Kunming to Yuanyang via Jianshui - Tuesday 29th November

We’re on the road in China! 5 jeeps in the convoy, 3 people per car.

The route took us south out of Kunming, passing through “middle China” - the villages and towns that house 80%+ of the population. It’s not so different to middle England or middle USA – poor areas and fancy areas, strip malls and despoiled countryside….but of course it IS different, as China is still undergoing such a rapid Industrial Revolution, and the bigger towns are covered in haze of dust and dirt, with mess everywhere. We can only hope that modernization of equipment and a general education in cleanliness and recycling will bring about significant improvement over the coming years.

Most of the signs on the highway have English signage, although more often than not the meaning and context can be hard to decipher!

We stopped for lunch in what appeared to be just another modern city, Jianshui, until we parked in the Old Town and discovered its hidden charms - lovely old buildings, the pearl of which is the Zhu Clan estate consisting of about 100 rooms, 47 courtyards of immense charm and beauty.

Then to explore the Zhu enclave – just steeped in history and intrigue, and such an aura of another world, not an easy one, but certainly a gracious one for the Zhu family in their heyday before they were brought down by commerce and foes. 

It now houses a few guest rooms and if you are passing this way, I can think of no better hostelry:

www.zhuclangardens.com.cn

But we had to press on to Yuangyang – not so easy when we found the highway closed by a huge accident, and we had to take to the country roads, though we all enjoyed that more than the main road. Then on the far side of a tunnel, we finally found Rural China  - rice terraces, romantic bamboo, ducks, buffalos, pigs, and increasing numbers of brightly clad local “minorities”, the original inhabitants of the area.  After a stretch along the Red river we crossed it and then headed way up into the hills beyond to our destination in Xinjie township.   Due to the delays we were quite behind schedule and the final part of the route to the hotel had to be navigated in the dark and in the rain through a set of hairpin bends as we gained a considerable amount of height. Tomorrow we head off at dawn for the rice terraces, I can’t wait!