Here are the some of the photos taken during Day 1-6 in Yunnan: (correction)
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v635/dellachew/Yunnan1/
Enjoy!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Yunnan - Day 5
Day 5, Wednesday – Today, we went to Lijiang. The journey is shorter this time. On our way there, we stop by at Shi Zhai Zi. It’s a village selling jade, crystals, local food and antics. What attracted me is the stone mountain opposite the village instead. We reached Lijiang a around 12.30pm. Our original schedule to go to Yulong Snow Mountain after lunch was cancelled as the wind was too strong. I was a bit disappointed as the mountain is so near, yet so far. There are 2 highlights today, Lijiang Old Town and Suhe Old Town. Lijiang Old Town is a very busy place with lots of shops and lots of people. We need to bargain in order to get the things at a cheap price, and this requires special skills and techniques.
Lijiang is famous for its water canals. The water here is very clean. Suhe Old Town is quite similar to Lijiang Old Town but there are not many visitors and the life there is more relaxing. The locals here like to play mahjong during their free time. The things selling here is also cheaper, even without bargaining. There are even more canals there and the water is really clear and clean. At night, there’s a place with fire and people will be dancing around the fire. It’s fun!
p/s: For Lijiang, ladies are address as 扮金妹 (“Ban Jin Mei”) while guys are address as 扮金哥 (“Ban Jin Ge”). I will continue on the "story" for Day 6-8 next week (hopefully...).
Lijiang is famous for its water canals. The water here is very clean. Suhe Old Town is quite similar to Lijiang Old Town but there are not many visitors and the life there is more relaxing. The locals here like to play mahjong during their free time. The things selling here is also cheaper, even without bargaining. There are even more canals there and the water is really clear and clean. At night, there’s a place with fire and people will be dancing around the fire. It’s fun!
p/s: For Lijiang, ladies are address as 扮金妹 (“Ban Jin Mei”) while guys are address as 扮金哥 (“Ban Jin Ge”). I will continue on the "story" for Day 6-8 next week (hopefully...).
Yunnan - Day 4
Day 4, Tuesday – We went to Dali by bus. The journey was around 5 hours. The wind is stronger in Dali and the air is cooler and dryer. Er Hai is a very huge lake with shape of an ear. Er Hai Park is a small park located at the South of the lake. There’s nothing much to see there. Dali Museum is another boring place located inside the Dali Old Town. Tian Long Ba Bu Movie Studio is an artificial place built for the filming of Jin Yong stories. Jin Yong is a famous writer for the martial arts stories. There are several countries in the studio, built based on the stories by Jin Yong.
The Bai minority have been ruling Dali for 50 years. For the Bai minority, we can recognize whether a lady is single, engage or married by their hats. The hat is known as 风花雪月 (“Feng Hua Xue Yue”). For single ladies, their hats are of ½ moon shape. For married ladies, their hats are of full moon shape. It is a tradition that any man who touches a ladies’ hat must work for her for three years, unless the girl shows no interest in the man. For single ladies, when they reach the age of 18, their mothers will give their daughter a jade. This jade has been passed down for generations and will be inherited by the eldest daughter of the family.
The 3 cups of tea by the Bai Minority is something unique. The 1st cup is a bitter, the 2nd cup is sweet and the 3rd cup is a bit spicy. This also represents the sweet and bitterness of our life. For proposal, the man must prepare 6 pots of wine, 6 boxes of cigarettes, 6 chickens and a jade for the lady being proposed. The wine, cigarettes and chickens are for her parents to show his sincerity. If a lady is married, there’ll be jade on both hands. During weddings, the bride will wear sunglasses. It is said to hide her tears on the wedding day. Villagers, passersby, relatives and friends can give their blessings to the bride by pinching her. For the Bai minority house, there are 2 levels. The lower level is to stay while the upper level is to keep food.
We stayed overnight at Landscape Hotel, which is located in Dali Old Town. The design of the hotel is of an old building and the room is very unique. It is classical. The blankets prepared are made of silk.
p/s: For different place, we will have a different local tour guide. This is their government policy. For Dali, ladies are address as 金花 (“golden flower”) while guys are address as 阿鹏哥 (“Ah Peng Ge”).
