Heavenly Yunnan (云南省)

About four years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to one of China's most beautiful areas - Yunnan Province. The literal translation of Yunnan is South of the Clouds. Geographically, China is shaped like an chicken. Yunnan with Kunming as its capital city is located on the back tummy of the chicken close to the Vietnamese and Laos border.

I flew to Kunming from Shanghai in early April. While the rest of the country was still a little cool, Kunming was already refreshingly warm and late spring-like. We hopped on a mini van for a 90km drive outside of Kunming to our first stop - the Stone Forest. The term "the Stone Forest" suggests that it is a forest made up of stones. It began to take shape about 270 million years ago. Groups of gray-black stone peaks, and stone pillars rise abruptly, pointing to the sky, like a very dense forest just as its name infers. Animals, plants, and even human figures can be found here. Some are elegant, some are rugged, and each is lifelike with its own distinguishing characteristics.

After a full day touring this natural wonder, we hopped back on the mini van and began our long drive towards Lijiang. This is a very mountainous part of the China situated on a plateau at an elevation of 2,600m. Charming villages in the valley, tiered farmland, lush vegetation and tribe villagers walking along the highways all made the winding drive very interesting and scenic. I did have to adjust to the altitude. But the light headache was gone after a good night of sleep and a lot of water.

With the Jade Dragon Mountain as backdrop, the Lijiang Old Town has adapted itself harmoniously to the natural scenery. Lijiang maintains an ancient water-supply system of great complexity and ingenuity that is still functioning effectively. Lijiang is heavily populated by people of Naxi nationality and they loved to dance. The highlight of the trip for me was dancing with the Naxi people in the town square after night fall.

It is said man has conquered Mount Everest, yet Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which is much shorter can never be conquered by man. The top of the mountain is covered in black loose pebbles which makes any climbing tools impossible to grip onto. I missed the opportunity to climb part of the Mountain. The lift was under maintenance. But the Chinese has a saying about traveling somewhere they love: "leaving here with a regret only means now you have an excuse to visit here again soon." I loved Kunming and I am definitely coming back!