Much to my surprise, I really like China. Kunming is a very dynamic city, with a Ferrari dealership two blocks away from a street market that sells turtles, air guns, and anything else you could ever want. I do get a sense of the rapid changes in China, especially when you see old wooden houses with smoky alleys within a block of a modern, western feeling downtown. Kunming itself has a population of about 3 million or so, and sits near a large lake at just over 6000 feet. It has been sunny and cool so far - much like Colorado in the fall - although today is cloudy. The city is the only place I have been so far where I would consider coming back to live for a year or two.
I am also enjoying adventures in food and communication. There is very little English spoken here - especially if you stray from the main two or three tourist areas. As such I have been forced to try to pick up some Mandarin phrases, most of which are only of limited use, as I never have any idea what the response is when I manage to get a question out. Nevertheless, it is quite fun, and I don't take it all that seriously, mostly because communication is always something of a failure. Most of all, Mandarin now seems accessible, and not as impossible as I always imagined.
I have also seen a few things of interest:
I watched the police break up some street vendors selling fruit. The policemen chased after the women selling fruit, who picked up their tables and ran, while the one in the rear got pushed over into some bicycles, fruit flying everywhere. The police didn't catch anyone else, but made a very public demonstration of smashing the caught woman's table once the chase had been given up. She did save her large chopping knife by throwing it down some stairs where a friend collected it and refused to cooperate with the police and hand it over. It certainly lacked the cool professionalism that you expect from police back home (though don't always get).
I also had a crazy guy push a beggar woman into me. Things like this still catch me a little off guard, though not much anymore. As a foreigner anywhere, you somehow become a target or thing of interest to those on the edge of sanity.
Beyond that, my adventures have been limited to mistakenly ordering plates of bacon for dinner, and explaining that I want more dumplings - which are delicious. I meet with the Nature Conservancy today to check out what they do in the canyon I am planning on visiting. After that I think I will start my journey into the Salween!
