The Bus Driver

We left Lvchun headed for Jiangcheng in the front row of a newish white Higer bus with a talkative driver. Exactly how the long distance bus system works in China is a major mystery to us even though we've racked up thousands of kilometers on Chinese roads; however, after 6 hours in this bus it became more clear.

Our driver owns the bus himself. It is not owned by a company or the government. He paid 600,000 RMB, about 75,000 USD, four years ago for the bus and the route. However, the driver works for a company who owns the rights to drive 5 buses each day, each way, between Lvchun and Jiangchaeng. The route takes 6 hours when it's dry and 7 hours in the rainy season.

The number of buses, the route, and the fare is set by the provincial government who sells the tickets and collects the money. How the money collected as fares gets back to the driver we don't know. The bus also moves freight; mostly small packages, and occasionally picks up cash paying passengers along the way.

On this trip we noticed that unlike previous trips, the drivers do not pick up standing room passengers along the way. Our driver explained that the traffic police are enforcing the "no standees" rule and its a 5000 RMB (800 USD) fine if you get caught. Plus you are charged a "point" - there's a points system of some kind and 12 points in a lifetime and you are out of a job. It's really nice to be on a bus where everyone has a seat.

The driver pays a 1600 RMB flat fee plus 8% of his earning each month to either his company or the government (we are not clear on that). The bus has 37 seats. At 50RMB per seat thats 1850 RMB each day if the bus is full, about 300 USD. If he works 300 days a year, that's 90,000 USD before fees and expenses like gas which he pays out of his own pocket. But he probably works more like 360 days a year.

We liked the driver. His manner was gruff and he did NOT have a heart of gold, but he was concientous and had one daughter in university in Xian and another in middle school at home. He valued education - he was giving a free ride today to his daughter's teacher - and his goal in life was to get both daughters through university then retire and travel around China with his wife. And most of all, at one "bathroom break" stop he told the lady selling bananas that we were his friends and we got free bananas.

Here's a photo of our driver taking his bus through a bad section of S214. He made us passangers walk.

Lvchun Terraces

One of the first things we noticed on arriving in Lvchun was the electric 9-seater carts that ferried folks back and forth on the main street, Route S214. It's a long main street, Route S214, that we would walk many times, and since Lvchun sits high on a ridge with the bus station at one end of town and the main square at the other, it is bascially the only street in town.

We settled into the Wen Hui Hotel, recomended by our new friend the timber tycoon. A decision we would later regret as nightly loud music and disapearing hot water had us change hotels after 2 nights.

Why Lvchun? Local color and rice terraces. The local women wear their traditional costumes, incuding the ones who drive the electric carts!

The first day we headed east on S214 30 kilometers to the town of Habo at Km 367 for terrace viewing. A pretty good outing.

The second day we headed west on S214 to Number 2 Bridge at Km 406 and walked up into th hills for a great day of walking and terrace viewing. Not to mention that on the way back we scored our first ever ride in a blue work truck.

Electric bus driven by a local woman.


Riding in the cab of a blue work truck.


Lots of photos of the terraces:

This guy was checking on his fields outside of Habo and sat down next to us for a chat.


Sun-Ling walks the Habo terraces.

Laomeng - Part Two

So, was the Laomeng Market worth the time and effort? Yes!

Lots of local color. Almost all the ladies were wearing their traditional clothes and the variety of costumes and color was amazing.

We spent about 3 hours strolling around. Bought some bananas and some cross-stitch cloth. From our experience in South America we knew to look for the animal market which was across town and full of ducklings, chicks, squealing piglets, and stoic water buffalo.

We checked out of the hotel at noon, and walked up through the animal market to the main road to wait for a through bus to Lvchun (the v is not a typo btw), but encountered massive gridlock due to market traffic and driver stupidity. So we walked to the front of the westbound jam and walked backwards asking who is going to Lvchun and ended up catching a lift all the way to Lvchun with a lumber dealer from Kunming who was on a business trip buying timber; a sharp guy with a wide world view.

Here are the market photos starting with one of the lady who sold us bananas:

Laomeng - Part One

Sun-Ling was trying to decide which direction to head after Mengzi, west or southwest, when she found out that Laomeng to the southwest has a big Sunday Market. Decision made.

We had big expectations for the Laomeng market after seeing so many very cool weekly markets in South America. We hoped we made a good decision.

The bus ride from Mengzi to Laomeng, retraced part of our 2008 route to the Yuanyang rice terraces, and like 4 years ago, Yuanyang was fogged in as we rode through town. However, the clouds parted at a viewpoint 20kms to the west, one we had visited in 2008, and we had a good look at the terraces as we rode by. We noted that there is now a 38 RMB fee to view terraces and a group of locals hanging out at the parking gate looking to sell stuff to entering and exiting vehicles.

Reaching Loamen, the bus dropped us off on the main road and we walked across the river and into town. Almost immediately we concluded that Laomeng is one of dirtiest towns we'd ever seen. Piles of days old trash, organic and inorganic, everywhere. Plastic bags flying in the breeze and in the trees. What's up with this? Where are the orange-shirted street sweepers we see in every town in China?

Some possible answers: The town of Laomeng has lots of new infrastructure; paved roads, an irrigation project, a small hydro-electric station under construction, and new buildings, that the villagers don't want, don't need or are unprepared to use as designed. Or, bad local leaders.

