  During the events leading up to the 2nd World War when Japan was fighting and occupying portions of China we aided China by flying supplies into China along this southern silk road route.  The famous "Flying Tigers", at least very famous in China, are the American air force contingent that flew supplies in.  So many here talk of the Flying Tigers and there are memorials in recognition of this assistance from America.  I was surprised because my only prior learning about the flying Tigers was in learning about the history of American bombers and airplane development.  There were some problems pre-WWII airplane design and also airframe and engine manufacturing problems that, if I remember correctly, were fortunately identified and rectified during the long arduous flights crossing the Himalayas.

The drive from Lijiang to Dali crossed a range of mountains.  It was amazing to see how extensive the small terraced farms.  In some areas they have rice patties terraced like this.  These fields grow mainly wheat or grains other than rice.

One of our first stops once we got to the valley was a cultural center and tea house where we were served some interesting teas (many herbal, fruit & grain based teas) and saw some traditional dances of local minority people.  One custom of humorous note is that on a bride's wedding day, guests and family pinch the bride as a token of luck and best wishes.  This custom was shown as part of one of their folk songs and I felt bad for the poor bride who was pinched everywhere and apparently almost anywhere from upper and lower cheeks to appendages.

These 3 pagodos and the large Temple complex on the slope of the mountain are the most famous sights here in Dali.  The first of the pagodas was built in the 9th century AD.

Lot's of sunshine and reflecting pools.  If you look carefully both of the smaller pagodas lean due to earthquakes over the past couple of hundred years.

These are guardians for the temples and their myriad gods.

These statues are knives or daggers common to certain sects of monks and martial art.  There was an American movie, perhaps the Shadow?!?!...I don't remember for sure....that had a dagger that would come alive and attack people as directed by the mental energies of its master.

This temple complex has the most gold-leaf covered gods & goddesses of any temple in China.  This temple complex is also about the most active with worshippers, donors and was clearly very well maintained.

This temple complex is on the slope up the mountain.  From the upper temple you can look down toward the lake.  To get proper scale the narrow lake in the background is over a mile wide.  Just over the top of the largest center temple you can see the 3 pagodas sticking up.  It was a long hike up the hill from the pagodas.....good exercise, rewarded of course with a Magnum bar after I returned to the shop areas!

The walkways up the mountain to each row of temples was quite magnificent

As previously mentioned, the Chinese are big into reflecting pools and lakes usually filled with fish and turtles both of which are symbolic of good fortune and prosperity.  Turtles are also symbolic of wisdom and longevity.  This pond had many turtles.

Dali is also famous for its marble which is beautiful.....and a small vase of Dali marble (in fact the name for marble in Chinese is Dali rock) found its way into my luggage.  I wanted a large vase but it wouldn't fit and I couldn't carry it.

The old town of Dali is a walled city half of which survived a major earthquake a couple hundred years ago.  The old city is picturesque and has been tailored to tourism and leisure.....kinda like Park City but not so expensive.

Just inside the city wall there is a large spring and this stream flows down the middle of this street.  Very beautiful and there were many shops and restaurants with cuisine that was very tasty to the American pallet.  Including the Belgium waffle place to the immediate left of the stone structure on each side of the stream.

There are many bike rental places.  The five of us road down to the lake and back....what a coincidence I am wearing the same clothes as I type this that I wore on the bike ride....except I lost my sunglasses.

Some crops are being harvested and others planted...very productive land.  This area provides a lot of the fruits and vegetables for the north of China during the winter.

When we left Dali we flew on Lucky Air....we didn't feel so lucky though.  Lucky Air only flies in and out of Dali and has a very high rate of flight cancelations.

It also had the tightest seating of any airline I've flown on!  The seat in front of me is not reclined and my knees are pressed into the seat pocket.  We were lucky it was a short flight and we were lucky the weather was clear and we were lucky we didn't have to fly on lucky air again!

Lijiang, Yunnan, China Visit

 Hi family,

Read the 3 Guilin posts first!  After Guilin we headed to the southwest part of China that is north of Laos & Myanmar and to the west is Tibet.  The city of Lijiang has many ethnic Chinese minorities and there are a couple of villages on the outskirts of Lijiang where the Yi and Shu minorities (if my memory serves me correctly) live in more of a traditional fashion.  The city / valley is about 7000 feet in elevation so if you see snow on the peaks be assured that the peak is quite high in elevation.  From this "valley" on to the west is the Tibetan or Himalayan plateau.  I hope to be able to go to Tibet where the plateaus & valley floors are over 10000 feet high...and then the mountains ramp up from that elevation.

Climbing Lion Mountain to visit the pagoda on top of the hill took some getting used to because at that elevation I became winded easily. But the view was nice....

Lijiang is a village type city in that it mainly has homes and home-style shops in their neighborhoods vice the common high-rise apartment buildings that typify most of the traditional Chinese cities.

This side of Lijiang has what few high-rises there are in this earthquake-prone area.

This is the pagoda on the top of Lion mountain. One of the few pagodas you can climb up to the top and enjoy a panoramic view of Lijiang and the mountain peaks that surround this high valley.

