Terrific Day and an upcoming hiatus (maybe)

This was our one full day in Kunming, and our guide was determined that we make the most of it. I should mention that this is the provincial capital of Yunnan Province, which I'd never even heard of. Turns out it's an attractive (by China standards anyway) city of 5 million, with a pretty urban park with a lake across from our hotel, nice shops and restaurants, and all the advantages that come to a place that's the center of a rich agricultural community and is the closest city in China to Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.

Our guide is a fast-talking twenty-something young woman, who is looking to land an American man, by the way. We decided not to take the freeway to our destination, the Shilin Stone Forest. Taking the local roads took us through terraced hillsides with every manner of fruit and vegetable growing. The soil and the climate ("the city of eternal spring") are great. We stopped twice- first at a silk embroidery business, where we met all the various relatives of the family business, and ordered a piece that they said would take 3-4 months to make. The precision of the work is exceptional, and it seemed like everyone in the factory got involved in the process of our selecting something.

The second stop was a small agricultural village, a mixture of small houses made from bricks made of mud and larger stone and tile homes. Lots of old people and kids, the parents were either in the fields or in the city looking for work. I lack the skill to describe it properly, it's unlike anything I've seen before, so I'll try to post some pictures soon, though those won't capture the smell (earthy would be the most complimentary way I could describe it).

Our destination was a limestone formation that's a national park and a recently named World Heritage site. All kinds of cool formations with little pathways all through it. The place was a little overdeveloped, we kept waiting for "It's a Small World" to start playing, but the rocks are pretty remarkable.

Shilin and village 7/7/07

One of the unique things about this area is that it has a large number of ethnic minorities, which apparently have been expelled from wherever they used to live. Our guide is of the Yi minority, whose girls traditionally learn to do intricate embroidery, and once they know how to do it have a ceremony where all the single girls and guys meet around a bonfire and the girls each bring a heart-shaped embroidered pillow. They select the boy they want and toss the pillow to them. If the boy isn't interested or think the pillow's not good enough he tosses it back and the girl tries someone else or decides to do a new pillow for next time. This seems very cute, and much nicer than the group where the boy bites the girl hard and if she likes him she bites back until they both bleed, and much quicker than the group where if a boy wants to marry a girl he has to work for their parents for 3 years first. Our guide noted that there is rarely divorce in this group because nobody wants to work for 3 more years. She then said she was still working on her pillow, but if she met the right guy she would just throw herself at the boy.

As an aside, while we were on our way to lunch, she mentioned that the Cantonese are noted for not being that picky about what they eat. The two related sayings are "The Cantonese eat everything that moves" and "The only thing with 4 legs that the Cantonese don't eat is the table."

Tomorrow we head to our cruise on the Yangtze River. We're not exactly cruise people, but how else are you going to see the Yangtze? Forced socilaizing is not something that either of us like to do, but I'm sure we'll try the Mah Jong lessons, tai chi classes and whatever else. Didn't notice if they had shuffleboard. We just noticed that the "Captain's Dinner" is jacket and tie. I didn't bring a tie, and unless the captain himself lends me one I'm not wearing one. It's a fancy ship ("Cruise the way Bill Gates did"), so we'll see. The last time we were on a cruise was in Alaska on our honeymoon, which I remember not liking very much, though we did get to see a whale leaping out of the water. If you want to read a good story about a cruise, pick up "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," by David Foster Wallace.

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post from the ship. I think they have Internet access, but I'm not sure exactly how accessible it'll be. We'll be in Shanghai from Thursday to Monday when we head home. We're more than halfway through.