Bananas. On the way up the hill to Yuanyang, we noticed that most of the lower valley was planted with bananas. Was it like this 4 years ago? No, we decided. So it turns out that a couple of big banana companies have been increasing their leased acreage in Southern Yunnan. That's good for the farmers as a lease is a steady cash income. The blue and white plastic bags that are used to ripen the bananas and protect then from insects are another matter.

These blue and white plastic bags litter the lanscape. In Laomeng there was a big pile of used bags on the riverbank waiting for high waters to sweep them away. Hmmm.

Before dinner we took a walk around town and were pleasantly surprised to see a small Dai village on the edge of town with many traditional houses built on stilts. Above the town were some newly constructed concrete andbrick houses clumped together making a "new" village. And just below the village, scenic terraces of rubber trees, bananas, sugarcane, and newly planted rice had my camera engaged.

Then a grilled tofu and noodle soup dinner. Then home to our hotel not knowing what to expect at tomorrow's market.

The rice terraces just outside town.


Looking through the rubber trees and bananas to the rice fields.


A woman walks along the irrigation project.


The small hydroelectric plant.


Bananas wrapped in blue plastic bags.


A house in the Dai village.


Noodle soup with grilled tofu.

Mengzi and Gejiu

After just one whole day in Kunming we headed south to Mengzi and Gejiu. These cities are located on the French-built railroad headed south to Vietnam with Mengzi being a former Treaty Port. Our hope is to find the old train stations and other artifacts of the 60 years or so of foreign presence.

We based ourseleves in Mengzi, located on a wide plain and newly declared the prefecture capital with better choices for lodging and transportation. The so-called New Town of Mengzi has the new prefecture government complex, tall bank buildings, and wide streets; whereas the Old Town has the remnants of the colonial times, the old Chinese Quarter, and everything else built since 1949.

We spent one day in Mengzi finding old buildings with good success rate (see photos below) and then headed out in the late afternoon, passing the old brewery, to the nearby "ancient" city of Xin An Shuan, reached by riding city bus #4 to the end of the line. Xin An Shuan must have been very properous at one time judging by the number of old houses and the grandeur of their now crumbling doorways.

The next day we rode the bus up and through the new Xi Du tunnel to Gejiu, the previous prefecture capital and located in a narrow valley. A bonus, in addition to the old buildings was the chance to hike up the 2689 steps to the top of Lao Yin Shan with its new temples, pagoda, and a great view down to town. Back in the city, we also managed to find an old tin factory that is under renovation. The caretaker gave us a tour. Wow! What a cool place.

Obvious to us, Mengzi is on the rise while Gejiu has seen better times. We hope the new tunnel between them may allow both to prosper.

ICBC bank building in the Mengzi New Town.


A few buildings remain of the Mengzi train station.


Chairman Mao looks down from the facade of an old warehouse - Mengzi.


Sun-Ling walks down an alley in the old Chinese Quarter of Mengzi.


Merchants House - Mengzi


Doorway - Xin An Shuan ancient town.


View to Gejiu from top of Lao Yin Shan. We did NOT ride the blue cable cars.


Nice Reclining Buddha in one of the temples on top of Lao Yin Shan.


The front of Gejiu Station. The red banner obscures the station name.


The old tin factory.


The caretaker standing next to a flattening stone which would have been turned by cows.

Penetrating the Great Firewall of China

At our gate in the Taipei airport, John and I were furiously writing and uploading photos for our last Taiwan entry, just so we could be finished with Taiwan before going behind the GFC. Our flight was called. John had to click "publish" before he had a chance to put in all the photos.

The more I thought about the situation, the more outraged I became. I vowed to break through the GFC. For non-techies, there is a plethera of anti-censorship services that use tunneling (VPN) or proxy technology. We could always pay for a service, buying our way to freedom. This would be a very good use of our money.

The challenge is that the GFC blocks the websites of anti-censorship services and all information about those services. In between all the CNY festivities, I was searching desperately. Eventually, my breakthrough came when I happened upon an unblocked website of a service that offered a two-day trial.

During those two days I must have tried out 20 to 30 different services. In the end I found a number of free services that are working in China (as of Feb 2012) at least some of the time: SecurityKiss, ProXPN, Psiphon, UltraSurf, Freegate, GPass, GTunnel, FreeU, DynaPass, over half which are supported by the Falungong (I am mentioning this without passing any judgement). The important thing is that we are once again a part of the free world. It is so true how we take freedom for granted until we do not have it.

Kunming Revisited

Our last visit to Kunming was just over 3 years ago. The city center - the area around the pedestrian malls - now seems to be one big shiny new shopping mall complete with a Carrefour; however, the blind masseurs are still out in force under the shadow of the New Era Hotel, and the Old Mosque is a quiet oasis nearby.

This time we stayed near the old bird and flower market. The area is called Old Street and the newly renovated historic buildings are in progress of being absorbed into or surrounded by the shopping malls. At least they will not all be flattened.

We spent a whole day checking out the last of the older 20th century buildings still standing within walking distance of our hotel, often having to navigate our way around construction of the new subway. Check out the photos below.

The curvy Sister Buildings on Guanghua Jie are very cool. I took more than one photo of course. ;-)






The Yunnan Provincial Museum with its Soviet-style "wedding cake" architecture.


The old YMCA has been rennovated and is now a cafe and club.


A former family mansion built in 1936 is now part of the Huarong Mansion Hotel. Love the flagpole.


Some restored buildings in the Old Quarter with a famous fast food joint across the street.


And a visit to Kunming would not be complete without a tub of spicy fried potatoes.