冒险娘之旅 Part 3 Kunming city tour

Fan Yang's Yunnan school mate's name is Cai Ying. She is a impish young lady with a sweet smile. She will be our city guide today. She informed us that her sense of direction was not good but definitely show her sincerity by doing research and downloading Kunming map late last night. Since she was late due to traffic, she suggested we buy 烤耳块 for breakfast. It was a flat prata like rice cake toasted, spreaded with a kind of sweet spicy sauce and wrapped with you tiao and plenty of preserved vegetables. The combi sure sounded weird but actually tasted quite good. After breakfast, she arrived and took us to  Jinma Biji Square 金马碧鸡广场. Jinma Biji Archways is a piece of architecture that consist of 2 colourful huge gate-like structures facing each other a few meters apart. According to her research, at certain time of the day, their shadows would meet. It was an interesting trival but she admitted that she never saw this herself too. Ha.

Then it was off to Cuihu 翠湖 (Green Lake). According to Cai Ying, the huge lake used to be part of a wealthy lady's backyard in the olden days. The lake is indeed green as jade and thus the name. When we reached, we saw the lake full of gulls. The gulls had migrated from Siberia to avoid the harsh winter conditions there. Since Kunming is a 四季如春 city, it was a good choice for the birds. Problem being there was no food source in the lake suitable for the birds and they depended on the dear local residents to feed them. Which is why Kunming TV will announce if there are not enough feeders. Weird and unnatural relationship here but let me tell you, it is really fun feeding the gulls among the clear lake, blue sky, warm sunshine and cool breeze. I noticed that I was smiling throughout the feed. I must had look really crazy but who cared since I had fun.

After that we went to the old Kunming zoo. Most animals had been moved to the new zoo and only a few still remained. First we went to the Peacock garden. The minorities in Yunnan viewed peacocks as spiritual birds so there were dozens of peacocks roaming freely in the garden. Then we proceeded to the Sakura park. Kunming's version of sakura trees are quite different from japan. The flowers are bright pink. The residents were proud of the flowers and would picnic, sing and dance among the rows of trees. Cai Ying mentioned that the local residents have slower pace of life and enjoy little gatherings like that to while away the day.

For dinner, she took us to a Dai restaurant. Dai people 傣族 is one of the many ethnic groups in Yunnan that like their food spicy and sour since their prefecture Xishuangbanna was close to the Burma, Laos and Thailand borders. The dishes actually tasted like Thai food. After dinner, I bid both my new found friends goodbye as I needed to rush back for a show that night. I will probably meet Fan Yang in Lijiang again. It was really lucky for me to meet such a friendly youth. I learned a lot that day  just chatting with both of them.












Later that night, I went for the Dynamic Yunnan show choreographed by Yang Liping. The show was pretty good and worthy of the 180rmb. After that, it was time to go back to the hotel and packed for Dali . Found a thank you note left by Fan Yang on the table. Such a sweet boy. Overall, Kunming is a good city, still developing but full of potential. Hoped that their underground train structure will be completed sooner.  A good transport infrastructure will bring greater economy growth to the city.  As their slogan goes 文明昆明, best wishes to them as I bid Kunming goodbye.