Kunming: South of the Clouds

Among the hotels I have visited, Camelia has a special place. As always, I arrived at Kunming without any hotel reservations; finding one in an unknown place is half the fun of the first day and it supplies an excellent excuse for an exploratory walk.

After reading the Kunming chapter of my guide while in Jinghong, I only knew Camelia would be my last choice. Simply, choosing a place defined as the backpackers’ headquarters in a Chinese province practically under their occupation didn’t seem to be a sound choice. Shortly after, delaying my decision until after the arrival, I boarded a sleeping-bus and left for Yunnan’s capital.

However, the late dinner provided by the respectable bus company in a spotless restaurant wasn’t well received by my stomach. While the other passengers happily watched the movies or snored powerfully, I just felt miserable; a raged porcupine was within my belly.

Early in the morning – already in Kunming - I knew I’ll spend the next couple of days in bed. Unluckily, among all the bus terminals in Kunming, the bus left me at the one closest to Camelia.

"It’s only for the first night," I cheated myself and hurried there.

The first sight of the hotel didn’t match the guide’s description. Instead of the typical South East Asian guesthouse I found myself staring at several boxy structures designed with the Communists disregard for beauty. The archetypal guesthouse, with an internet café, a travel agency and a restaurant next to the lobby while the rooms were elsewhere within the badly adapted structure did not fit here.

The lobby was spacious and the reception desk fitted the ones at four stars hotels I later visited in China. The staff didn’t panic at the sight of the long nosed white devil, and answered in decent English. The booking was swift and soon I found myself led by a polite concierge to what became my home for the next nights.

The Location

Camelia enjoys an excellent location on Dongfeng Beilu. Beyond being one of the main avenues in the city – implying good dining and shopping options nearby – the hotel is not too far from the main railway station, making thus the task of getting a train ticket easier.

The Name

The hotel has two names, Camelia and Cha Hua Binguan. In China, the practice of adopting a second – English – name is common of places and people dealing with foreigners. Apparently, the reason is not shyness but a reluctance to hear the foreigners mutilate the tonal originals.

The Rooms

Camelia offers two types of rooms. There are cheap dormitories, which I didn’t check, and regular hotel rooms in a variety of qualities. The last differ mainly according to their location, those in the newer building are better. They include Western style toilets, a spacious room with big, good quality beds, cables television and a thermos with hot water.

The Television

In Camelia I became acquainted with the excellent CCTV9, the English channel of the Chinese television. During most of the day, the second half of each hour is dedicated to documentary films; while sick in bed, I learned much about the local culture just by watching the excellent programs offered there.

The Food

Camelia’s inner court includes a restaurant; however, the food is rather expensive and not typical of Yunnan, most dishes are just adaptations of popular international dishes. On the hotel surroundings there are several local restaurants which provide awesome glimpses into the local cuisine. However, Camelia’s restaurant offers folkloric shows, which – as always with such events in China – looks a bit too theatric and artificial.

Other Services

Camelia offers bicycles for rent, a pub and internet café, which the guests are invited to use free for half a hour per day.

The Consulates

Myanmar and Laos have consulates within the hotel grounds. Visas to both countries can be issued here. Laos can be reached through the Mohan-Boten border cross, while Myanmar is a different story. The border can be crossed through Ruilin, but the country’s heart cannot be reached overland. In order to visit Yangon or Mandalay a plane must be used.

The Concierge

Unlike any other guesthouse I saw, Camelia had concierges. Mine – seeing I was sick – refilled the thermos in my room with hot water several times per day and brought extra tea bags. Appreciating the kindness, I hid my electric kettle every time she arrived.

Yunnan displays the richest ethnic mix in China and provides the traveler with a rich cultural and culinary experience. However, in government sponsored events and tours an impression of witnessing a thinly disguised human-zoo assembled especially for the visitor is hard to avoid. Visiting independently traditional villages is a wonderful way of meeting ancient and small cultures in their original environment, while avoiding tourists’ traps.

Location

Located in Southern China, Yunnan has borders with Myanmar, Udom Xai and Vietnam; it ranks 8th among the Chinese provinces in size and 12th in population.

The main border crossing with Vietnam by road and rail is at Hekou-Lao Cai, with Laos is at Boten-Mohan and with Myanmar at Ruili. The last can be crossed only for a short visit to its surroundings, reaching Yangon or Mandalay from there is not possible.

