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Home › Forums › Study Tours › 2018 NCTA Study Tour to China and Taiwan › Kunming
Jonathan Tam.
Stephanie KroopKunming “Hot Spots” to Visit… and the trade connections…
Kunming is the transportation center for the Southern Yunnan Province of China.
Today Kunming is attempting to make rail connections with BCIM, Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar. The high-speed rail link between Kunming and Calcutta, India, is an effort to revive the ancient silk road. There is also a quant Railroad Museum here with vintage train cars. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/China-seeks-rail-link-between-Kunming-and-Kolkata/articleshow/47706544.cms There is also a goal to complete a rail line between China and Nepal cutting through Mt. Everest by 2020, connecting agricultural products and encouraging more tourism. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/China-seeks-rail-link-between-Kunming-and-Kolkata/articleshow/47706544.cms
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In terms of sights to see…There is a temple there by the name of Yuantong Si, that was founded by Buddhists, dating back to the 8th century, during the time of the Tang dynasty. Restorations have taken place in the successive dynasties; the main hall was constructed using architecture from the Yuan Dynasty period and the central pillars on the inside are encircled by two dragons that were carved during the Ming Dynasty. In recent years Thailand has fronted the money for the expansion of the temple. The importance and interest in this particular temple came in the 1950’s with a ceremony to send on the sacred teeth of the Buddha, giving the temple some popularity among Southeast Asia!!!
Bridges connect the islands of Green Lake (Cui Hu), which is an urban park designed during the 17th century.
The stone forest is also a massive landscape covering 186 miles with karst formations nearly 270 million years old (Karst is formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum—characterized by underground sinkholes and caves. Unsure if there is anything like this in the United States, it appears that other sights similar to this are located in France, Slovenia, and the Philippines.
Tips to visiting Kunming (which I found was home to many ethinic minority groups): https://www.chinahighlights.com/kunming/
It was tough to find some connections to California or Los Angeles…we clearly do NOT have the long history of Kunming, China, as a comparison, and our railways for trade or tourism seem to be obsolete… I’ll continue the search for other connections and open any other comparisons or topics to Jonathan Tam!!
Barbara MillerI am curious about the Thai funding of temple expansion.
In my community, we have had foreign investors take over some local manufacturing businesses through buyouts. It has been interesting to see what influences the cultural values and systems of the new owners have had on the workers and management of these businesses. It has been a mix of positive and negative.
I wonder what influences the Thai Buddhists have had on the Chinese who are using the Yuantong Si temple. How do the Chinese feel about this outside support?
Kristen WaltzI'm a combination of anxious/excited when I think about traveling via high-speed train on our trip. I have traveled extensively in the U.S. via train, but I'm curious to see how it works in China. I was surprised to read this piece about Japan's rail system last week:
It's hard to imagine something like this happening in the US, especially when I think of Philly's SEPTA system. I wonder if China's high speed rail system is similarly strict.
Considering our travel itinerary, I'm excited to get outside in Kunming and explore Green Lake as well as Stone Forest. Green Lake is known fot its lotus flowers that cover the lake in the summer. After reading your description of Stone Forest, I was interested to research more and get an idea of what to expect when we visit. The photos I found were stunning! I chuckled to myself when I saw "the elephant" rock formation. The myths connected to Stone Forest are also compelling. One of the most famous attractions in the forest is the Ashima Stone, "which legend says was formed after the beautiful Sani girl, Ashima, ran into the forest and was turned to stone after being forbidden to marry the man she loved." The Sani people hold a Torch Festival every year on June 24 at the site, honoring the Ashima Stone through "traditional performances such as wrestling, bull fighting, pole-climbing, dragon-playing, lion-dancing, and the A-xi Moon Dance." Although we miss that ceremony by a few weeks, I'd be curious to learn what dragon-playing and lion-dancing are while we are there. As I learn more about our trip, I continue to be fascinated by China's diversity and "hidden" treasures (at least hidden to me).
