Xiding

From Jinghong we got in a little Chinese style mini-van and left for a small town named Xiding. Starting out early in the morning it was difficult to see outside the windows, and there was little to see besides flat, desolate farmland. Then once we got passed another town, where most tourists stop for the day, the landscape and scenery improved (though the road got noticeably bumpier). All of the sudden we were seeing mountains pop up through the clouds of fog.

Up one mountain we rode, our final destination being where the town holds its weekly market (plus a nice, white pagoda). There was nothing spectacular about the market itself, but there were some Hani women in their finest head gear. Our driver took us to the restaurant in the area, where he seemed to be friends with everyone, even helping prepare the fish for lunch. We had what I consider to be just about the tastiest meal since living in China, accompanied by travel companions from the UK and Austria.

On the way back from Xiding we stopped off at a small Buddhist monastery/pagoda, and then a tiny village on the side of the road. It felt a little strange walking into this village for no good reason, and then being accosted by a few women wishing to sell the white folk all their tourist nicknacks.

Xishuangbanna

Our next stop after Kunming and the Western Mountains was Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. It is the southern most part of Yunnan, bordering with Burma and Laos. Quite different from other areas of China, the Han Chinese are not the majority in the area, the largest ethnic group being the Dai, and it feels like you have entered a new country that is half Chinese, half Thai. The name of Xishuangbanna was established in 1570 during the Ming Dynasty, at which time the area was divided into 12 sub-districts, or "Xishuang" (meaning 12 in the Dai language), for the purpose of collecting taxes. In the Dai language, a "Banna" is one thousand Mu, a unit of measurement in Chinese similar to an acre.

From Kunming we took a 10 hour ride on a sleeper bus (I didn't fit in my bunk) to Jinghong, the capital city of Xishuangbanna, which by Chinese standards feels like a little town. There is nothing much going on in the city itself, but it is a hub for travellers looking to explore the surrounding countryside. We simply sat around in a foreigner friendly cafe and met other people who were looking to share the cost of hiring a driver for the day.

Kunming

Over the Christmas/New Year holidays I had a visit from the beautiful Miss Tanya Erassova. We spent a week traveling through Yunnan province. Our various modes of transportation were complete with trains, planes, and automobiles.

Our first stop was in the provincial capital of Kunming, aka Spring City - it never gets too hot in the summer, and never too cold in the winter. Kunming itself isn't all that interesting, just another big Chinese city, but it was nice to be able to differentiate the sky from the clouds for a change.

We spent one day just outside the city in an area called Xishan (Western Mountains). Getting there was interesting, and provided the first instance in which I realized that my guide book was not to be trusted. Once there we climbed high up the mountain in search of something called the Mini Stone Forest, only to discover that there were just a few small rocks next to the path.

The first 3 pics are from Xishan. The last is from the centre of the city, and needed to be taken quickly, because of all the people begging the foreigners for money, intent on ruining our pictures.