Hong Kong - Kunming

April 12 2013: Hong Kong - Kunming

Easy flight to Kunming, where we were met by the On the Road team – see www.ontheroadinchina.com . 

A super bunch of guys, led by Jackson and including Mr Gu, our quiet but ultra-efficient driver from the last trip.  On to a bus to go straight to the Driving License Bureau to get our China driving licenses – a fascinating experience in itself, involving eye tests where you shield one eye with a porcelain soup spoon, and a lecture on safe driving. Pity no-one else in China gets that! Anyway, we all passed and came out with our temporary licenses:

Then on to the Green Lake hotel, and a delicious dinner in the same restaurant as last trip, with a stroll back around the lake to help us digest, then early to bed to prepare for really getting “on the road” next day.

Kunming - Xizhou

April 13 2013: Kunming - Dali - Xizhou

Set off bright and early for the long slog out of Kunming and the industrial area beyond – the less said about that the better!  However, you can’t help but be impressed by the effort China is making to minimise its dependence on coal – every home has a solar panel, they line the roof tops of the high-rise buildings, and many of the street lights have solar panels and/or mini wind turbines attached to the pole!  The road surfaces are generally good, though the standard of driving leaves one aghast.

The Group

Stone and Gu checking provision

Solar-powered street lights

Avoid tiredlyness

Dark Satanic Mills?

The scenery turned more rural, and it was a pleasant run to lunch in the Old Town of Dali.  En- route, the homes and farms we passed had distinctive hand-painted decorations of the external walls, some being historically “animist” with paintings of animals, including dinosaurs.yielding further on to the houses in Dali environs which have beautiful blue tiling  and black brush-stroke scenes

Apparently lunch was our last chance of a Western meal for some days so to our minor disappointment we were ushered into a gweilo-run sandwich cafe, however  the food and coffee were excellent – and the western style toilet was much appreciated as they became far rarer further north. 

Dali Old Town

Beetles for sale

We then had 20 minutes to explore the area nearby, and found a wonderful little park full of old ladies gossiping, men playing serious games of mahjong and cards, and a wannabe Pat Boone belting out a Chinese ballad, backed by a splendid 5 piece geriatric band.

It was only a short drive from there to the village of Xizhou, where we were ushered into our first lodgings – an extraordinary and fabulous old clan house,  beautifully and lovingly restored by Brian Linden and his wife. It’s now called the Linden Centre and as well as running this superb guest-house, the Lindens are also involved in many other projects aimed at keeping some bits of Chinese culture intact in the inevitable march of progress.  We felt privileged to stay there – even though it was originally built as late as 1948, the house with its three courtyards had seen an extraordinary period of history. Sadly, the original owner, Mr  Yang, was thrown out of the property and tortured during the Cultural Revolution, and it was sequestered as barracks by the Red Army, which was why it was still pretty well preserved and not ravaged.   However, one of his children has visited the house since it was restored as the Linden Centre,  and given it her blessing, donating some family portraits for the greetings area.

The Linden Centre