Yesterday I went downtown. This was good--got to see the true heart of the city, which was impressive and busy. And it turns out I might have been wrong about the Bird and Flower Market: I had read online that it was torn down a couple of years ago, but it's still in the Lonely Planet under "shopping", and when I went there I fo
und no building but lots of stalls, some of which sold birds and flowers. Also up for sale were everything from food and watches to army uniforms to Yao Ming jerseys and Che t-shirts (that's a whole post in inself: what's the significance of not just selling Che t-shirts, but doing it in a nominally socialist country, most likely with shirts that came from sweatshops, and possibly have had some history in a legal gray area?) to binoculars (! Not something I ever expected to see from a roadside stall) and X-Box 360's. And yes, turtles in eight different sizes:
I also saw two different mosques. That's one thing I thought was cool about this place: it's pretty diverse, especially for China. Yunnan Province as a whole is almost 50% ethnic minorities, and you see that to some extent in Kunming too. There's a lot of people wearing skullcaps, which I think signifies Muslims. Here's one of the mosques (this is the one that was torn down in 1997. LP describes the new version as 'a bad Las Vegas casino,' and I kind of see their point :-/):
You can read a little more about Muslims in Kunming here (I've been doing a little work online and have found quite a few other blogs about foreigners in Kunming, along with an online community center of sorts. This is good for me to know, and I'm looking forward to meeting some people, though I promise not to go too overboard. This trip is about China!). Next I went to the real center of town, which is a huge walk-only 'roundabout.' It was really nice, both because it was large and open and free of cars (they pass through tunnels below; two level roundabouts are a big thing here), but also bc it was crammed with people, as most things are here. Also very modern--you can see the one tribute to old architecture in this picture, totally overshadowed by glass high-rises on all sides:
Walked around a little more and saw some other cool stuff. Among the highlights were this bike parking lot:
Pretty serious, huh. And then this is one of my favorite signs here so far:
I consider myself pretty comfortable with the "Chinese characteristics" of socialism here, but "Park-n-Shop"??? The first thing that comes to mind is Buy-N-Large from WALL-E, the megastore that ruins earth by creating too much consumerism and pollution. Nice.
Today I went to Grand View Park, which is on the very tip of the big lake that stretches south of town. I've been getting teaser views of mountains in a lot of directions from town, so I wanted to see if I could finally get a good picture. The park was pretty neat: sort of a combination amusement park/pretty place to sit/set of pagodas/viewpoint. It was more of an establishment that I was expecting--you had to pay y10 to get in!--but well worth the trip and the money. Theme shot to give an idea:
This is one of the bigger buildings, but that's the overall picture: pretty buildings surrounded by trees with lots of canals and water all around. Eventually I made it out to the lakeshore and found it acceptable:
Pretty sweet. Those are the Xi Shan, "Western Hills." In real life, they look pretty huge and steep, which would be fun to explore. Apparently there's lots of random temples and things scattered around them. Supposedly you can bike there; that's definitely going to be something to look into.
Other highlights of the day were my first street food--I got a kabob in the park. It was awesome. They put the skewer on a grill and then brush it with lots of oil, which flames up some, and then when it's almost done they brush it again with chili peppers. The guy who was helping me flinched when he saw his partner do this on mine, but I told them I could handle it (actually I nodded and smiled) and did and it was great. So yummy. AND it was made even better because the people after me got some too and one of them took a bite and said "chih loh!" and then threw it away (note: my pinyin is definitely wrong because I've never seen most of these words written down. I'm not going to worry about it too much because they don't use it to write anyway. Until I learn to type. Hm). That made me happy 1) because I understood it (it means 'this tastes spicy!' or smtg to that effect), and 2) because I out-badassed a real Yunnanese. Or ate spicier food then them.
Anyway, that was today's adventure. Also saw lots of people playing cards and Chinese Chess (which I want to learn before I go home) and had a couple good 'foreigner' moments (the best of which involved a Chinese man leaning over and speaking loudly into my ear, to help me understand. Good to know we're not unique). Pretty satisfactory, and I'm getting a good feel for the city. And tomorrow, classes....
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