Randy and Vicki's Wednesday in Kunming

Wednesday in Kunming was a lovely day. The threat of showers gave way to a mostly sunny day…and in Kunming that means blue skies. It is not as polluted as Beijing and Xi’an where a sunny day meant that the haze was a bit lighter than usual. As Chinese people more and more can afford to buy a car they are going to have to deal with the effects of automobile emissions. This local problem has global implications.

Anyway….we visited the Stone Forest (which is located just about an hour and a half from Kunming ) on Wednesday. The Stone Forest was created, according to our guide, many years ago when the area was under the sea. An earthquake caused the rocks to be thrust upwards and the waters to recede. The effect is breathtaking—acres and acres of massive stones protruding from the ground. We had lunch at the site and then returned to Kunming to sample teas before our evening meal. Kunming’s meals are similar to what we have had elsewhere in China with the exception of a scrambled egg type of dish and a tasty pastry which we were told are served to VIP’s usually. Unfortunately, we only merited VIP status once. After the familiar evening meal—large round tables with turntables filled with food and comments such as “this looks like….” Or “look out that one is really spicy and hot!”—we had the choice to spend an evening at the hotel or taking in a music and dance show of the various local ethnic groups of Yunnan province. Vicki and I chose to go to the show—“Dynamic Yunnan ”—and were very glad we did. “Dynamic” is certainly a good word to describe the 50+ dancers in the program. “Elegant” and “amazing” would also be appropriate words—especially when describing the two numbers featuring the show’s star: the Moonlight dance and the Peacock dance. We were tired at the end of the night, but certainly glad that we got to see the show.

Random thoughts: Kunming is a farming area and they plant right up the side of the steepest hills and mountains. Sometimes they have created terraces (like steps) upon the hillside and sometimes they plant right up the steepest incline. The farmers can be seen working their fields by hand and wearing the conical shaped straw hats that you have probably imagined. A horse drawn wagon seen on the streets of Kunming is probably a farmer carrying his goods to the market rather than the tourist transportation that we would expect if we saw a horse in the large cities of the U.S. Winter wheat has already been harvested and I recognized corn and rice among the vegetables and other crops seen from our bus. It is clear that the Kunming area is a “growing” community…they are growing things everywhere that you can plant a seed.

Pastor Randy and Vicki