This, being day sixteen of our China adventure was largely a day of bus travel as we headed further south-eastwards towards our final destination of Hong Kong in five day’s time.
With today being the summer solstice, we were greeted at dawn with clear blue skies and the promise of another glorious day. Dali has been a wonderful retreat from the often oppressive and smoggy conditions that prevail in many of the big cities.
Our team of fourteen plus guide Paul managed to get all our luggage and persons into a van that did two separate trips to the nearby Dali bus depot.
The bus was a double-decker and had reasonable comfort for what was to be a six hour trip to Kunming.
Our bus from Dali to Kunming at Chuxiong
Almost all the first hour was through the other, new half of Dali city called Xiaguan which is south of the old town but continues as a highly populated, concrete metropolis that forms an urban ribbon along the southern part of the Er Hai lake.
Juxtaposed within this sprawling mass of humanity one finds pockets of rich soil with vigorous, irrigated crops of corn and rice growing adjacent to multi-storeyed buildings.
We had a couple of short ‘comfort’ stops during the six hours of travel and as the day headed towards 16:00 we encountered the outskirts of Kunming. One’s initial impressions were not encouraging as the air was undoubtedly smoggy and the greenery of the countryside we’d passed through earlier was now practically non-existent. Despite the wide highway into the city, the traffic density meant that it still took a long time to reach the bus depot.
We then caught a dilapidated old taxi into the centre of this large city where we’re accommodated at the Qianlvchen Hotel.
The taxi driver was unsure of the exact location of our hotel and dropped us off in the main street causing further traffic jams while we unloaded. After entering the foyer of a very posh hotel which was clearly too ‘up-market’ for us, we were directed to the correct location quite close by.
View from our hotel room, Kunming
View from our hotel room, Kunming
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province is a city of nine million with a skyline punctuated by high-rise office blocks, multi-storeyed hotels and boulevards lined with shopping complexes and billboards.
Kunming has the nickname ‘Spring City’ supposedly due to its all year temperate climate and lack of pollution. We presently reserve judgement on this second factor. Although it is mid-summer, the temperature today is only 25°C, this largely being due to the moderating effect of altitude with Kunming being at 1890 m. This contrasts with cities like Xi’an and Beijing where presently the summer weather is causing palls of heat haze, pollution and oven-like conditions.
Little is known of Kunming’s early history. It acquired its name after the Mongols swept through China establishing the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and making it the provincial capital rather than Dali, the former regional seat of power under the Nanzhao Kingdom.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon checking emails, doing some washing and generally relaxing prior to going out for a group dinner.
Tomorrow we explore some of the highlights of old Kunming such as the bird and flower markets and visit Cui Hu (Green Lake) Park.