trip to the western hills

.....baby getting strapped on to to dad's back, helped by grandmother. One long single strap tied in a knot at the front, and blanket, and she's securely on, ready for the walk!









We went to the hills just west of Kunming on Friday, the day after New Year. We went with a family, parents, daughter, grandparents and a few other friends. It was the first overcast day for a couple of weeks. We passed a large Buddhist temple on the way and were accompanied by tannoyed chanting part of the way up the hill.

It took a couple of hours of slow walking to get to the top - Mao Mao Qing village. It was so misty at the top we didn't see any views.

At a local restaurant we were brought through a courtyard and saw the body parts of a decapitated fluffy rabbit scattered around. It wasn't quite enough to turn me vegetarian (this time) and I enjoyed the meat dishes, which were chicken, pork and beef and totally delicious. When we came out, most of the rabbit had gone and all that was left was the intestines in a bowl.....




Horse and cart at Mao Mao Qing village at top of western hills

We went up to a miniature 'Stone Forest' and started the walk down. I've never been on a mountain with crowds of people. It was fun, there were people singing and chatting. We took a wrong turn and quite a few people had followed us. We all had to reverse up again and carry on down the other path.

Clothing for the walking on the hills was varied: I saw court shoes, business suits, light summer clothes. We walked through a market when we got to the mountain road where I bought two 'Tin Tin' books in Mandarin, published in the 1950's and a little (red) book of quotes by Mao in English.

When we got back, the grandparents made dumplings for all of us and insisted that we stay. All this after a full day of walking.........

first new year celebration in China

Hi everyone

Welcome to my first blog entry. I've been here in Kunming for a month and I am sitting by the window watching fireworks and firecrackers going off all around. It is the first day of Spring Festival. Last night was really noisy. We spent New Year's Eve with a family in the middle of a huge complex of apartments and at midnight we were surrounded by hundreds of enormous explosions - closer and noisier than any I've experienced in the UK. The sky was lit up with fireworks and people were setting off firecrackers and rockets from their balconies. We got home about 1.30 and the bangs continued on and off all night.

It's 7.45pm and it has all started up again. People are setting them off right below our window and the whole room is lighting up. The three year old in the flat hates the noise and flashing lights, so we've turned up Stevie Wonder on the iPod, we're dancing around and she's happy!