The People

Yunnan has the highest number of ethnic groups among Chinese provinces; out of the country's fifty-six recognized ethnic groups, twenty-five are found here, working mainly in the tobacco, mining, and tourism industries.

Most of the people living in Yunnan are Chinese Han, however significant minorities live there. Among those are the Yi (11%), Dai-Zhuang (5.4%), Bai and Hani-Akha (3.5% each), Miao-Hmong (2.5%) and Hui (Muslim Han, 1.5%).

There are several ethnic autonomous prefectures in Yunnan; they include the Chuxiong Yi, Dali Bai, Dehong Dai and Jingpo, Dêqên Tibetan, Honghe Hani and Yi, Nujiang Lisu, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao, and the Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefectures. These include the most colorful destinations for the travelers visiting the province.

The Chinese tendency to over-classify ethnic groups is strangely inert while treating an unspoken minority. Undeniably, most of the commerce in central Jinghong is managed by Burmese refugees; they will gladly tell their story to the travelers entering their shops, but do not appear in official statistics.

History

Since earliest recorded times, Yunnan was under the influence of the Chinese Empire. In the third century BC, a Chu general proclaimed himself "King of Dian," as Yunnan was called back then. Shortly afterwards Qin Shi Huang unified China from Xian, and created counties and roads in Yunnan. The name Yunnan was established around 109BC, when Emperor Wu expanded the control over the area and expanded the "Southwest Barbarian Way" to Myanmar and India.

With the deterioration of a central power, the Cuan Clan migrated into Yunnan around 320AC and its leader proclaimed himself king; they ruled for four hundred years.

In 738AC, the Nanzhao Kingdom was established there by Piluoge, who was recognized by the Tang Chinese Dynasty as king. Thirteen kings of Nanzhao Ruled from Dali for over two centuries, but in 937AC, Duan Siping overthrew the Nanzhao and established the Dali Kingdom; later, it was conquered by the Kublai Khan’s Mongol army. Since then, Yunnan has been firmly under Chinese control.

Tropical Name

Fitting its tropical reality, Yunnan means "South of the Clouds;" nonetheless, Yunnan is a bit too north to allow for its tropical climate, the explanation lies on the Tibetan Plateau that traps the Monsoon’s moisture within the province. This leads to an extraordinary level of biodiversity; Yunnan contains half of China's birds and mammals and over fifteen thousand species of plants, of which 2500 are endemic.

Extremes

The highest point in the north is the 6740 meters Kawagebo Mountain in the Diqing Plateau; the lowest is the Honghe River Valley in Hekou County, with an elevation of less than a hundred meters. This variety of lands hides vast mineral resources which explain the Chinese eagerness to control the area and creates many difficulties while attempting to travel around.

Rivers

Several of East Asia’s main rivers cross Yunnan: the Yangtze, the Pearl River, the Mekong (Lancang), the red River the Salween, and the Irrawaddy which has a few small tributaries in Yunnan's far west.

Languages

Most dialects of the Chinese language spoken in Yunnan belong to the southwestern subdivision of the Mandarin group, and are therefore very similar to the dialects of neighboring Sichuan and Guizhou provinces.

Yunnan's ethnic diversity is reflected in the languages spoken in the area; they include Tibeto-Burman languages such as Bai, Yi, Tibetan, Hani, Jingpo, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi; Tai languages like Zhuang, Bouyei, Dong, Shui, Tai Lü and Tai Nüa or northern lao dialect; as well as Hmong-Mien languages.

The Naxi use the Dongba script, which is the last ideographic system in use nowadaysay. It was mainly used to provide the Dongba priests with instructions on how to carry out their rituals; today it is mainly a tourists’ attraction.

Transport

Unlike the rest of China, Yunnan is not yet well connected to the Chinese railways system, though it was connected to Haiphong in Vietnam already in 1910. Only much later the Chengdu-Kunming line was finished and was – until the recent inauguration of the Tibetan line – the best engineering feat in the system with well over a hundred tunnels and bridges. Additional lines connect Kunming with Nanning and Dali; and plans to connect the last with Ruili exist.

Thus, most of the transport within the province is done through roads, though many of them are rather basic while compared with the conditions in more central parts of the country.

