Kunming, Yunnan Province
- Madeleine Knight
- Nov 5, 2016
- 6 min read
This rapidly growing metropolis is such a vibrant place, with a fantastic year round climate – gaining it the name The City Of The Eternal Spring. There is also a huge diversity of ethnic minorities who call Kunming home, this may take a little while to notice but before long you’ll begin to pick up on the different facial structures, with those in traditional clothing standing out quite significantly between each other.
- Kunming does feel a little chaotic, in my eyes. Even when you are an hour outside the centre of town, you’ll be bombarded with noise, traffic and general things one would expect to find with central city life. There are also a huge number of e-bikes that come scooting down the pavements with no intention of slowing down for the people the pavements were intended for. Although you do tend to find this all over China*, my experience in other cities after Kunming has taught me that it is worse here that usual.
- The local people are incredibly welcoming and friendly, and you’re likely to get quite a lot of attention as a foreigner as there really doesn’t seem to be too many of us there… There are apparently a large number of foreign people living in Kunming, but for the time I was there I didn’t notice more than a handful of fellow foreigners.
- Finding work in Kunming as a TEFL teacher is pretty easy, there’s a high demand for native English speakers (UK, US, NZ, AU, CN) for training schools (evenings for 3 week days, plus weekends all day). Remember the school semesters start in September and March, so looking for work in July/August and February will give you the highest number of job opportunities, however there are still a few jobs going throughout the year due to people not finishing their agreed contract. (I will have a more extensive post on finding a TEFL teaching job later this month!)
- Transport in Kunming is pretty easy once you get the hang of which bus you need and which stop it arrives at. This can be quite a daunting task to begin with so give yourself plenty of time (Im talking a couple of hours here) to figure it all out so any time you need a bus in a slightly more rushed state it is way less stressful for you. Buses cost 1RMB for un-air-conditioned, 2RMB for air-conditioned and up to 3RMB for buses going further out into the suburbs.
- When it comes to food, this place is hard to beat. When you first get to China you may think – as I did – that all the food is pretty much the same; sticky rice, fried rice, friend noodles, noodle soup with some variation of meat and vegetables. As much as this is technically true, there are subtle differences, such as the style of hand-made noodles that restaurants run by Muslim families tend to make (a large percentage of the Kunming population is muslim), they’re made up in a different way to the thin tubular noodles you’ll find throughout the rest of Kunming. There is also the street BBQ food that is absolutely delicious. Obviously it’s better to go to a vendor that has been recommended to you as there have been some problems with food health and safety regulations in the past due to the re-use of cooking oil. My favourite place for Chinese BBQ is actually under a bridge… Which I know sounds a little dodgy, but trust me this place is absolutely bustling from 11pm on into the night. With food ranging from 1RMB per skewer to 20-25RMB for a whole aubergine, and noodle and rice and a drinks stand for soft and alcoholic beverages.
(source: Google maps. The red circle indicates which bridge this awesome street BBQ area is. The red squares indicate Yuangtong Temple, Kunming Zoo and Green Lake Park, which are explained below!)
There are a few interesting places to see and things to do in Kunming, though many travellers use it is as a base to see all the interesting things around Yunnan Province.
Within Kunming itself I would suggest;
Yuantong Temple, Kunming City Centre; 6RMB
The city’s biggest temple, a beautiful and serene place - if you don’t go at weekends anyway. We were there during a big ceremony that I honestly am not sure the purpose of, but there were a couple of hundred locals dressed in brown and black robes chanting with the monks in yellow and brown robes at the front of the group.
Kunming Zoo, Kunming City Centre; 10RMB
This can be a fun afternoon out, but it is also not the best looked after zoo I’ve ever been to. The cages are kind of small, the animals paced back and forth, some with a little hair loss and generally it was not ideal to my Western standards of animal care.
Lotus Flower Park, Kunming City Centre; free
If you’re more into a quiet spot to chill and read and enjoy the relaxed way of life that the elderly Chinese population live then I would definitely suggest finding this beautiful little park. With a big lake in the middle and a temple-looking-building on the other side of the entrance, you’ll be sure to see a whole lot of brightly coloured fish and find a sense of tranquility here. The outside noise is really well cut off too, not that I’m sure how this is, but you wouldn’t realise you were in the middle of such a huge city.
Green Lake Park, Kunming City Centre; free
Much like Lotus Flower Park, Green Lake Park is very much centred around water, with a few inter-connecting lakes that have many Lotus plants and so attract a rather interesting range of birds. Unlike Lotus Flower Park, there are many people here doing a range of activities; the dancing groups Kunming is renowned for can be found everywhere – each based on a different ethnic minority (apparently)- as well as singing choirs, holiday goers in peddle boats, children at the small ‘amusement park’ type area… This park has it all, except tranquility.
The Western Hills; 40RMB and above
This huge expanse of natural beauty leads you towards a view over the entire city of Kunming, and differs in price depending on how you plan to get in and what you plan to see. You can entre through the far gate that will lead you through the entire park or you can skip the first section and get dropped in the middle of the park with a cable car ride. The cable car costs 40 – 70RMB (single/return price). Then you can also pay more to see lots of temples or just walk through the park and enjoy its natural beauty.
(source: chinaguide.co.uk)
The Diamond Lake (Dianchi Pool); free
This lake is so big it feels like you’re by the sea, which is such a refreshing feeling after seeing land as far as the horizon. The water itself is kind of dirty, with an unhealthy green colour. There are still men fishing there though, which can be interesting to watch, to see what they catch, of you can rent out a bicycle and use the cycle paths around the lake to explore a bit more.
There are some hidden gems in Kunming, as there seems to be all over China! The photo below was taken after accidentally walking into an area surrounded by trees where men and women (predominantly elderly men) were playing card games... From the outside it looked kind of interested due to the games, but at the back of this chaotic little tree-lined square is this seriously old and beautiful building!
My suggestion in Kunming; take the road least walked, there you'll find the most interesting place!
If you have any questions about Kunming don’t hesitate to ask! There’s plenty more to say about this beautiful, interesting city!
From Kunming we hitch hiked North East to Qiaotou, where we hiked the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trail, my post about the hike and our experience will be up next weekend 12.11.16!. Then we hitch hiked up to Shangri-La, and back down to Lijiang and Dali before returning to Kunming.... Blog posts to follow! Watch this space!
*Ebikes and scooters are banned in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai to help reduce pollution and road accidents.
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