I took the overnight train from Lijiang to Kunming, which is the capital of Yunnan Province.
I took the overnight train twice in Yunnan province. This is the soft sleeper. I took the hard sleeper the other time. They are both about the same level as comfort – I wouldn’t really use the word soft in relation to this bed. The difference is that the hard sleeper beds are narrower and there are three stacked on top of each other, rather than two. Also the soft sleeper car has a door and is more private.
I ended up in a car with a family of four (with two small children). It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but the kids were not the quietest neighbors…
We arrived first thing in the morning in Kunming. We went to my friend’s hostel and had coffee there and refreshed. We sat for a while and enjoyed a bit of a rest (and maybe a second coffee).
We then headed to the Yunnan ethnic minorities museum. It is in the top three museum exhibits I’ve seen in China. We spent a good couple of hours there, mainly focusing on two exhibits: the national costumes one and the minority languages one.
The exhibit introduced the 26 ethnic minorities that can be found in Yunnan province and gave examples of different kinds of dress for many of the ethnic minorities – particularly the ones with larger populations in Yunnan. There were normal outfits for men and women, outfits for religious ceremonies, etc.
The other exhibit was on languages in Yunnan Province. There are twenty-someodd languages in Yunnan Province with about fourteen different writing systems. The linguist part of my brain went absolutely nuts for the artifacts in the museum. They had examples of the most ancient communication systems, which included sending small quantities of different materials, whose various combinations meant different things. They also had examples of all the different writing systems!
After the museum, we went over to the ‘cultural village,’ which is like a theme park based on all the ethnic minorities. We didn’t go, but I can imagine it shared some of the superficial details of the variety of cultures. I thought the museum was sufficient for me. We got a few bits of street food for a late lunch (including a fresh coconut!). We enjoyed walking around in the sun.
From there, we walked to the lake, which is not far. It is surrounded on one side by a rather magnificent mountain and was absolutely swarming with seagulls. I hate seagulls, but in this number they were mesmerizing.
Some of my favorite discoveries food-wise were breakfast related. I found these brown-sugar bread/pita things for breakfast. I got one heated up on the barbecue grill and it was divine.
I also got breakfast with some other study abroad students, who are studying in China. I got granola with fruit and coconut milk. This was probably the most satisfying Western meal I have found so far.
That restaurant, Salvador’s, is on Culture Alley (文化港). Also in that same area is a wonderful bookshop called
Mandarin Books, which had a pretty decent selection of modern books, stationery, postcards, etc. But they had also a great collection of foreign books and English-language books about China (especially on early Westerners’ exploration of China, Tibet, ethnic minorities, etc.). I found a cool magazine called Tibet Geographic. They also had a two-volume set of books, which I didn’t buy at the time. It turns out they are relatively rare books that include pictures and accounts of early exploration of the Sino-Tibetan border. They are very difficult to acquire, it turns out, but I’ve ordered them. I will write about them in my April Monthly Recap.
The other books I found are the two below. Lost Horizon is a famous novel, which is responsible for making Shangri-la famous (Shangri-la is an area of northern Yunnan Province near Diqing 迪庆). The other, Forgotten Kingdom, are the memoirs of a Western guy (British, I think), who came to Lijiang and wrote extensively about the ethnic minority there, the Naxi people. I’m currently reading that one, so that should also make an appearance in my April Monthly Recap.
I was pretty inspired by what I learned in Kunming. I am doing quite a lot of research on ethnic minorities, Tibetan autonomous prefectures, Western China, etc. I am hoping to do a lot more research, not only for my degree, but also potentially as a post-graduation pursuit.
Also, I ended up having a rest day in Kunming. I had the whole day to arrange travel stuff but also to read and do some personal development. It happened to fall on the exact halfway point of my backpacking trip around China. I got to reflect on what I had gotten out of the trip, but I also got to reflect on life. I had properly cleared my head after being done with the semester and away from Hangzhou for nearly a month. I had a lot of clarity about what I wanted to get done in my remaining months in China and also about what I might want to do after I graduate from university. I was also feeling quite motivated and excited about life, so I have positive memories of my time in Kunming.