Road and railroad traffic has been recently improved, and Kunming is now a transportation center; an important railroad runs from Kunming to Hanoi, Vietnam, while transportation to Myanmar is maintained by the Burma Road.

In sharp contrast to the roads situation, Kunming offers good air connections with Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Yangon, Singapore, Seoul, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur and Vientiane.

Attractions

The main tourists attractions in Yunnan are: Jinghong, Xishuangbanna’s capital, Lijiang, a Naxi minority city which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shangri-La County (Zhongdian) which is a Tibetan town that have been recently re-modelled as a tourists’ attraction, Dali, which was the historic capital of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms, Jinghong, the cradle of the Thai culture, Chuxiong, home of the Yi, Yuanyang, a Hani (Akha) minority settlement with beautiful rice-terraces and the Stone Forest, which are karst cliffs near Kunming.

The capital city itself – Kunming – is emerging out of a drastic modernization process which left little of its old diversity and resembles very much most Chinese cities. However, it is the interface between the railway system connecting Yunnan to the rest of China and the buses connecting its capital with the other town in the province, and thus an inevitable stop.

The Spring City or City of Eternal Spring is called so despite being at an altitude of 1900m - on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau - and north of the Tropic of Cancer. Colder than the rest of South East Asia, Kunming still displays a much more pleasant climate than most of China.

Mongols, Panthay and French: A Troubled History

Kunming was founded in 765AC as Tuodong, the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom; in 1253 it was conquered by the Mongols, who gave it the name of Kunming in 1276. Marco Polo visited it in those days and described it as Yachi Fu where people used cowries as money and ate raw meat.

The following Ming Dynasty built a wall around the city, which remained Yunnan’s capital and strongly under Chinese control since then. Much of the city’s historical and Buddhist sites were destroyed in the 1856 Panthay Rebellion. Between 1858 and 1868, it was attacked several times by Du Wenxiu, the Sultan of Dali. Subsequently, an uprising against working conditions on the Kunming-Haiphong railway in the 1890s cost the life of three hundred thousand workers executed with the help of the French, who were interested in Yunnan’s mineral resources.

The completion of the railway to Indochina in 1911 transformed Kunming into a thriving commercial center. In the 1930s, the city was linked with highways with Chongqing in Sichuan, and Guiyang in Guizhou.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the invading Japanese forces caused a massive movement of refugees into Kunming. Many formal institutions of the Chinese government were evacuated there and Kunming became a modern city with a strategic importance. After the Chinese capital was relocated to Chongqing, Kunming was selected as the next capital in the case Japanese forces would conquer Chongqing. During the war it served as an American airbase for the Flying Tigers who took supplies over the Himalayas and an access point to the Burma Road, a path that kept Kunming’s links with the world after the railway link with Indochina was broken by the Japanese invasion. After the war, Kunming’s Nationalists joined the Communists and forced the Nationalist Government in Chongqing to evacuate to Taiwan.

Since 1949, Kunming became an important industrial center of Southern China. At the end of the twentieth century much of the city was reconstructed with Swiss help, leaving few reminders of its complex history.

Downtown Kunming

Downtown Kunming is fairly small and can be explored by foot, or taking short rides with taxis among the main attractions. The canter is the People’s Cultural Hall at the junction of Beijing Lu with Dongfeng Lu. The square is a center of public events, including theatre, badminton and Tai Chi. Another landmark is the Kunming Department Store at the Nanping Lu - Zhengyi Lu junction, near the Panlong River, which is the main shopping area in town.

The substantial Hui population (Hui are Muslim Han) can be met at Shuncheng Jie, a typical medieval street, where mutton and pita-bread rule. This is one of the few places in China were local coffee can be watched (and tasted) while being roasted. The city mosque - Nancheng Qingzhen Si - is one block north off Zhengyi Lu, and can be easily reached since its minaret is one of the area landmarks. Typical of Yunnan’s diversity, several churches are placed in the area as well.

Nearby is the Pet Market, which actually doubles as a meat shop for the classiest restaurants in town. Many of the endangered species in display here are obtained from Xishiangbanna and end up as gourmet dishes or traditional medicines powders.