The Bai minority have been ruling Dali for 50 years. For the Bai minority, we can recognize whether a lady is single, engage or married by their hats. The hat is known as 风花雪月 (“Feng Hua Xue Yue”). For single ladies, their hats are of ½ moon shape. For married ladies, their hats are of full moon shape. It is a tradition that any man who touches a ladies’ hat must work for her for three years, unless the girl shows no interest in the man. For single ladies, when they reach the age of 18, their mothers will give their daughter a jade. This jade has been passed down for generations and will be inherited by the eldest daughter of the family.
The 3 cups of tea by the Bai Minority is something unique. The 1st cup is a bitter, the 2nd cup is sweet and the 3rd cup is a bit spicy. This also represents the sweet and bitterness of our life. For proposal, the man must prepare 6 pots of wine, 6 boxes of cigarettes, 6 chickens and a jade for the lady being proposed. The wine, cigarettes and chickens are for her parents to show his sincerity. If a lady is married, there’ll be jade on both hands. During weddings, the bride will wear sunglasses. It is said to hide her tears on the wedding day. Villagers, passersby, relatives and friends can give their blessings to the bride by pinching her. For the Bai minority house, there are 2 levels. The lower level is to stay while the upper level is to keep food.
We stayed overnight at Landscape Hotel, which is located in Dali Old Town. The design of the hotel is of an old building and the room is very unique. It is classical. The blankets prepared are made of silk.
p/s: For different place, we will have a different local tour guide. This is their government policy. For Dali, ladies are address as 金花 (“golden flower”) while guys are address as 阿鹏哥 (“Ah Peng Ge”).
Yunnan - Day 3
Day 3, Monday – The highlight of the day is Stone Forest. Long long time ago, this area was under the sea level. The Earth plates hit and this place surfaces as what we see now. Stone forest is popular due to its unusual formation characterized by hundreds of stone peaks jutting out from the ground with majestic grandeur and in different poses and various sharps. Inside the park, there’s a “5 star toilet”. There’s a mini LCD inside all the toilets.
The most popular tea in Yunnan is “Pu Er”. Unlike other tea trees, the tree for this tea is very tall. By drinking more of this tea, ones can become slimmer as the tea will wash away the fats in our body. Thus, it is known by some people as “slimming tea”. The longer the tea leaves are, the higher the value it is.
The most popular tea in Yunnan is “Pu Er”. Unlike other tea trees, the tree for this tea is very tall. By drinking more of this tea, ones can become slimmer as the tea will wash away the fats in our body. Thus, it is known by some people as “slimming tea”. The longer the tea leaves are, the higher the value it is.
Yunnan - Day 2
Day 2, Sunday – Everyday morning we will have buffet breakfast in the hotel that we were staying. There are 2 famous gates in Kunming called Jin Ma Bi Ji Fang. It is believe every 60 years the shadows of these 2 gates will meet. So far, no one has witness this phenomena and how true this legend is remains unknown. The main tourist spot of the day is the cave in Jiuxiang. This is also one of the shooting places for the movie, “The Myth” by Jackie Chan and a female Korean actress. This place is much more beautiful comparing to “Gua Tempurung” in Perak, Malaysia. It is windy inside of the cave and there are great views of the river and cave. We took a small boat ride around the area before exploring the cave. It’s a very huge area and we spent more than 4 hours inside. We took a cable car back to the entrance after exiting the cave. I was very worried while I was on ride as it was windy at that time and the seat was slightly shaking.
Along the way to the cave, we were able to see the long, solid and old railway track connecting Yunnan and Vietnam through the mountains. This railway was built by France around 103 years ago to transport the minerals of Yunnan to Vietnam and then to France by ship. France took 6 years to complete and repair the railway. Many people had been sacrificed during its construction, including several of its engineers. The train here is going on a very slow pace; the gap between 2 rails is relatively small compare to the usual standard.
