The Old Town of Lijiang, Yunnan Province,
comes alive when night falls. Lu Zhongqiu
In addition to its eclectic cuisine, Yunnan offers fresh air and
blue skies, spectacular views in the Lijiang mountains and soothing
traditional Naxi music. There is plenty to please all five
senses.
The spicy Kunming snacks always tickle the
taste buds. Bryan Virasami
Most visitors to Yunnan Province, Southwest China, stop in
Kunming, the capital city, and connect to Dali, Lijiang or other
tourist-friendly areas. While many people use the capital as a
transit point, there are a handful of reasons to pause there for a
few days and explore the surrounding area.
Yunnan, which borders Sichuan Province and Tibet Autonomous
Region, is at the southwestern end of China just above Laos,
Vietnam and Myanmar. Its geographical location is one of the
reasons for the great variety of food.
Kunming is a modern and developed city with pleasant weather
around the year. There are a number of sites to visit, including
temples, pagodas and museums.
Kunming, like the rest of Yunnan, has plenty of affordable hotel
rooms and hostels. For example, clean, comfortable rooms at the
Camellia Hotel start at 140 yuan ($19) a night and include a
Western/Chinese breakfast buffet, with coffee and made-to-order
eggs. There's an adjoining hostel with even better deals.
At the suggestion of a local Kunming friend, a stop at the
second floor snack court, near Nanping Road and Huguo Road, proved
to be a good idea. There were small, fresh crabs, chicken and tofu
on sticks, or noodles in small clay pots. The choices were endless
and most of the items would please the most health-conscious
eaters. Five wonderful dishes came to 30 yuan ($4).
Traditional buildings, featuring gray tiled
rooftops, still exist in Lijiang. Lu Zhongqiu
After dark, many foreigners gravitate toward a number of cafes
or bars, including the famous Salvador's Coffee House on Wenlin
Jie. Walk down the street and there are plenty of lounge bars where
the service is friendly and you can linger for hours. Visit
www.gokunming.com for information about this city.
Yunnan's minorities are a big attraction. Finding an authentic
community to visit takes some effort, but a taxi ride to Yunnan
Nationalities Museum, outside the city, is worth about two hours.
For just 10 yuan ($1.3) you can enjoy several halls of displays
showcasing colorful costumes, miniature wooden homes, musical
instruments and articles from two dozen minority groups in the
province.
Walk across the street and you will find the Yunnan Nationalities
Village, charging 70 yuan ($9.6). Nearly everyone at this tourist
destination is dressed in traditional clothes and there are a
variety of replica homes, temples and lakes. One can easily spend
four hours walking around and getting a flavor of this ancient
culture.
For a more authentic Yunnan experience, Lijiang offers further
possibilities. Although it's highly commercialized, one could spend
a week in the Old Town among its cobble-stoned streets and still
get lost in the web of paths that weave around beautiful homes,
doubling up as souvenir shops, temples, affordable hotel rooms and
cafes with wooden tables and bars stools.
There are dozens of restaurants, cozy coffee shops with Western
food and tiny bars with Naxi men whiling away the evening and
keeping warm with a fire in the middle of the floor - all ready to
smile and greet their guest.
Most people end up at the Old Market Square, which has a festive
atmosphere at night as Naxi boys and girls dance in a large human
circle. Thousands of tourists enjoy the live music and decent food
in this area.
In the day a good tip is to climb the path just left of the
market square and take pictures of the mountains and tiled
rooftops. After the fairly strenuous climb, an hour or two inside a
coffee shop overlooking the roofs and mountains, with a cup of
fresh-brewed Yunnan coffee, is priceless.
A local man offers tourists a chance to take
photos with his horses in Lijiang. Lu Zhongqiu
(China Daily by Bryan Virasami January 3,
2008)
