Lets talk about Yunnan

Yunnan is a province in the southern west portion of China, it is bordered by Tibet, Laos, Myanmar, in short it has all the makings of a really cool place.

I’ve been routed through Kunming the capital of the province many times now, traveling to Thailand, and too and from Laos, and Myanmar. Last week was the first time I actually got to explore any part of Yunnan, and even though it meant I had to buy flights, and that I had to skip school I had the greatest time, and my only regret is that I didn’t spend more time there. Though there’s never enough time to explore the places we travel.

Now lets talk about one of the best 3 day vacations I’ve had in my life. I set out for Kunming on Wednesday, and had a full day layover transfer wait thing. Which was fine by me, just gave me an excuse to head into town and explore. I wasn’t sure where to go because the nature spots I would have loved to see were to far out of town to do and not tire myself out for the next day（or spend more money than I should seeing as a mini vacation probably wasn’t the best decision for my finances as is). So I settled on just getting lost in the city.

During the course of the day I found myself at a mall, a market, and two different parks. Because I didn’t really plan anything and I was more interested in looking at my surroundings I honestly don’t remember the names of the places I visited. Oooops. But the two highlights of my wandering were watching the aunties dance Guangchangwu, and then watching people feed birds with white bread (poor birdies, they don’t even know that bread is bad for them. So it was sad to watch, but I took a few pictures while there of the birdies). Overall my time in Kunming was well spent, and happily spent.

 

The next day I set out for Jinghong the capital of the Xishuangbanna county. I arrived and picked up a taxi and got settled in my hostel where I met a really cool lady, who biked from ENGLAND TO CHINA, and is going to continue to bike for 4 more  months, and then go walk the length of New Zealand. Me and her chatted for a while and then I went and explored the rest of the city. I also went and accomplished my mission for my mini vacation go and explore an art gallery.

The art gallery itself is a cute English styled old building, that is a cultural heritage site. It was constructed by catholic missionaries and used as a hospital for a while. Now its an art gallery with exhibits switching every 3 weeks or so.

The worker on shift at the time I went was a cute old man that insisted I drink tea with him when I finished browsing the gallery. We drank tea and chatted for a while. He’s an interesting character that not three tiny cups of tea in disappeared to go grab a bag of lemons and give them to me. He then described their medicinal purposes, and reiterated how to make hot lemonade for 15 minutes. I also found out over the course of our conversation that he had worked with the Chinese military in their propaganda department for 20 years before retiring from the military, and starting a career in journalism for the Xishuangbanna Newspaper.

The Xishuangbanna Newspaper is interesting because its produced in two languages, Chinese, as well as the local dialect Dai. He was a reporter in both languages as well which is really cool.

After chatting with him for a few hours, and a few of his friends that came over as well I went to see if I could watch the sunset from the river in the middle of the city. I quickly discovered that wasn’t an option, but got some cool pics by the side of river.

 

The last day of my mini vacay I was unsure of what to do, I hadn’t been sure before how long it would take to look through the whole exhibit so when it only took half a day that left me with a free day. Which left me with the opportunity to go explore a tea mountain. In this area of Yunnan they produce a very famous kind of tea, Pu’er tea, it’s drunk all over china, and it can be seen as a symbol of status as its a kind of tea when produced in brick form people will store, and the older it is the more its worth. It’s a nice kind of tea and it has certain medicinal properties, and is a particular favorite in winter.

The mountain I decided to go to is called South Nuo Mountain, the Nuo means glutinous rice, another product in that region. They even produce a kind of Pu’er tea that incorporates the rice leaves, it’s a very fragrant tea.

I travelled to the mountain via a intercounty bus, and just told the bus driver to let me off when we got to the mountain. And when I got off the bus I had to figure out how to get to where it was I wanted to go. Which was difficult because I didn’t know where that was. So I asked one of the locals which direction to go was best and she pointed to the east, and so east I did head. I walked up a mountain road in the mist for about an hour before hitting a mini community, and then headed back down as it was the end of the road.

 

On the way back down I noticed a store had opened, and I went in to talk to them.

Them being a couple, husband and wife, the wifes name was Wanjia. They invited me to sample some of their tea, and so I drank tea with them for a couple of hours, maybe 5 or 6 hours. We tried 7 or 8 different kinds of Pu’er tea, each one unique. During this time they asked about where I was from and why I would come to China to study, and why I was in Xishuangbanna. I asked them about how they met, some of the customs in the area, if the tea farming was a family business, and much more. They told me how his father had been asked to make tea on a plot of land, and so they started the family business. I learned that they met in Menghai, a city half an hours drive away, she is from and worked there when he met her, and he fell in love and married her. So many stories like this.

The part where they really got talkative was when we talked about the traditional wear in their minority. It’s different from other minorities, though it has many similarities to the other minorities in the area, even to those of some minorities in Laos and Myanmar. The husband then pulled out a piece of embroidery his wife was working on, and they explained that when they got married the clothing she wore was embraided by her mother in law. And that she is embroiding a new piece now to have a new set of clothes for the next time the dance. The dance for various festivals during the year, but mostly during weddings. Then the wife asked if I would like to go out back and take some photos of their tea trees, of course I said yes. So we went out on to the mountain and I got to practice some more photography there.

When we got back they fed me one of the best meals I’ve had in China, it was very traditional Yunnan food, but it had a bit of a Myanmar feel to it, it was amazing. I stayed and chatted with them a little while longer, and bought some tea from them, and then I decided it was about time to head back into town.

That pretty much sums up my mini vacation, it was amazing and relaxing, and I hope to go back soon. Next time spending some more time there, not just three days.