Yunnan Recap

 I have pretty much written about my entire Yunnan vacation with the exception of my last day in Kunming, the provincial capital.  It was actually more stressful than necessary due to my excursion across town to see the Bamboo Temple, which had about 500 extremely lifelike statues of arhats, or wise men.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find a taxi willing to bring me back across town afterwards, and the minibus driver that I finally found got lost and had to ask for directions twice and eventually shoved 10 RMB at me and told me to get out of her bus!  It would have been funny except at that point I was stressed about making my plane back to Beijing…but it turned out fine, and I have a new appreciation for Beijing taxi drivers,  as they do not blink an eyelash at hour to two hour long slogs across town, where I had trouble finding one for a 20-minute hop across Kunming!

 I made it back to Beijing around dinner time, and a really nice Chinese lady and her daughter who sat next to me on the plane offered to bring me home, as they live quite near me.  We chatted in broken Chinese in the car on the way back, with many pauses for frantic dictionary looking, but it was a pleasant end to a long journey.  Even nicer was being greeted by dinner when I came back - Lara is still at my apartment for another week and had cooked up a feast to greet me!

 Overall, I had a very fun as well as productive time in Yunnan: I met some people essential to my research, got one of my projects back on track, and got a dataset I can actually analyze.  On the fun side of things, I saw an entirely new part of China that was very beautiful, had clean air, and was not nearly as cold.  I also met some nice people along the way, something i feel happens easier when traveling alone.  I saw more of rural China than I have seen so far, and caught glimpses of the farming life as I cycled through the fields or sped by in buses or cars.  I also now appreciate the government heat in Beijing; it is actually hot in my apartment right now, whereas in Yunnan, although the outside temperatures never drop as low as they will here, temperatures in the 40s at night are quite enough for a cold bedroom!   

As nice as traveling always is, it has been nice to return to Beijing, to my own bed and space, to a good friend waiting for me, and to a work and everyday life routine. 

Please check out the Picasa web album below for pics from my entire Yunnan trip!