We arrived in Kunming late in the afternoon on a China Southern Airlines flight, and checked into the excellent New Era Hotel at the end of the mall in the centre of town. Our minibus trip to the Guilin airport to catch our flight to Kunming had been interesting. Lee Tuan had negotiated a great price with the driver who, after we were well underway, announced that the price did not include freeway tolls and that we could either pay these ourselves or go via the old road. We hit ourselves for falling for this sharp pratice but stuck to principle and said that the negotiated price was the total price and we wouldn’t be paying more. Soon after we were on a side road that was more like a track in places, and we weaved up and down and around hills we had not seen before. The trip took so long that we became anxious we may not get to the airport on time, or if indeed we were any longer headed towards the airport at all! But just before we would have become really worried, the Guilin airport control tower appeared over the top of a hill, and we lurched back on to the main road just before it entered the airport.
Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province, is a very pleasant green city of six million people, known throughout China as “Spring City” due to its year-round pleasant climate. It’s also a good place to shop and to take a break, and we did just that.
In Kunming we met up with two Chinese friends who had spent more than a year studying / researching in Adelaide, and who had only just returned home. One, a resident of Kunming, and his wife took us all out to a very nice Yunnan dinner, and showed us through their apartment community in a Kunming suburb.
Every Thursday evening Kunming has an English Speakers’ Corner down by its beloved Green Lake near the city centre. Hundreds come to practice English conversation with others, and any foreigners who show up are particularly welcome. The eight of us went, and were soon engrossed in eight separate conversations with Chinese people. We stayed for a long time until we were all talked out, then caught taxis back to the New Era.
