We were up and out of the apartment really (really) early on Saturday morning in order to make our flight to Kunming.  Just a 3 hour flight from Beijing, but I have to say, arriving in here is like arriving in Miami after a winter week in Toronto.  Kunming is the city of perpetual spring, and it does feel kind of jaunty that way.  Flowers everywhere (tulips, poppies, pansies, daffodils, lavender…), people strolling around the lake, and still that lingering Chinese new year holiday feeling, so we are still feeling like we are in vacation-mode, though we are here for Art’s first official business in China: his Fulbright orientation program.  That begins tonight, so more on that later.  In the meantime, we’ve been having fun exploring Kunming.  The Bird and Flower Market this morning was a hoot.  A sort of farmers’ market/flea market with beautiful produce, common house plants and all kinds of pets for sale (bunnies are popular pets this year of course)… a dirty fascinating place with delicious smells everywhere… though Art still won’t let us eat street food.  I took loads of pictures, only a few of which are posted below (I am trying to temper this blog, if that’s possible…).  Then we were off to a great vegetarian restaurant (we keep scoring great food… using the “point and shoot” method as we have no idea what the menu says, nor can we tell what the picture is… Honey, do you think that’s fish, or pig’s tongue?), then to the Yuantong Temple, with thick clouds of incense, more wonderful ceilings for me to look at, and building after building housing gigantic Buddhist deities.  We’re back here now at the Green Lake Hotel (quite nice — heavenly beds, a bathtub! and laundry service!), and Art has the girls down at the pool with several other Fulbright families, trying to wear them out a bit…

Some observations about Kunming: unusual fashion sense (will try to capture a few pix of this), everyone smokes in this town, permed hair is very, very popular, we stand out here in ways we didn’t in Beijing (Art in particular), and the one child policy is very evident.  Families everywhere out and about on this Sunday: each with one child.  I’ve never felt or observed this more vividly than here in Kunming.  Maybe I haven’t been watching closely enough…

Early morning wait at the airport. I think Art looks like a famous movie director...

Our plane. This whole scene looks like 1972 to me...

Found...

From snow to tulips...

Great farmer's market...

Daffodils for sale...

Kunming scooters...

Old China...

Bunnies for sale... she wants one bad...

Market shop...

Market art...

Yuantong Temple

Love the wood on this archway

Incense offerings...

Cece prepares her offering...

Cece's offering...

Inside the temple compound are a dozen buildings surrounded by this lake (moat?)

One of many...

Possibly the most important one at this temple...

Colorful ceiling at Yuantong Temple...

On the walk back to our hotel from the temple, this building jumped out at me: so China... yet so familiar... I see southern California here...

After the markets and temples and all that smoky incense, it was good to dunk the kids in the pool...