Attractions

West of the center along Dongfeng Xi Lu, is the Yunnan Provincial Museum were a collection of garments and photographs of Yunnan's people can be watched. However, the main attractions are Dian bronzes dating back to the Warring States Period, more than two millennia back. The pieces include typical animals and plants of the area, usually engaged in fights among themselves of against men.

The Kunming City Museum is west of Beijing Lu along Tuodong Lu. The star exhibit is the Dali Sutra Pillar, an almost seven meters high Song Dynasty sculpture in pink sandstone, which barely reminds of a pagoda. Its octagonal base supports seven tiers of Buddha images and guardian gods standing on defeated demons. The artefact displays also Tibetan and Chinese texts, known as the Dharani Mantra. Other exhibits of interest are traditional bronze drums with decorations depicting the culture that created them. One room includes descriptions of Zheng He, the famous Ming eunuch admiral who reached America before Columbus but after the Aymara and Quechua.

The Cuihu Park - or Green Lake Park – is one of the quietest spots in town and the perfect place for an afternoon picnic, though the jogging and Tai-Ching hordes ask for a few precautions.

Yuantong Si - on Yuantong Jie - is the main Buddhist temple in town, still active as a site of pilgrimage and built in Qing Dynasty style. It hosts a beautiful pond, an octagonal pavilion, a main hall with frescoes dating back to the thirteenth century and a bronze Buddha donated by Thailand. Surrounding the temple is a big park which contains the city’s zoo.

The East and West Pagodas were inaugurated in 859AC; they are one of the few structures dating back to the Tang Dynasty in modern Kunming. They raise thirteen-storey; The East Pagoda was re-built in 1882, after an earthquake destroyed the original. The pagodas are in southern Kunming, somewhat far away from the other downtown attractions.

On the town other edge - eight kilometres north of downtown Kunming - is the Golden Hall Scenic Zone, built in 1602 of pure bronze; it is the largest such structure in China and probably in the whole world. Beyond the landscape, it offers an awesome display of Buddhist artefacts.

Having entered China trough Laos - using the Mohan-Boten border cross, I engaged the excellent Chinese railways system only from Kunming onwards. Few would dispute that trains are the most efficient, comfortable and reliable method of traveling in this country; I found that out during my first trip, from Kunming to Chengdu, which was for many years – until the recent opening of the Tibetan line – the main technological achievement of the system. The line crosses over a hundred bridges and tunnels through a wonderfully rugged terrain. Deep creeks, high mountains and what can be summarized as an endless desert of varying characteristics – snow, mountains, sand and bare rocks are randomly distributed along the trip – give the impression of being traveling in a foreign planet. The lack of people and settlements along the route – a surprising characteristic of rural China - only increases that feeling.

The Station

This train departs from the main railways terminal in Kunming, the Kunming Railway Station, near downtown. The huge empty space can get chilly during the winter evenings; but the wise traveler always carries a cup with tea bags or coffee and can enjoy thus the free hot water offered to the waiting passengers. An ambulant stall sells rice and meat dishes and operates until sunset.

The Tickets

The tickets are best purchased at the main terminal. However, the selling indow is not at the terminal itself but at a building placed at its side. The staff doesn’t speak English (the only one claiming to do so failed understanding the simple transaction) thus it is recommended to arrive early enough and with a book showing the characters of the destination and the desired class and berth (these characters are easy enough to learn on the flight).

The Line

The line length is 1100 kilometers; it was built to withstand a Richter 7.0 earthquake. The reason is obvious while watching the many bridges and dark tunnels along the broken mountains along the way. It was opened in 1970.

The Cars

Most Chinese trains include several kinds of cars, the main ones being first, second, and third classes and the dining cars. The difference between the first and second classes – called soft and hard-berth for historical reasons – are minimal. The first class compartments include just four berths while second class ones have six, beyond that there are not significant differences able to justify the big difference in the fares. Most significant are the differences in the berths – despite the lower ones being more expensive they are a bad choice since during the day they are used as coaches by everybody in the area.

Moreover, the quality varies with a specific line importance. A second class car in the Beijing-Shanghai line is much better than a first-class one in the secondary connecting Kunming with Chengdu.

The third class ones are the sitting cars, which display several subcategories. They are definitely not recommended for long trips, though for short ones they offer interesting encounters with the locals. If traveling in such a car, the dining car becomes an important addition, since once food is purchased there the traveler is allowed to spend as much as he wishes in this less crowded space.

