Enjoying International Hotel Kunming

... box with a genuin jade bracelet broken up in it, we didnt know what to do with it but we kept it for the trip round the park as we wanted a better look we came across a full on obstacle course, complete with crawl nets, rope climbs and many other obstacles, naturally we dived straight on, it was pretty amazing and after paying for a bit like the idiots we are, we moved on t find a zodiac statue garden. here there were ...

... towards the coach. Apparently, tourist luggage must be stored inside the coach.
Now, assuming this route and bus would be for tourists - I was quite looking forward to the journey, but boy were we wrong. Everyone was Chinese, not a single person - drivers included speaks English and I was one of three women. My heart sank - another night and day or spitting... brilliant! But, we're not finished yet.... a lady got on helping a man - who was not old, but ...

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BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Nearly one fifth of
China's rice fields, or about 5.56 million hectares, were under
cultivation with high-yield super rice by 2008, a result of the
promotion of super rice from 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture said
Sunday. The ministry has approved ...

... a chaotic materialization, and many people have lost their innate sense of morality and basic principles. However, everyone needs the support of their national culture, he says. "They will realize the sorrow in their hearts one day and return to the original national culture." And Naruo believes it will be the appropriate time to display his work. "I'll let the world see my paintings when everybody feels a void in their spiritual life and in need of real ...

... boiling pot and share. Ok, it doesn't sound that exciting but believe me its so good we've been craving it and eating it almost every night. I've had it in Taiwan but it's not that good there, hotpot is a different story in Yunnan. On this occasion I accidentally chewed and ate a massive spicy chili, I felt my head go on fire, lips went numb, I ran around the restaurant looking for water, thought I was going to die and then when I finally calmed down I realized my sickness was cured.

... sense to me. For example there is one word to use for clothing worn on the upper half of your body and a different word to be used for lower half clothing. Then, if that wasn't enough to figure out, the one for lower half clothing is also used for long thin things like streets and rivers which to my mind are entirely unconnected. Similarly infuriating is the Chinese obsession with how the language sounds. Rhythm and poetic flow is ...

... a student visa for 2 and a half months beyond when I am actually a student. I'm not sure whether it's just Kunming, or whether the whole of China is now like this, but there suddenly seem to be loads of people who own dogs. Last time I was here it was very rare to see anyone who actually had a pet (dogs have other appeal out here!) but now, 5 years on they are everywhere. I think it really must be a sign of rapidly increasing personal wealth ...

... After that I went to Mr Song's work were we played table tennis with some of his colleagues. After that we had dinner with about 20 of his peers and we drank our way through a fair bit of Baijiu. When I got back to Jack's I played with Kane for a few hours before having an early night. Tonight I am taking Tony and his mom out to dinner and will hopefully be heading out to a few bars later in the night to see what the Kunming nightlife is like!

There are only 400 km from Dali to Kunming, but the train lasts more than 9 hours! It's faster by bus, but this way, we save a night at hotel, we sleep at the train. We arrive in Kunming, meet our guide, Wang Yin (or something like that), go to have breakfast(to a hotel which is not ours, cheaper), and then we are taken to ours, for checking in, and have a little rest, in which we clean some clothes. Then we start the first visit: Shilin ...