Philouise’s Weblog

KUNMING: Eternal Spring City that mixes the old and new

(philian weygan, July 23, 2009 as appearing in Cordillera Today)

We were in the China border sky gazing as the solar eclipse phenomenon was viewed in Asia. Many came out despite of what some believe that this is bad omen. Where we were, the sun was three quarter covered by the moon. However, in some areas of China and India there was total blackout as the moon completely covered the sun. This spectacular rarely happens in a lifetime and considered one of the longest solar eclipses. This phenomenon will be a thing to remember during  this brief stay in China  spent in Kunming  and Guangdong. Last year visit was also significant as it coincided with the Beijing Olympics. Guangdong will host the 2010 Asian Games and preparations are already underway, all buses carry a banner or a sticker announcing the upcoming event.

Pursuing a relationship is similar to my connections with China as it started in the 1980s yet my first visit was in 1991, when together with Mom, Dad, and a group of Asian business people we visited Guangzhou as a side trip of a conference in Hong Kong. From that time on I had several trips going to the Southern part of China.

It was easy walking in the mornings, evenings, and late afternoons, because of Kunming’s  year-round temperate climate. As the capital of Yunnan  it is called the “Spring City or City of Eternal Spring.” It was a memorable visit in a city bustling with life, mix of the old and the new, and sky rise buildings amidst parks, temples, and museums. Kunming consists of an old city, a modern commercial district, residential and university areas. The city has an astronomical observatory, institutions of higher learning like Yunnan University, Yunnan Normal University and a medical college. On the outskirts is the Bronze temple, dating from the Ming dynasty. Kunming was formerly called Yunnanfu literally meaning “Yunnan Capital” until the 1920s. Kunming was transformed into a modern city as a result of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 when the invading Japanese forces caused a great number of east-coast Chinese to flood into the southwest of China. The increased money and expertise quickly established Kunming as an industrial and manufacturing base for the wartime government in Chongqing . These influences saw the city move adapt to modernity and gradually resemble other major Chinese cities with expanding industrial areas and large scale residential districts. With the economic reforms of the 1980s, Kunming began enjoying increased tourism and foreign investment.

Kunming’s public center is the huge square outside the Workers’ Cultural Hall along the Beijing Lu-Dong Feng Lu intersection. Mornings and afternoons scenes include crowds doing taijiquan and playing badminton. We were in the vicinity as we stayed in Camellia hotel in Dong Feng Road. They offer  hotel room and youth hostel rates and we were given a nice standard twin room for US $29 a day . It is very convenient as they have a booking office for trains and flights; a business center for fax, calls and internet; a massage parlor;  a convenience store, a restaurant, an airline office. Hotel room rate includes a breakfast buffet of fruits, salads, rice,  congee, noodles, bread, pastry, fish,  meat, juices, and drinks. The dining area was a covered court set up with tables and chaise. A piano was but in an elevated platform. Potted plants and trees make a gardenlike atmosphere. It was a very peaceful area where piped in music is heard. Breakfast time revealed that the hotel hosted guests of different nationalities. Housekeeping cleans and changes towels everyday. While using the business center facility, I found out that people from the USA have restricted access by phone, so emails became a more appropriate medium of communication. During our last night we used the massage parlor and a kind Chinese lady did traditional Chinese massage which relieved pains of the body caused by the hectic schedule we had.

One afternoon we went to the local market which was very clean, wide, and orderly with different sections. The market sells local products where a whole block for fresh produce, one  block for dried food, one whole block for cooked food. There was a cue in one of the stalls and we saw that it was a native cake shop, my companion joined a cue, and we had “puto” and salad for dinner.

A practice of old which is still done is the presence of the public newspapers in strategic places. At one spot we found five different newspapers posted page by page, side by side in the bulletin board. People were standing reading the public newspaper.

One of the highlights of the stay was a visit to the  Yunnan Ethnic village located six kilometers south of Kunming composed of a 2000 miles space bounded by the Dianchi Lake on the south and the Western Hills on the west and the villages by the North. Each of the 26 Ethnic groups was given a village to build aside from the unity square symbolizing the unity in diversities. The villages usually included a typical abode or community which may include a temple like the Buddhist Temple of the Tibetans, the ethnic wear, instruments, craftsmanship, sports, and the like. Most of the communities have a courtyard style of architecture. There is also a huge theatre for the ethnic songs, dances, and drama performances. It would take another article to share about this ethnic village.