The Toilets

Toilets exist at one end of each car. Those in the third class are definitely not recommended; regardless the class the traveler is traveling on, nobody would question a foreigner using the first class toilets. For obvious reasons, toilets are closed whenever reaching a station, thus some planning is required here.

The Samovar

At the opposite end of the car is a samovar with hot water, free for the use of passengers. The ones at the third class cars get sometimes empty, but walking around the train with an empty cup and searching for hot water would raise no questions. In long trips – like the line connecting Xian with Urumqi – women with hot water thermoses approach the train windows each time it stops and sell hot water.

The Communist Party Member

During this trip I participated in an extraordinary event. Soon after we departed a group of locals approached me; it included a Communist Party Member – a rare kind of person in China – and at least two translators. For the next few hours I was engaged in one of the strangest and most unexpected conversations in my life. The event is described in my book "The Road to Bethlehem."

Despite the crowds of purposeful people moving in all directions and boarding all kind of vehicles, I was alone. I stood still for a while, unsure of where I was going next or even if I would stay in this frenzied chaos, appreciating the certainty that in my motionless way I was more of a traveler than anyone in the surrounding, unquiet crowds.

Regardless of not sitting on a border, Kunming imparts the strongest border town feeling in China. More than Kashgar and Jinghong, Urumqi or Lanzhou. It isn’t so due to its ethnical mix – the city resembles any other Han city in the country – but due to its ubiquitous travel activities; train and bus terminals literally cover the city

Buses

Kunming features eight bus terminals. Three of them are south of the main railway station, around the second ring road, these terminals serve mainly lines within the Kunming County. Just north of the same railway station is the main bus terminal, which with its computerized tickets serves all the destinations covered by the other terminals, though not always with the same frequency.

Two smaller terminals are roughly one block east and west of this terminal. On Dongfeng Beilu – not far from Camelia Hotel – is another terminal to where most buses from Jinghong and Xishuangbanna arrive. North of there – next to the Yunnan University – is a terminal, and the last one is in the eastern outskirts of the town. If arriving to the last, bus #63 leads from there to downtown.

Buses are recommended in China only for relatively short trips within a province. Buses traveling at night contain sleeping berths which are relatively short; taking an upper one is recommended since the others become public seats during the day. Long trips include meals, vouchers (and slippers and vomiting bags) are given while boarding. A late dinner in a spotless restaurant provided by the bus company gave me a good excuse for using the complimentary bag.

Railways

Despite the railways being more ordered than the buses, Kunming still features four train terminals. The main one is in downtown, at the southern edge of Beijing Lu. That’s the main terminal for buying tickets leading to Chinese provinces in the north, like Xian, Nanning, Chengdu and Beijing. The other three stations are to the north, west and east of this station. The northern one is at the northern side of Beijing Lu (bus 23 leads there) and serves trains to Hekou-Lao Cai border cross with Vietnam. This is the historic line built by the French, and its 464km were built in the extremely unusual meter gauge; it is one of the few lines reaching to a Chinese border. Across the border, a Vietnamese railway leads to Hanoi.

The historic complexities of Yunnan caused it to be the only province in China – and probably one of the only regions in the world - featuring the three types of railways: the standard gauge (1.435m), the meter gauge and the inch gauge (0.6m). The 33km short line connecting Jijie with Gejiu Sub is the only inch railway in China, and one of the few in the world. All the other lines were constructed after the 1960’s and are of standard gauge.

Buying Tickets

The tickets are best purchased at the main terminal. However, the selling window is not at the terminal itself but at a building placed at its side. The staff doesn’t speak English (the only one claiming to do so failed understanding the simple transaction) thus it is recommended to arrive early enough and with a book showing the characters of the destination and the desired class and berth (these characters are easy enough to learn on the flight).

Consulates

As expected from such an important travel hub, Kunming hosts consulates for the main South East Asian countries. Myanmar and Laos have consulates within the Camelia Hotel grounds. Visas to both countries can be issued there. Laos can be reached through the Mohan-Boten border cross, while Myanmar is a different story. The border can be crossed through Ruilin, but the country’s heart cannot be reached overland. In order to visit Yangon or Mandalay a plane must be used. Malaysia, Thailand (also near Camelia Hotel) and Vietnam also have consulates in Kunming.