OMG.  We have been on such a wonderful whirlwind here in Yunnan Province.  Lots to write about and many pix to post but that will have to wait for the weekend as we are flying back to Beijing today.  The city of Kunming has been such a wonderful surprise.  It’s huge, but feels small and comfortable, and has lived up to its reputation as the city of perpetual spring.

Tourism, tea, tobacco, fresh flowers and jade are the major industries, and we landed here during the final week of Chinese New Year… so it has been festive and loads of fun.  Last night the lantern festival marked the end of CNY, and fireworks continued to explode outside late into the night.  I’m certain that in the last 11 days I’ve heard and seen more fireworks than all the 4th of July’s of my life combined.  And then some.

A few other thoughts before I have to pack up this computer: the population of Beijing is 22 million.  Kunming (a city I’d never heard of before this trip) has over 6 million.  This compares with 2.5 million in Pittsburgh, half a million in Fresno, 4 million in LA, and 7 million in the combined cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

We’re talking tight, dense, quarters, people.  Everything is squeezed in just so.  It’s incredible, and oddly enticing to me.  A very complicated sort of simplicity thrives in the cities of China.  I like it and am thrilled to be a city dweller for these five months.

I suppose there is nothing even close to civil litigation in China.  It seems to be understood that you are “on your own.”  Don’t lean over that wall, out that 9th floor window, along that ledge on the bridge… watch out for those steep, slippery mountain steps, and don’t even look out the bus window as you are winding up a mountain side … as there is generally nothing (ever) to catch you.  I just haven’t seen the safety railings and the “caution, caution, caution” you see everywhere in the states.  Here, you do what you want at your own risk.  There’s good sense in this, yet a number of times this week it was quite clear that we were not in Kansas… and one day, on an old open ski lift chair with two kids not my own, and jagged, rocky mountain below us, I was pure white knuckles…

Still loving my green tea, but now on to Pu’er tea, a special aged tea grown here in Yunnan province.  Pu’er provides many health benefits, including lower blood pressure and better sleep.  It also promotes weight loss.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  ; )

Today I went jade shopping with Ma, one of the Chinese reps from the embassy (Ma of the Pu’er tea recommendation; he is super fit and healthy).  Great to shop with someone who really knows jade.  In the first store, the stunning bracelets we looked at were $9,000 to over $20,000USD.  Way.  In the next store, I found an equally beautiful one for $3,000USD… which at this point seemed like a steal.  Still.  No deal.  I’m happy to look and learn.

Just as Miami is to New York, Kunming is much more laid back than Beijing.  The locals say:  “If you wake at 6:30am in Beijing, you are lazy.  If you wake at 6:30am in Kunming, you are crazy.”  Nobody in Kunming starts work until 9 or 9:30.

On a tour today to the Stone Forest, we spent about 2 hours each way on the road, and I was surprised by how wonderful the ride was.  The highway out of Kunming is fabulous: super smooth and a really beautiful drive.  CalTrans could learn a thing or two about how to improve the 10 if they came over and talked to these folks…

OK foodies.  Our dining this week has been SO amazing.  Many variations on the theme of steamed pumpkin (steamed with tremella is especially good), lots of sauteed lotus leaf (sometimes quite soft, sometime more crunchy), to-die-for mushrooms (including wooden ear), warm corn juice, warm walnut juice (watch for this one to start appearing in Starbucks), bean paste pancakes wrapped in green tea and sesame seeds, little sardine-like fish wrapped in long, wafer thin cucumber strips, and deep fried earth worms (I did not eat the worms, but Art did, thereby confirming for the girls that “boys eat worms”)…

Off to the airport… I will post pix this weekend.  For those of you also following Cece’s blog, she will post tonight in Beijing (Friday morning in Calif).  She has MUCH to talk about.  It’s been an amazing week for her and Elle…