Jonathan TamThanks for doing a lot of the frontloading, Stephanie. (I didn't see this until now)
In addition to the Green Lake and Yuantong Si are the Dianchi Lake and Huating Temple. In the time of the Great Leap Forward, the Dianchi Lake was victim to a heavy amount of pollution and still suffers form massive losses in biodiversity. Certainly not a hot spot to see, but in light of the losses in biodiversity, initiatives in Kunming have been started to research and support indigenous life. The Huating Temple has been around since the Yuan Dynasty of 13th century China and represents the prevailing influence of Buddhism in this region of China, much like Yuantong Si.
Because it will be the farthest south that we go, one might expect the temperature to be the hottest - but Kunming is actually elevated towards the mountains and can actually get pretty cold (and even rainy). There's definitely some implications to be made by how close it is to Southeast and South Asia. I suppose a question worth asking is if its proximity to South and Southeast Asia has had any implications on how its religious and environmental sites have prevailed.
Dawn Linden-WrightI had not heard of the forest prior to doing some research. I am interested in seeing how the Chinese are preserving this area while at the same time modernizing in every conceivable way.
clay dubeSeveral among us bought Mao badges or collections of Mao's words in Kunming. Perhaps it was the inspiration of the Red Age or Cultural Revolution museums we saw outside of Chengdu that powered such acquisitions. Here is a new work on Mao badges by a longtime researcher at the British Museum, Helen Wang. You can download the book bit by bit as pdf files:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/research_publications_series/2008/chairman_mao_badges.aspx
Stephanie KroopOne statistic that really surprised me about Kunming was the percentage of mountainous land, which was mentioned on the bus as being upwards of 90% of the land in Kunming. When flying in to the city, I was surprised by the rolling mountains, trees, unfinished railways and paved freeways that seemed to just end abruptly followed by several dirt roads leading straight off these empty freeways. I was a bit surprised when we arrived in the city center to see how built up the city actually was in comparison to what we were seeing flying in. I was also surprised by how large many of the cities were in China, like Xian, Chengdu, as well as Kunming. These cities made New York and Las Vegas look small by comparison. I had already expected Beijing to be exactly like it was from photos in books, or from friends that have traveled there.
I cannot wait to make use of all the Mao--Cultural Revoltuion Era finds in the little shop in the city center of Kunming. I think that our experiences being in all of these cities will be extremely valuable to our own students and for myself this trip will help in relating to my students moving into the next school year. About 20% of my students are Chinese and I feel that many of our textbooks give a false impression of where China is at economically today. I felt that there were many stereotypes about China that were disproved along the way.
Some of us had the discussion regarding stereotypes over lunch while in Kunming. I think my stereotypes were very much based on what I have read, or what very little some of my students have shared over the years. I think my impressions prior were 1) China does not allow for foreign business, 2) there is a great amount of economic equality 3) China in not built up or an economic giant like the US...I feel that all of these previous ideas of China were completely proven wrong, and I look forward to sharing my valuable travel experience with my students this year and the years to follow.
clay dubePhotos from an international flower show held in Kunming about a week after we left: https://www.producereport.com/article/photos-kunming-international-flower-expo
And an article on problems in Kunming with bike sharing: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-07-24/kunming-latest-city-to-pump-brakes-on-bike-sharing-101308072.html
Jonathan TamWhen I reviewed my notes on Kunming, I was left with a impression that there was an underlying tension to the city. Considered China's frontier, Kunming sits in the southwest corner of China and mixes together the cultures of the neighboring countries, the remnants of early China, and China's cultural revolution. And yet, all the while, it is a city that holds China's magnificent stone forest and majestic lakes.
Something that definitely clicked early on, having visited Xian and Chengdu earlier, is the fact that Kunming is a city that is developing compared to other cities that we have visited and it is a strategic point in China's push to the west. The unfinished buildings and constructions certainly left that feeling, but the emergency of multi-million dollar acres of golf terrain left some hint that Kunming is a rising destination for rich developers. How the locals feel about this - however is not fully understood.