The bountiful hills of Kunming!!!

AUGUST 7, 2004

 

After spending a night at Camellia Hostel in Kunming, a noisy but clean place...clean being the operative word since it's hard to come by in China...we decided to hike the Western Hills of Kunming.

 

We got two public buses up to the foot of the hills, took a while, but was dirt cheap. Then we hiked for 2 and a half hours up through mini-stone forests to views of Lake Dian, Kunming city, and the infamous Dragon's Gate.

 

We hiked through the misty mountain forest and took a 17 minute chair-lift over these deep ravines and gorges to the top. Then we fought the hordes of Chinese tourists at Dragon's Gate, all fighting to touch the Dragon's Pearl at the top of the gate. The gate and it's surrounding pavillions were all carved into the mountainside, so kutos to the monks who managed to do all that way back in the day.

 

On the way down, peed in the dirtiest public toilets to-date. A cement trench with no doors, which funnels everything right out off the mountain-side, you can see the mountain through the toilet funnel. There was some chemical in the toilet funnels because when you peed, these fumes were released, felt like tear-gas. We stumbled out of the toilets choking.

 

Kunming is actually a really nice city. The people are pretty nice and friendly, compared with the rest of China...although they seem to spit a lot more here, really gargle before they let fly too.

 

We're headed for Chengdu tomorrow..are bypassing Lijiang because Tiger Leaping Gorge has been closed for the season after an accident there and landslide which has partly blocked the gorge. We're taking an 18-hour train, soft-sleeper this time (first-class)...no more of this cattle car biz.

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