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Intensive road

26/5/2012

I tried to take that local train again yesterday, but apparently the one I keep aiming to catch is now permanently cancelled. I'll have to change plans and try for another one, another day.

Instead, I headed down into southern Kunming, partly to visit another park which I'd seen on the map [see photo left] but never visited before and partly to track down more Chinglish [see photo top]. This park was free, and the lake there had a surprising amount of water considering we're in our 4th month of drought, but it was quite small and the little paths had an annoying number of speeding electric bikes to dodge.

This was another park littered with "Emergency" signs. Emergency toilets, Emergency fire extinguisher, Emergency medical treatment, Emergency powe [sic] supply, Emergency goods supply, etc. What sort of emergency are they expecting, exactly?

Our "one hour of trickling water a day" has turned into four days without any water at all. I'm glad I was never able to persuade Jiajia to replace our overlarge bath with a modern shower - baths make a great water storage device. But it won't last forever. We're firmly in the rainy season, so WHERE'S THE RAIN??

No train, so Tan

20/5/2012

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I had a day off recently and headed to the North Train Station. It only has 3-4 trains a day, serving the suburbs, but I'd been told it was quite fun watching the city traffic come to a standstill as your train passes through the railway crossing, and then seeing city gradually turn to countryside, all for a 2RMB (20p) ticket. In any case, the journey only lasts 40mins and, after shunting the engine round for 20mins, heads back. However, on arrival I found my chosen train had been cancelled and the next one was due 3 hours later.

So instead, I pulled out my map and decided to walk for an hour to TanHua Park. I'd spotted it on the map before, but never made it. The 5RMB (50p) entrance fee was a bargain - a surprisingly nice find. Old folk were sitting in the many nooks and crannies, playing cards or mahjong [see photo above], but otherwise the park was quiet and pleasantly uncrowded. At the top of the hill was an impressive pagoda tower, sadly locked [see photo right]. The grounds were well kept, though the rusting funfair rides had seen better days! Another hour's walk and I returned home trainless, tired but tanned.

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Cu'be a craze?

1/7/2010

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In the West, kids' crazes come and go pretty rapidly but in China they tend to hang around longer, perhaps because children here have less purchasing power? You can still see skateboards and scooters on the streets here and only yesterday I saw kids playing with Pogs and Pokemon cards. And the king of the crazes - Rubik's Cube - is alive and well in Kunming (make that "Kubeming"?). I've seen lots of varieties; the normal 3x3x3, a 4x4x4 and even a 5x5x5. Triangular and spherical "cubes" are also in the shops. Most intriguing of all are a 2x2x2 (harder than you'd think) and the hollow cube I bought yesterday [see photo above]. I even saw a Rubik's Cube statue [see photo below] in the road on a random bus journey today! Craze-y!

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The 1-2-1 on the 1-2-1

2/6/2010

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"1-2-1" road runs by my flat, named after some past Red Army victory on the 1st of December (12-1) I think ...it might have been the 12th of January (1-12) come to think of it! Anyhow, one of the buses that runs along the road is the 121, so it seemed apt to jump on it today and see where it goes! Feeling dizzy on a bus seat isn't much different from feeling dizzy on my sofa, right? Turns out it actually passes within 5 minutes walk of Ava's flat (which is useful to know) and terminates at the new NorthWest Long-distance Bus Station (which is convenient if I ever need to take a bus from there). I spotted this rather resplendent lady there [see photo] in a marvellous ethnic costume. Just look at that hat! She was as interested in me as I was in her and I forgot to ask which minority group she is from - I'm hoping the LEAF family might help there, with their encyclopaedic tribal knowledge!

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Serendipity and tranquility

15/5/2010

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The destinations of a few of the dozen or so buses that stop outside my flat are still unknown to me. I can't read the Chinese characters on the bus route signs and, even when I can, I don't know where the places are in Kunming. There's nothing quite like a map, a notebook and sense of adventure!

So the other day I jumped onto the first "mystery" bus that came along to see where it led. It was the start of a lovely and lucky afternoon.

After about 45 minutes, the bus terminated outside the Kunming Botanical Gardens (somewhere now very much on my list of places to visit) and just down the road from Black Dragon Pool Park [see photo]. I've been there once before last year with Ava, for our first proper date!

On the journey there, however, I'd noticed a small sign pointing to a Daoist Temple, 1km away. So on the way back I jumped off the bus and determined to try and find it... easier said than done, as it happened. The road suddenly ended when crossed by a dual carriageway, still under construction [see photo]. A few enquiries suggested the old road continued across the dual carriageway, so I headed on. The village at the end of the road smelled awful - sewers overflowing - and still no sign of the temple.

A local lady spotted me looking here and there. She kindly offered to show me the way to the temple. I'm not sure I'd have found it otherwise, as it was down a series of small alleyways. But I could hear it due to the dozens of little bells there, tinkling in the breeze.

The temple turned out to be well worth effort, though. The Daoist monks - both men and women - were decked out in traditional robes and were very friendly, insisting on giving me fruit and wanting to chat. There were only a couple of other (Chinese) visitors, and no tickets or guards (as most Chinese temples have these days).The temple walls have wonderful murals on, depicting ancient religious stories. They looked fresh without seeming too new or tacky.

There was a fantastic 3D diorama on the back of one temple, featuring a host of deities riding a large tidal wave. And inside the various temple halls were some enormous statues (the monks asked me not to photograph them). It was one of the quietest, most interesting and friendly temples I've ever been to in China. What a lucky find! I'll certainly be back!

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Intensive road

No train, so Tan

Cu'be a craze?

The 1-2-1 on the 1-2-1

Serendipity and tranquility

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