The rammer on the left is for ringing the bell on the right but I found a fairly effective way of reducing the noise from the bell...yet my head is still ringing...why is that!?!?!?!?.  Things I do when Marian is not present to properly care for me...if that is possible.

The large buildings in the foreground are where the governor or provincial leader lived in the good ole days before the revolution.  As you can see although the style is consistent, the size of the governors complex was much bigger than the commoners that surrounded his palace.

Tree-lined street near the Lijiang market area.

Although they kept the style in some of the minority areas, clearly a lot of money has been put into rebuilding many of these storefronts and village Inns.  All of the villages and town areas were criss-crossed with many steams.

This village had many springs and mostly waterways between buildings.

There were many gardens behind the stores and homes that lined the main streets.  The villages were built around the many springs because in general this area is much dryer than Southeast China and Sichuan where I live.

Silversmithing (and mining) are very big in this area.  This silver and jewel bedazzled skull was interesting.  Not exactly my taste.  Smoking tobacco and other weeds created to torment mankind is popular throughout the region and the other artifacts in this window are designed for smoking those substances.  I guess if you used silver ornamented pipes you'd soon want a silver plated cow skull..

Many of the ethnic minorities still wore traditional clothing.  They're probably thinking that they can't wait until the tourists go home so they can change into their jeans.

In this one village silk needlework was a traditional craft.  There were two historic silk roads in China.  One in the north and one through the south and down into Myanmar.  This area was on the southern silk road.

This silk tapestry found its way into my things........and back to Chengdu with me.

This is a video of the NaXi (Na-she) minority people dancing.  Their traditional clothing includes pads on the backs and straps for carrying things....they were always carrying things for farming or for animal husbandry.

This is interesting stylized art where they used pictures posed to represent the chinese characters.  I guess we do the same thing (using people posed as letters) I just never saw this done before.  Perhaps the inspiration lies in the written language of one of the local ethnic people where they used pictographs but much more graphic in their meaning (see below)

Marriage, dancing, fishing. climbing.....more self-evident than chinese pictographs but then less adapted for abstract ideas or concepts.

This video that shows a little farm truck.  The front end is a versatile tractor section that can be unhitched from the wagon and used to pull small plows or disc.  The blue yoke sticking through the firewall has handle bars that hook to it so that it can also be used like a self-propelled roto-tiller.  Or the rubber tires can be replaced with the large diameter metal rimmed wheels for working in rice paddies.  The engine is cooled by a boiling water system with some air cooling that you have to top off through the open hole in the top.  This same design was used in Taiwan when I was there in 1976-7!!!

This same engine design is being installed in new 6-wheel dump trucks that connect the rubber transmission belts to a real geared transmission!  Needless to say they are an obstacle to traffic when they pull out with a load as we saw many times in driving through the mountains.  Actually, it is possible that those trucks have a larger displacement engine of the same design, but it is the same design engine.  This is not the most modern of Chinese farm equipment but it is still the most common and they can be found in farms outside any major Chinese city.

Intriguing English language translations can be found through out China.  However, these were some of the best translated yet very odd messages that I've  for public area signage!

Last but not the least -- the common garbage can.  China has more recycling/non-recycling dual bin garbage cans everywhere.  In Lijiang they are stylized to match Chinese architecture.  They even have a battery recycling compartment.  The wood hanging fish is a Lijiang area cultural icon meaning plentiful rainfall and plenty to eat.

China has these everywhere.  Now they just need to tell the Chinese what they are used for so they stop throwing trash down on the ground within a few feet of these.  But then they would also have to empty these if people put the trash in them.  Now if they could work on spitting in public, or rather refraining from spitting in public.

Guilin China: Gumdrop Mountains

       After the Hong Kong conference and sightseeing we headed inland and a bit north to the city or area of Guilin (pronounced “gway – lean”).  This area is famous for the “gumdrop” mountains or in general mountains with very interesting shapes and lines.  For example some of the lines of mountains look like dragons or sea monsters in serpentine patterns as opposed to more traditional mountains.  According to Lonely Planet these meandering, odd shape mountains are what is left of a large flat limestone plateau that eroded away.  Anciently there was a large seabed that eventually formed a plateau of limestone.  This plateau became honeycombed by numerous underground rivers.

Over time the caverns and tunnels for the underground rivers became big enough that their ceilings collapsed.   The Gumdrop and other oddly shaped mountains are what’s left of the walls of these huge underground caverns whose tops caved in.  These mountains are the harder parts of the limestone and are actually growing in height because the softer low land and river areas (lots of rivers and streams) are eroding faster than the “mountains” so the mountains are therefore growing in height above the lowlands.

There are still many underground rivers and streams.

This two pronged feature in the foreground is referred to as the goat's hoof

This is part of what would look like the spiny back of the dragon.  

In the foreground are ~30ft high clumps of bamboo.

Okay, so I couldn't find a Magnum bar and had to settle for a different ice cream treat.

This “gumdrop” is set up for rock climbing enthusiasts.  You can see a few on the side.  I think the banners are to mark different paths as opposed as a memorial where someone fell….