Weekend

Merry Christmas. It seems strange to be in China on Christmas day but here we are. Mr. Ma picked us up at 8:30 AM to take us to Stone Forrest, which is about one and half hours out of Kunming. It has been a major tourist site since 1972. It is a huge area with all these rocks projecting up from the ground like weeds. Stones and huge rocks everywhere. Milt's knowledge of this geology is far superior to mine, so he understood it better than me. It is very interesting and unusual and it is the thing to see if you are here. We walked around on different paths and lots of times Mr. Ma would tell us a story about a particular rock grouping that supposedly concur up an imagine of someone or something, like Napoleon, or George Washington. Most of the time, I couldn't see it. After walking in the stone forrest for about 2 hours, we had a nice lunch at a local restaurant. Roasted duck was the specialty. It was quite good. Then we walked through a Yi Village. Many house looked plain, nothing inside, and made from adobe. It looked quite poor. Then back in car for the drive back to Kunming. At Kunming, we went to a large vegetable garden and Green Lake. Some vegetables I don't recognize it was very interesting. At Green Lake, we saw hordes of people. It is an amusement park for some people. In one part, called the Music corner, people come and play music and dance. Each ethnic group has there own area. Finally, we went back to the hotel.

Sunday Dec. 26



Mr. Ma and his driver picked us up again at 8:30 AM. We drove south out of the city to the largest Flower Market. Traffic wasn't too bad this morning for a Sunday but I must say that traffic is probably one of the biggest problems in China. It is almost impossible to move in the city at any time. There seems to be no alternate roads. And it is going to get worse in China as they are buying more cars everyday.





At the flower market, we enjoyed looking at rows and rows of every kind of flower. The market opens at 4 AM in the morning. It is both a wholesale and retail market. After this, we visited the countryside. The country here is very different than what I see in the U.S. All the farmers seems to have their houses together in a certain area, hence a village. You don't see any farm homes alone when driving down the highway: only farm land or nursery greenhouses. At the village, we walk around down an alley and back street. The most striking thing is the open gutter or sewer. I see people actually using it like a toilet, in the open too. Later, a woman comes to get water from a community well. She has a bucket with a rope on it. This water can be used for cooking. She invites us to visit her house, so we walk back with her. Her house is quite far from the well. Inside her house, she lives with her parents and brother's family. The family is very friendly and invited us for lunch. We decline.



We find a place in town to eat lunch. A Moslem restaurant which is as cold inside as outside. Mr. Ma ordered all the food but too much. One thing ordered is mutton soup. Mutton here is goat. We also have salty duck, and indeed, it is salt. Tofu and rice are some of the other food.

We leave to see Dianchi Lake. The expressways are very modern and seems to work well, except when you encounter construction! I can't tell you how long is took us to go through this construction. There is no one directing traffic so every car or truck makes their own way through the chaos. Long lines of backups. It took a long time to get through this and this is common everywhere.




We visited Zheng He Park in Kunyang, a city south of Kunming. Zheng He was an explore for the Chinese before Columbus. His life story is fascinating and there is a small museum at the park which show his ship, voyages, and some artifacts. There is a best seller written about his voyage to America called "1421".

In the end, Mr. Ma and the driver couldn't find the road to the Dragon Gate, so we decided to go back to the hotel. It was an interesting day.

We find a place in town to eat lunch. A Moslem restaurant which is as cold inside as outside. Mr. Ma ordered all the food but too much. One thing ordered is mutton soup. Mutton here is goat. We also have salty duck, and indeed, it is salt. Tofu and rice are some of the other food.

We leave to see Dianchi Lake. The expressways are very modern and seems to work well, except when you encounter construction! I can't tell you how long is took us to go through this construction. There is no one directing traffic so every car or truck makes their own way through the chaos. Long lines of backups. It took a long time to get through this and this is common everywhere.

We visited Zheng He Park in Kunyang, a city south of Kunming. Zheng He was an explore for the Chinese before Columbus. His life story is fascinating and there is a small museum at the park which show his ship, voyages, and some artifacts. There is a best seller written about his voyage to America called "1421".

In the end, Mr. Ma and the driver couldn't find the road to the Dragon Gate, so we decided to go back to the hotel. It was an interesting day.
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