The Spring City

Oh KunMing. Here we are. This city is a big one... apparently bigger than Taipei. It is impossible to compare though, as this city is newly developed - there are brand new skyscrapers everywhere - and Taipei was largely built way back in the day.

For some reason, I have a strong urge to participate in the economy. That's right kids, I'm really considering buying something not directly related to my daily survival. Something like.... well, something anyway. I haven't pinpointed it any further than that initial feeling.

Go Consumerism! You truly work in mysterious ways.

On a related note, some of you may have heard about the upcoming IPO of the Bank of China. I heard that they are set to raise over $11 Billion US from investors. As someone who recently visited a branch of this fine organization, I feel more than qualified to confirm for you that the Bank of China is, in fact, a bank. This isn't a communist plot folks. Indeed, I was successful in withdrawing my weekly living expenses, $50 US, in RenMinBi (almost 400 Yuan) earlier today. They had no problem in providing me with this amount of hard currency on the spot. Even more amazing was the 35 cent commission I was charged for the transaction.

I implore all the brave free market capitalists out there with liquid assets to take this opportunity by the horns. With your billions, our Bank of China can model itself on the fine banks in North America. After all, what are banks for: to provide a place for people to keep money and maybe make a little extra from the interest? HA. That was so 1980's. The Bank of China needs to get to doing what banks are supposed to do...

Providing returns for investors.

Yes sir, if I was a man of means, the first thing I would do was demand that the Bank of China raise the commission for changing traveler’s cheques to at least $1. I've also noticed that the Chinese are not buying on credit as much as they should be. We need to change that. We should also spring inflated ATM fees on these fools.

Ahem.

Following are a hodgepodge of photos totally unrelated to KunMing.

Does this farmer have the kind of access to credit that he needs? What about his water buffalo? Could this be another imerging market?

Nice light here.

A-ma has been working in these fields for generations.

This was a quiet little town, and the guesthouse we stayed in had an amazing rooftop garden.

And here it is, as well as confirmation for the skeptics out there.

We are in fact working hard. It's not all "fun and games".

Well, mostly it is.

regarding comments

Of course, it is possible for me access www.blogger.com to compose and upload postings to this blog, but I cannot view my blog through normal channels. China blocks the url that blogger blogs use, blogspot.com

Interestingly enough, they don't block yahoo blogs, msn blogs and many others. It seems that people who use blogger.com are of a different breed (but we knew that, right?).

Being moderatly web savy (barely), I found out I can access my site and many others (all others, in fact) by using a proxy server.

One can go to www.livreproxy.com or www.anonymouse.org, key in any website address, and surf anonymously through a server in the states. Amazing!

To get to the point, though these are nice services, they have one problem. For some reason, I can view my comments but not post any. Go figure.

I'm sorry that your comments are unanswered. It's not because I don't like you. Actually, I quite like you.

Thanks.

it's like this.

Just ONE more picture of tea, ok? DaDuGuan grows a lot of tea... this view well made up for rough day of climbing.

This storm had us spend about half an hour under a nervous woman's shop awning. She didn't know what to make of us. After the third cookie purchase though, the ice was broken. Score one more for successful cultural exchanges!

Pictures... pictures of people taking pictures... are the most wonderful pictures in the world.

Definitive proof that I am in China. This is DongMen (the eastern gate) in JianShui. Even the locals are impressed. The apprentice of the designer of this gate is said to have designed and built TainAnMen in BeiJing 20 years after DongMen was built. As not to surpass this teacher, TianAnMen is one floor shorter. Take that BeiJing!

Looking down from the gate. Local folks relaxing over the sweet sounds of the ErHu.

Backroads in ShiPing. All of these southern cities still have raucous old districts full of markets and mayhem.

Local cruisers. Cushy. No wonder the old men aren't jealous of our rides.

Pu'er Pilgrimage

With directions from a tea store owner in MengHai, we headed into the hills to find the old tea fields. The directions were sketchy not only because they involved unmarked mountian roads that began 20 km out of town, but also because they were described in Chinese sometime past midnight over our fifth pot of pu'er.

We did not set off early the next morning. Those lacking experience be warned: a pu'er hangover can be tough to deal with. It's is best cured with a lot of water and another strong cup of tea.

After climbing to an elevation of around 1700 meters on a rough road, getting lost in an old village, avoiding a local guide, and finally getting more much needed directions, we finally got onto some nice dirt tracks that lead into the fields. That's a stunted tea tree on the left side of the road.

A look back at the hills and some smaller tea trees on the left.

This is one of the oldest tea farmers in the area. Note the look of concentration as he busily tends to his trees.

This tree is said to be 700 or 800 years old.

As I understand it, tea actually originated in this area. Probably not in this field or anything, but this county has apparently been producing tea for thousands of years.

Old trees = big tea leaves.

We bought some "big tree tea" in town that we occasionaly mix in with the morning pot of Pu'er.

Tea in the initial stages of fermentation.

That's about all I've got concerning tea.

Now we are in JianShui, a city with a great old section of town. Tonight we are heading to a local tea house we scoped out last night for some song and dance, and probably some gong fu, all of course over tea.

I like tea.