(The street food in Kunming may well be the most interesting for us, cuisine-wise. There's the well-known Kunming duck for 200yuan - about $4 - flat wheat-breads with sweet or meat stuffings, hotdog wrapped with yutiao, peanut candy weighed with an old-style daching and small pheasants sold alive. And how about some xiaolong bao at 12yuan for 10 pieces - 14cents each - eat your heart out, Crystal Jade!)
(Another natural beauty in the outskirt of Kunming, the Jiu Xiang Caves. It's actually a deep gorge with a ferocious rapids running through it, including the aptly names Twin Falls. The cave system is quite a spectacle and the way the authorities have set up this tourist attraction is very well put together, with elegant steps and footpath all along the 1-hour walk, including a set of steps that will test anyone's stamina. Alternatively, you can pay 2 hunks to carry you on a wooden harness like an Empress up the steps, for a fee, which is quite a sight. I wonder if Jackie Chan used them when he did his movie there)
(It's a quaint setting for an ethnic village just 20min from the city but the Yunnan Ethnic Village was spread out over a large estate. We managed to cover only half its size when our feet got tired. The variety of activities in the village performed by the many ethnic groups here, both colourful and charming)
(A forest with no trees except stone? This, one must see. Sure enough, this Shilin Stone Forest about 2 hours outside of Kunming, is quite a sight. Made of karst, a mixture of dolomite and limestone, the sculptures here are unrivalled, including figures of lotus flowers, a mouse and the famous Ashima princess. This huge area is a World Heritage Site, and with local tribes of Yunnan at hand to entertain visitors, it brings a sense of celebration to the area. It also has a golf course closeby..imagine shooting a few balls into these natural sculptures..)
(Jetting in at 7am, teeing off in 10C weather in full sunshine by 11am at the Kunming Country Golf Club..what a treat! This City of Eternal Spring really lived up to its name.. what, with the fairways and greens being this lush in the middle of winter. I dropped a couple of balls into the water on this signature hole, but hey, who's counting the score, with such beauty and cool weather around? KCGC was a mere 30 minute away from the city, and at 1050yuan, was one of the cheapest we could find..goodness, why should golf here be so expensive, when there are so many courses to choose from?)
(This may be the land of eternal spring, but in temperatures close to 8C, this meal on the side streets of Kunming is simply heavenly. The spicy version is too oily for my taste but the clear soupy version is perfect. One picks all the various dishes one wants from the vast choices inside the restaurant, and when the pot boils over, the magic of hotpots in cold climates takes over for the next 45minutes. Wonderful!)
