Storm squall moves past my condo
Category Kunming
Kunming Wood showroom
This factory in Kunming handbuilds amazing solid wood furniture and specializes in wood carving.
Mile
SWIMMING THE LONG GREEN MILE…
Let’s break it down….. yes it’s green and long (very big anyway) and the mile part is the name of the town. Actually pronounced Mi-Ler. This little place is about 1.5 hrs drive from Kunming, in the area of the stone forest. The Honghe cigarette factory is located here, and certainly owns and operates this town’s very existence. In the middle of nowhere stands ultra modern buildings, a 495 acre man made ecological lake preserve filled with clean clear spring water. Their showcase piece is the Huquan Resort and Spa smack dab in the middle of this preserve. Lagoons, sandy beach fronts, natural hot springs, and water activities showcase this resort complex. The resort is “set” in water so from your room it is as if you are virtually living in the lake. This 5 star complex is about as lavish as it gets. The hotel is divided into 3 sections, each one boasting a little different architecture. We stayed in the B section which is the middle priced area and the one we liked even better than the A section. Our room with breakfast buffet was $40 a night. You couldn’t touch a place like this anywhere else for under $300. Check out the pictures for yourself. I was blown away when I awoke before sunrise and sat on my balcony looking towards the mountains. As the sun was rising, the moon was setting over the mountains. I felt I could reach out and touch it! Talk about the perfect getaway to get your mind and body realigned! This is one of those “you got to be a local Kunming dude” to know this place even exists. In hindsight, I should probably keep this a secret.
update 3/14/09……..
I just returned from Mile (again) and this time stayed in the “A” building. Helen’s mom and dad invited us to enjoy time with them to show their appreciation to us for our help sending Helen to the USA. She will travel to the USA next week to attend the university. They would not allow us to pay for anything! I won’t forget the wonderful time we had, nor how gracious they were to us. I am finding so many dear friends living in this wonderful country.
We stayed in the “A” building which is the VIP section of this resort. Every detail of this resort is first class. There are very few places where you can say that nothing can be improved upon. This is definitely one of them. No doubt we will be making this one of our regular hangouts.
update 5/21/09
I just returned from Mile again. This time I discovered that the Yunnan Red Winery is located about 15km south of Mile. This is a must do while in Mile. Very interesting and you have the place almost all to yourself. I met the Marketing manager and his wife there. We spent several hours visiting with them and drinking lots of delicious wines. Some which are not available except at the winery. I ended up buying 1000 RMB of wine and stumbled back to my beautiful room at the resort. As a sidenote, the room rates are going up, which is of no surprise. My room in the B section is now 340 RMB, up from 270 RMB. Still a bargin.
dining table
I JUST WANTED A DINING TABLE BUT…
It all started with me needing a dining table. I spent a long time going to furniture stores, but I couldn’t find the right table anywhere. I thought that the only way to get the perfect table would be to have it made. After a few months of searching, I found this wood factory buried deep in the outskirts of Kunming. This fellow has been building tables and wood carving for many years. He strictly uses traditional Chinese building techniques passed down a few thousand years. All wood is joined without the use dowels or fasteners of any kind. It is a painstaking process of precision wood cutting and fitting. Everything is cut and built by hand using hand tools. They don’t use any machinery during building. Everything is hand sanded and finished.
In the process of preparing my table order, I became friends with the owner, Mr. Zou. He told me that his wood comes from Burma and all his tables are made from solid wood, never several pieces joined. The tables have to be several inches thick so they do not warp or crack with age. My table is 6’9″ X 3’5″ and is 5″ thick. It is a single piece of solid walnut that weighs 550 lbs. The base is made from solid Cyprus. The two bench seats are made from Namu, a very rare exotic hardwood, which is very hard to find in Asia now. It was traditionally only used for royalty to build the emperor’s palaces and furniture. It was against the law for it to be used for any other purpose. It is a very strong and heavy wood resistant to rotting or bending. Most of the Forbidden City was built with this wood and stands in perfect condition after centuries. Needless to say, this work cannot be found in most of the world and I was lucky to own such a rare and beautiful work of art. Total cost for building and delivery $1250.00!
I became fascinated by all the beautiful things they produced. The wood carvings were some of the best pieces I have ever seen, all carved from single blocks of wood. Mr. Zou’s trademark is his ability to carve delicate long stemmed pieces like flowers that move with the breeze. The detail and design of these pieces are without a doubt museum quality. Today there are not too many artisans with the skills to produce such artworks. He has pieces that range from several inches in size, to huge pieces dozens of feet in height and width. He uses only the wood’s natural color to enhance his carvings. Nothing is painted or stained. Only clear oil is used to protect the wood’s natural grains and colors.
Please enjoy some of the pictures of this master’s work. Note the details in each piece and I think you will be as amazed as I was to see this work. In my video section, I made a video of some finished carvings.
LAOSHI
WO YOU PUTONG HUA LAOSHI
I’ve been living in China now going on 3 years. I figured, no problem, I’ll pick up Mandarin as I go along. Well it’s not turning out so well. So then I began looking for that special Chinese medicine that I can use to have me speaking Mandarin like a native in just 24 hrs. Apparently they haven’t got any of that around here. So now what? Go to school? Take some Chinese classes? Nope, not possible. Gets in the way of my travels. I would just be throwing away money and giving up. There’s only one way left for me at this point……
Find a private tutor! Lo and behold, I managed to find a great teacher. She has lots of patience. She doesn’t laugh at my pitiful attempts to make Chinese sounds, has no problem telling me the same things over and over, realizes I have been out of student mode for a number of years. And she is always right here after I return from some excursion.
Her name is Jasmine. She is from Nanjing. Jasmine comes over 2 times a week and gives it her best to teach me Mandarin. Although my brain hurts from all this exercise, I do enjoy it more and more. Now that I have a routine, it is not looking so overwhelming. Plus Jasmine is quite good at teaching.
I think in a month or so, I will know enough to go get a job driving a taxi here. I can tell the customer to just say left, right or go straight. I don’t know the word for stop, but I expect when they start screaming, I will just stop. Now I can get some payback for all those foreign taxi drivers I had to deal with in the states! Don;t even get me started about shopping in a 7-11.
Seriously, I am looking forward to at least being functional in China on my own. This is one place you have got to speak the language to get by. Having said that, in Kunming, most people speak a local dialect and not mandarin anyway. Still Mandarin is the most common language spoken in China, so that is what I’m shooting for.
On a personal note, I’ll be calling you soon Austin….. in Chinese. And Tim, next time in Seattle….. “we be talking!”
zaijian!