From Freezing to Tropical

11/8
Sunday

Brrrr! Another chilly breakfast

A Chilly Start
Up early to prepare for the flight back to Kunming. Another fully clothed breakfast, including hats and gloves and we were off to the Airport, which was only slightly warmer.  

Farms dotted the hillsides, as most of Yunnan's vegetables are grown in this region. We drove through Yuxi City, a very prosperous city, which is predominately a cigarette manufacturing city of about 1 million people.  Edie and I spent a couple of frustrating hours going through our photos trying to identify bird species with the field guide. Meanwhile, Kathy napped and the "boys" kept up continuos chatter either with each other, or on their respective cell phones. I was nice to be warm again.

Mongolia South
We stopped at the only Mongolian town in Yunnan Province with a population of about half a million. Some Mongolian soldiers from their invasion some 800 years ago married the local Yi girls and stayed. 

Blue and white motifs on homes

Consequently, their language, dress and culture is a combination of both groups. We wandered around the old section taking some photos and visiting a local produce market for a few minutes, which was pretty interesting. The architecture was much less ornate, with lots of horse details on their temple and less flamboyant than the Tibetan region we had just come from.

Horses have replaced dragons on the temples in this Mongolian town

Panties drying on corn cobs.......

A woman makes a straw basket

Beans and corn dry in the town square

Poster for a rock band on the side of a building

Greens drying  - very practical drying rack!

Ancient Zhu Family Hotel
We pulled into Jianshu, which was built during the 7th century. As with many ancient Chinese cities, there was a massive protective wall around its perimeter, not unlike many European cities of those times. Only the original East Gate remains. This was the southern center of commerce and learning, as well as the political capital of the region. This region was considered the frontier because south of here was controlled by tribal warlords who controlled their fiefdoms. This came to an end in the early 1900's with the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The hotel

One of many courtyards

Our hotel had been built as a family compound by a wealthy family in the 1800's who made their fortune as merchants, owning mines and probably selling plenty of opium. The complex involves over 200 rooms and 42 courtyards, complete with many fish ponds, beautiful gardens, an impressive bonsai collection and a small museum. It is even more gorgeous that the other ones, that were also marvelous. (As usual, there are signs of previous plumbing problems and the sink barely drains!) Anyway, I can certainly live with it!

Bonsai 

We finished the day eating some local specialties, including several types of tofu, for which the city is famous for. There are a number of ancient wells, still in use, that have very pure water that are supposed to make the tofu especially delicious. On the walk back to the hotel we checked out several pottery shops, which the region is also well known for.