Back from China!

I’m back from China! Spent 10 days there visiting relatives in Kunming, Yunnan. Yunnan is one of the Southern provinces of China, and translated, literally means South of the Clouds. You know why it’s South, but the Clouds is because the province is situated in relatively high altitudes, of around 1.9 km, or 6.2k feet.

I tried doing some jogging while I was there, but I was out of breath within minutes… even climbing up the stairs of the apartment building required a brief respite, and I’m in decent shape too!

Things that really surprised me about my trip back (I haven’t been back in 5 years):

1. Pollution, pretty bad, though I guess it also depends on the day.
2. Lots of construction – roads were being built in many places. It was great to see that the highways between cities were up and running. High quality roads – no more bumpy 6 hour rides… now just a zippy 1 hour drive.
3. People were better dressed – Gone were the plethora of cheap suits, and frumpy clothes. Quite a lot of people were dressed quite attractively!
4. I estimate that over 50% of the vehicles were motorbikes, of which 95% were electric!! That was amazing! Less pollution, and basically people just stick them in the apartment buildings’ bike sheds at night, and plug them into outlets. Impressive, given that electric powered vehicles have yet to make much of a headway in the States. Good for you, China!
5. City center was quite modern – looked pretty cool actually, would not be out of place in Orchard.
6. Quality of infrastructure was quite diverse though… you would have a few blocks of modern marvels, and then less built up areas, and then you’d have run down houses on the outskirts of the city.

I had a good time with my cousins. They’re all a cool bunch of people, and now most of them are married. (I’m the youngest of our generation) Their spouses were really cool too – I think it really is important to have a partner who other people like as well, don’t you think?

10 days finally drew to an appropriate close though… I don’t think I could have stayed much longer… it was cold (no indoor heating, temps of 1 degree celsius at night), and everyone had their jobs to go to anyway.

Still, a fun time. I think I might go again in the next few years, as long as I get to stay with my cousins. Staying with my grandma wasn’t much fun, sad to say. =(