Before that we went to an herb shop before going for our dinner at a special restaurant. The seats and table are very low; the floor is covered by pine leaves. For the locals, their floor must be covered with pine leaves from the day before Chinese New Year (CNY), till the end of CNY. They will change the pine leaves after several days, replacing the old ones with new pine leaves. The famous dish in this area is roasted duck. With the addition of a bit of salt, the roasted duck tasted good, but oily. A lot of vegetables were served. The fish served always contained a lot of fine bones, while the pork served always contained a thick layer of fats. The food is so oily that you can feel that your lips are covering by a layer of oil after eating. A dish of egg and big plate of bread with red bean sauce filling were always served as well and they were the children’s favorite.
We stayed overnight at the best hotel in a small town. It was a quiet town during the daytime and even more quiet at night. We had dinner at the hotel and it was terrible. The chopsticks and plates are not very clean. The local customers there sure have a bad way of taking their meal. The bones and food were all over the floor.
p/s: In Yiliang, we normally address the girls as 阿诗玛 and guys as 阿黑哥. 阿诗玛 is referring to beautiful and intelligent ladies while阿黑哥 is referring to honest and brave men. For dishonest men (playboy, lazy etc), they are known as 阿白哥. The wedding meal there normally starts between 3pm and 6pm. They’ll directly open up the presents given after receiving them. The “ang pow” given is quite expensive, ranging from a minimum of 480 RMB (around RM240) to a few thousand RMB.
Along the way to the cave, we were able to see the long, solid and old railway track connecting Yunnan and Vietnam through the mountains. This railway was built by France around 103 years ago to transport the minerals of Yunnan to Vietnam and then to France by ship. France took 6 years to complete and repair the railway. Many people had been sacrificed during its construction, including several of its engineers. The train here is going on a very slow pace; the gap between 2 rails is relatively small compare to the usual standard.
Before that we went to an herb shop before going for our dinner at a special restaurant. The seats and table are very low; the floor is covered by pine leaves. For the locals, their floor must be covered with pine leaves from the day before Chinese New Year (CNY), till the end of CNY. They will change the pine leaves after several days, replacing the old ones with new pine leaves. The famous dish in this area is roasted duck. With the addition of a bit of salt, the roasted duck tasted good, but oily. A lot of vegetables were served. The fish served always contained a lot of fine bones, while the pork served always contained a thick layer of fats. The food is so oily that you can feel that your lips are covering by a layer of oil after eating. A dish of egg and big plate of bread with red bean sauce filling were always served as well and they were the children’s favorite.
We stayed overnight at the best hotel in a small town. It was a quiet town during the daytime and even more quiet at night. We had dinner at the hotel and it was terrible. The chopsticks and plates are not very clean. The local customers there sure have a bad way of taking their meal. The bones and food were all over the floor.
p/s: In Yiliang, we normally address the girls as 阿诗玛 and guys as 阿黑哥. 阿诗玛 is referring to beautiful and intelligent ladies while阿黑哥 is referring to honest and brave men. For dishonest men (playboy, lazy etc), they are known as 阿白哥. The wedding meal there normally starts between 3pm and 6pm. They’ll directly open up the presents given after receiving them. The “ang pow” given is quite expensive, ranging from a minimum of 480 RMB (around RM240) to a few thousand RMB.
Yunnan - Day 1
Day 1, Saturday – My tour guide is a young and tough lady, Lili. This is the first vacation with my mum after I work. I departed with the 9am flight to KL and then another flight to Kunming. I reached there at around 3.45pm. There is no time difference. From a far, we could see that Kunming is a developing city. There are a number of tall buildings but most of them have the same design and color. At Kunming International Airport, we were welcomed by our skinny and humorous local tour guide, Kevin. Our luggage was transported to the hotel separately by a truck as our bus was too small for the entire luggage. The weather is not as cold as I anticipated.
Our first spot is the Grand View Park. On the way to the park, I noticed that there were a lot of cars and bicycles on the street. It was weird to see people dressing up nicely in coats and boots cycling on the street. The Grand View Park is a scenic park with many flowers, lake, bridges and the classical 柳树 (“Liu Su”) along the lake. It is a lovely park. I love the 桃花 (blossoms). They look a bit like Sakura. In the park, there is a building called 大观楼 (“Da Guan Lou”). This building is famous for its longest 对联 (“Dui Lian”) in the world, consisting of 90 words for each side. The first part described the beautiful scenery in Yunnan whereas the second part talked about the history of Yunnan.
