After encountering a massive traffic jam due to a road accident on the road between Dali and Kunming and the consequent delay caused, we finally made it to our hostel in Kunming.
We stayed in “The Hump”, a massive and rather lively place right in the city centre for three nights. It’s in a very noisy area, right next to a street full of bars and clubs – hence the provision of free earplugs for all guests – but it’s great as a base from where you can set out each day to explore one of China’s youngest and most vibrant cities.
We spent our first day wandering around the Flower and Bird market, which aside from being famous for the hordes of peddlers selling pet dogs and cats on the street outside, also sells lots of nice arts and crafts as well as clothes and bags. We then wandered around some of the old streets of Kunming – which unfortunately seem to be taking a similar turn to the hutongs of Beijing, being torn down and replaced with brand new multi-storey characterless concrete shopping blocks.
After spending our first day in the city, we took advantage of the great weather and hopped on a bus out to the Western Hills where we did a good 2 or 3 hour hike to the summit (as well as a short hitch on horseback for one section) from where we gained a great view over the enormous Dian Chi lake and the city of Kunming. From there we took a cablecar down the mountain and hopped onto the bus back to the city centre.
After a couple of restful days in the city, it was time to get back out into real China once again – so the following day we hopped onto an express bus to Jianshui and arrived there in the evening. Jianshui lies three or four hours south-east of Kunming and is only just making it’s name as a tourist destination – which is a good thing. That mean’s cheap accommodation, cheap food, original architecture rather than buildings being torn down and rebuilt and best of all – nobody harassing you to go on tours. I think we only say about 5 or 6 foreigners during the three nights we stayed there!
Jianshui’s biggest attraction – aside from it’s own impressive Chinese architecture within the old town – is the Swallow Cave that is just 20km outside of town. The cave is absolutely enormous and is full of swallows which nest on the roof, hence the name. It is Asia’s biggest water cave and a tour around the inside (along with cheesy music and brightly coloured lights in true chinese style) takes a good two or three hours and is very impressive.
For the daring, you can also pay an extra fee to have a go at climbing up a 20 metre overhanging cave wall to the Chinese flag hanging at the top. Siqi wasn’t keen, however I was up for the challenge and completed the climb in about 6 minutes – certainly much harder than going up the dry grippy walls of Kendal climbing wall!
Finally, we spent our last day in Jianshui visiting a traditional chinese bridge not far out of town as well as walking around a traditional village further up the valley which was full of old houses and lanes – we could even make out some characters painted on the eaves on one building which turned out to be original propaganda left over from the Cultural Revolution!
Apart from that, the rest of our time in Jianshui was spent eating and drinking, particularly tasting the local speciality of barbecued fermented tofu dipped in a spicy peanut sauce which turned out to be delicious, especially when washed down with a 20p fresh mango smoothie!
Today we are back on the express bus and will be arriving in Kunming this evening, time to stock up on plenty of food and snacks for the 28 hour train side back to Beijing tomorrow evening – we managed to get hard sleeper tickets before leaving for Jianshui with no problems.
So that’s it then, almost the end of a fantastic four weeks of travelling around the south of China. We’ve met some great people, seen lots of beautiful places and eaten and drunk to our hearts content. I’d happily continue for a little longer but I must get back to Beijing and sort all my stuff out in preparation for the long flight home. Photos of the trip may take a while – we’ve taken a staggering 1366 of then, although I’m sure once I’ve got rid of the blurred ones and duplicates I might well half that number. More updates before I leave!
