19th December: Kunming, China

Yunnan is our final province in China and probably the one we’ve looked forward to most. Kunming should be a chilled introduction, although the weather in the ‘City of Eternal Spring’ isn’t quite as warm as we’d hoped in the low to mid-teens. We will still have to be careful of sunburn though as the UV levels here at the winter solstice are equivalent to those in London at the summer solstice. Kunming is at nearly 2,000 metres altitude and on the edge of the tropics, so the sun is strong and the atmosphere thin.

I popped out for coffee and immediately noticed how great the fruit looked at all of the stalls. There are lots of snack places and coffee shops too, including the one I went to in a book store. We both really fancied proper food after yesterday’s snack-filled travel day. Fortunately, there is a vegetarian Buddhist-style buffet just around the corner. We were amazed that it was only 16 yuan for quite a decent selection and filled up on much needed tofu and veggies for lunch. The sour-spicy cucumber, lotus stew, and sweet almost jam-like aubergine were especially delicious. The staff were lovely too and one young guy came to sit down and chat to us.

We wandered on to Green Lake Park, via a random route because we saw a golden retriever so had to dog-stalk. We miss dog cuddles! We also stumbled across a peaceful temple complex. It’s been a while since we saw the traditional greens and blues of imperial architecture and it felt fresh after this much time.

At Green Lake Park, the water and skies were full of gulls in numbers we’ve never seen before. Luckily, they weren’t the huge aggressive type we get on the coast in the UK. In fact, they are red-headed gulls which migrate from Siberia for the winter and are quite the attraction here. This park must be beautiful in early spring when the blossoms on the trees and the planted tulips both bloom. Amazingly, we got two delicious, sweet teas for 7 yuan and sat watching the ducks, geese, and occasional heron in the water.

Yunnan is famous for the freshness of its produce and balance of its food, so we decided to see what snacks we could find in the walk back. Firstly, we picked up 4 different types of nutty biscuits. The stars though were the fruit. We bought a kilo of strawberries for 30 yuan (about £3) and, incredibly, they were sweeter and juicier here in the middle of winter than the best ones you can find at home in summer. We took some lovely oranges too. I was really taken by the slightly tarter clementine-like flavour of some green(!) oranges that we’d thought were limes until the stallholder cut one for us to try.

Given how cheap it was, we popped back into the same buffet for a smaller dinner. Our friend from earlier came for a chat again, until his manager gave him a friendly nudge! I popped back to meet him after his shift instead at a teahouse and we had a really interesting conversation. I was astonished that he’d worked 12-hour shifts every day since his previous day off almost two months ago. Apparently, this is the norm in many industries, especially away from the east coast cities, and is the sacrifice that many people in low paid jobs are making for the rapid growth of the country. His wage for these near 100-hour weeks? Equivalent to just under £100 per week. £1 per hour. Work to afford a place to live so that you can go to work. No time for friends or hobbies. His assessment was that bosses have become too capitalist. Yes, people have been pulled from poverty, and this is a country being built for people and the future but there are still big problems to solve too to reach egalitarian goals.