We had a luxurious dinner at a grand restaurant with Siamese design, but serving local dishes. The highlight of the night is 过桥米线 (direct translation, “cross the bridge noodle”). There is a story behind the name of this noodle. To keep this short, I will leave out the story. First, a very hot bowl of soup with some oil on top of it is served. The oil is to keep the soup hot. Next, put in the slices of meat (normally chicken and pork) into the hot soup. Then, the noodle, follow by the vegetable is put into the soup. We need to wait for a while for the food to be cooked before dining. The noodle looks a bit like the white noodle for “laksa” but a bit different. It is the local’s favorite food as well. They can noodles for every meal, of course with a different way of cooking. The waiters and waitress are very polite. (For every lunch and dinner in Yunnan, there will be beer.) There was a short performance during dinner. Kevin commented that the performance is not nice. The weather in Kunming is much cooler after sunsets. I need to put on my thin jacket so that I won’t catch a cold.
After the dinner, we check-in for our hotel. The hotel is located in the middle of the town. Thus, it’s very convenient if we would like to do some shopping or walk-around at night. I visited the city park at night and it’s beautiful with all the lights. The McDonald there is a bit cheaper and offer more variety of choices. I heard that it’s more delicious than Malaysia’s but I did not try it out myself as the dinner served was too much.
p/s: In Kunming, we normally address the girls as 小姑娘 (“Xiao Gu Niang”).
Our first spot is the Grand View Park. On the way to the park, I noticed that there were a lot of cars and bicycles on the street. It was weird to see people dressing up nicely in coats and boots cycling on the street. The Grand View Park is a scenic park with many flowers, lake, bridges and the classical 柳树 (“Liu Su”) along the lake. It is a lovely park. I love the 桃花 (blossoms). They look a bit like Sakura. In the park, there is a building called 大观楼 (“Da Guan Lou”). This building is famous for its longest 对联 (“Dui Lian”) in the world, consisting of 90 words for each side. The first part described the beautiful scenery in Yunnan whereas the second part talked about the history of Yunnan.
We had a luxurious dinner at a grand restaurant with Siamese design, but serving local dishes. The highlight of the night is 过桥米线 (direct translation, “cross the bridge noodle”). There is a story behind the name of this noodle. To keep this short, I will leave out the story. First, a very hot bowl of soup with some oil on top of it is served. The oil is to keep the soup hot. Next, put in the slices of meat (normally chicken and pork) into the hot soup. Then, the noodle, follow by the vegetable is put into the soup. We need to wait for a while for the food to be cooked before dining. The noodle looks a bit like the white noodle for “laksa” but a bit different. It is the local’s favorite food as well. They can noodles for every meal, of course with a different way of cooking. The waiters and waitress are very polite. (For every lunch and dinner in Yunnan, there will be beer.) There was a short performance during dinner. Kevin commented that the performance is not nice. The weather in Kunming is much cooler after sunsets. I need to put on my thin jacket so that I won’t catch a cold.
After the dinner, we check-in for our hotel. The hotel is located in the middle of the town. Thus, it’s very convenient if we would like to do some shopping or walk-around at night. I visited the city park at night and it’s beautiful with all the lights. The McDonald there is a bit cheaper and offer more variety of choices. I heard that it’s more delicious than Malaysia’s but I did not try it out myself as the dinner served was too much.
p/s: In Kunming, we normally address the girls as 小姑娘 (“Xiao Gu Niang”).
Yunnan in General
Since there’s a lot to write, I will cut down on the details and go straight to the more “interesting points”. Yunnan is a place in China. It’s located above Vietnam. In Yunnan, there are many places like Kunming, Dali and Lijiang. Kunming is a spring city. The average temperature throughout the year is below 30 Celcius. There are a total of 52 minorities in Yunnan. Among the 52 minorities, 25 of them have more than 5,000 people. The culture of the minorities is different from each other, such as clothing, songs and dance. Most of them do not have their own writings. For different places, they have different ways of addressing people. In general, the toilets there are dirty, some of them do not have doors, the doors are unable to be locked or the doors are quite low.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Happy Chinese New Year!
