Yunnan Province: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang

Southwestern China was somewhat of a blur. We arrived into Kunming after an 18hr train ride stretched into over 30hrs. We were climbing the walls for the last half of the trip & spent enough time in the restaurant car to wear out our welcome. We later discovered that the train had been rerouted due to an earthquake on our original route. This whole side of the planet is always shaking it seems. Anyhow - Kunming was fine, spent a couple days wandering the city. Next was a chill (quite literally) little town called Dali. Having endured nearly two months of cooler than anticipated weather at that point, the time came to acquire warmer clothes. Even layering all the clothes we'd brought proved insufficient this time. Dus & I happened upon a nice tailor woman in Dali who outfitted us both with thick hemp/cotton pullovers. Haven't shivered since!

Snapped a bunch of photos at the Three Pagodas area and then continued to Lijiang. I think we expected to find something similar to the sleepy old town of Dali there, but were greeted by something closer to an Asian Venice... with drunken karaoke blaring from every street between the canals. Interesting areas - we hope to return for a better look someday.

Apart from train food, we've had some excellent meals in China. I've concocted a list of Chinese characters for common Asian greens; bok choi, morning glory, Chinese cabbage, celery - to which I refer when ordering at restaurants. They often spruce them up with an adequate amount of fresh or dried spicy red peppers.

Dustin's take on Yunnan Province:
a couple of quaint towns we visited were dali and lijiang. they're well known and heavily touristed because of their beauty, but it seems to work well with the locals. cobble stones along narrow streets, bridges over canals, and old towns with classic architecture. we ate a lot of western food, mostly because my stomach needed a break from the heavy oil of chinese food. i had never craved banana pancakes, burgers and pizza so much in my life. the rain in dali made the temperature drop to a typical autumn day in seattle, so we finally bought jackets, handmade from hemp by a native seamstress. and we realized that several destinations since our first stop in st petersburg had been about that cold. but we kept thinking each time it happened, it would be the last time.