Wow… I haven’t been updating my blog for months. I guess the main reason is I am too lazy to get my hands moving after work. I received a very unique greeting card from Yushu shortly before Chinese New Year. Thanks a lot! I think that it’s an envelope to put money rather than a greeting card.
BJun had departed to Korea for her studies on February 21. She made a 1 day visit to Penang before her departure. It was great talking about the happy moments that we had during our training. Those are the great moments! We took a number of photos of our funny poses and in the toilet. They sure look very artistic, but I am not going to upload all of them here. *Else BJun is going kill me* Sorry for all the blabbing about Korea, I still haven’t get over the trauma of missing Korea. Eileen is going to be an air hostess. That is shocking news for us, but all the best! As soon as BJun arrived in Korea, I received messages from her. She said she miss us all and our beloved senior, Wei Shi. I wonder how it really feel, when I go back to the same place with different people, but with the moments of my previous visit. “Yesterday Once More”, this is such a nice song to describe my feelings now. This song also brings back a lot of memories. We always sing this song during karaoke session in Korea.
Many people have been changing jobs recently. Here’s a small advice here. It is better if you not change job frequently as it won’t look good in your resume. It will give a bad impression to your future employees as well. I am sure that if you are the boss, you wouldn’t want to hire someone who quits the next moment you hire him/her. To those who are facing doubts, just do what your heart say, but remember to listen to advice from people who care for you. Responsible for your own decision after you have made it.
Before Chinese New Year (CNY), I had been receiving SMS greetings from friends. ASCII art sure is nice. There are tanglungs and pigs. This year’s CNY is not so hot as there’s rain fall in between. I visited Fort Cornwallis on the first day of CNY. (Fort Cornwallis is the fortress that Francis Light used during the war with the Sultan of Kedah) It’s a great view up there! There are a number of performers from China as well. I was able to detect them from their Chinese slang. CNY always mean home visiting and this year is the same. As usual, we had steamboats at my uncles and aunties places. Unlike other steamboats, we had specially made “wanton”, nice ingredients, fried nuggets, herbal chicken and red wine other than the usual fish balls and soft drinks. My immediate neighbor invited us for a buffet lunch at their wonderful house. The house is even better than a hotel, very well designed and comfortable. He even gave us 2 huge packets of goodies!
BJun had departed to Korea for her studies on February 21. She made a 1 day visit to Penang before her departure. It was great talking about the happy moments that we had during our training. Those are the great moments! We took a number of photos of our funny poses and in the toilet. They sure look very artistic, but I am not going to upload all of them here. *Else BJun is going kill me* Sorry for all the blabbing about Korea, I still haven’t get over the trauma of missing Korea. Eileen is going to be an air hostess. That is shocking news for us, but all the best! As soon as BJun arrived in Korea, I received messages from her. She said she miss us all and our beloved senior, Wei Shi. I wonder how it really feel, when I go back to the same place with different people, but with the moments of my previous visit. “Yesterday Once More”, this is such a nice song to describe my feelings now. This song also brings back a lot of memories. We always sing this song during karaoke session in Korea.
Many people have been changing jobs recently. Here’s a small advice here. It is better if you not change job frequently as it won’t look good in your resume. It will give a bad impression to your future employees as well. I am sure that if you are the boss, you wouldn’t want to hire someone who quits the next moment you hire him/her. To those who are facing doubts, just do what your heart say, but remember to listen to advice from people who care for you. Responsible for your own decision after you have made it.
Before Chinese New Year (CNY), I had been receiving SMS greetings from friends. ASCII art sure is nice. There are tanglungs and pigs. This year’s CNY is not so hot as there’s rain fall in between. I visited Fort Cornwallis on the first day of CNY. (Fort Cornwallis is the fortress that Francis Light used during the war with the Sultan of Kedah) It’s a great view up there! There are a number of performers from China as well. I was able to detect them from their Chinese slang. CNY always mean home visiting and this year is the same. As usual, we had steamboats at my uncles and aunties places. Unlike other steamboats, we had specially made “wanton”, nice ingredients, fried nuggets, herbal chicken and red wine other than the usual fish balls and soft drinks. My immediate neighbor invited us for a buffet lunch at their wonderful house. The house is even better than a hotel, very well designed and comfortable. He even gave us 2 huge packets of goodies!
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