I met with my friends Chen Tien and Yin Lang to go to a Buddhist monk school in Anning this morning. They were having a special celebration there that would involve monks from Tibet, Thailand, China, and Myanmar. On the way we stopped to pick up Mr. & Mrs. Ai, who are quite famous in Yunnan for their puerh tea. Mr Ai sells his puer tea here in Kunming where he has a very nice tea house. He is famous for his growing and packaging of puerh tea. You can see his company’s tea in the photo here. Mr Ai helped in establishing the Fu Jiao College.
Upon our arrival at the monk’s college, we joined in the celebrations for the Temple. With Mr Ai leading the way, we went to a private tea house there and relaxed inside while Mr. Ai served his famous puerh tea. High in the mountains, this retreat was a most enjoyable environment to savor the tea and just enjoy life. The temple and school are built on the hillside of the mountain. Walking trails lead you around this wooded enclave to the small houses where the monks live and study. I was the only Lauwai there, and I met with several of the monks from China and Tibet. We drank tea and I learned about some of the differences between the Thai, Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist practices. This was a perfect outing from the city and the weather couldn’t have been nicer.
Kunming, like all over China is changing faster than anyplace I have ever seen. In some of my past posts I referred to this as well. Much of this desire by the government to renew China is quickly wiping out it’s own cultural history. Hutongs in Beijing are almost extinct now. Historic villages and cities are torn down and rebuilt with modern condos.
Here in Kunming alone, thousands of condos have been torn down in just the last year. The old city center with buildings several hundred years old, is all gone save for about a 2 block strip. I think it is also earmarked for destruction. I was just through there and noticed the brick walls going up down the street. Soon after that they usually begin knocking down the buildings behind the walls.
These pictures show the destruction of two condo buildings downtown. 1 week later this park appears. Kunming seems to be replacing most of the old condo spaces with large parks, which really is a great improvement. All the people displaced by removing the condos, are given brand new condos that are being built SW of the city center. I must say that the new ones are quite impressive and a big step up for the people getting them. When a condo is ready for these people, they hold a lottery where they draw a number to see what condo you get. Seems like a fair enough system to me.
Still it is sad to see many historic buildings taken away to make room for high rise glass office buildings. Preservation of these buildings take a back seat to progress in China. I hope this attitude will change before China evolves into a place showcased by modern steel and glass cities. Time will tell.
My car insurance agent just told me a story about one of his clients. I had taken my car to him for my free engine cleaning, a benefit this company provides to their customers. He says how nice it is to have me as a customer because we are good to take care of our car. Still, his job is hard because of so much trouble many customers make for him.
Then he told me of one customer that is a farmer who just came into some $$$ because they found iron ore on his property near Kunming. So this guy goes out and buys a new “E’ class Mercedes. It cost him over 1 million RMB.
I’m sure you all have seen pictures of the horse driven stone grinders used to make corn flour. This farmer dude decided to retire his horse, and rig up his new Benz for the task. He enjoys driving it in circles, day after day making his corn meal! I hope to go get some pics of this later.
Another farmer, who also bought a Benz, uses his on the farm as well. He’s a pig farmer! He actually crams pigs in his car to take them to the market. Now he doesn’t need a special license to bring animals into the city. This guys a thinker! No kidding, this stuff happens here.
I celebrated “National Day” by going over to a local Kunming flea market. They sell everything from soup to nuts. And yes….. I found the iPhone there as well. Strange as it seems this is the real deal (not fake copy). So much for the Apple’s position of only having this phone in the US through AT&T. The function and interface was exactly the same as the US version, except it ONLY has Chinese language. But of course it is unlocked and works anywhere. They are selling it for 4200 RMB ( $559.85). I’ll just wait and pick one up in the US, take it to Bangkok, and get it unlocked for $10. However China does make 2 copies of the iPhone as well. One is very good and even has some better features, the other (CECT) is a lame attempt, as it has some buttons. For about $150.00, who cares?
I also came across this fellow selling the miracle shoe repair glue. He was quite the character as he demonstrates this stuff. Check out the video. You get 3 tubes for 5 RMB ( $0.66). I can’t resist a bargain, so I whipped off my python boot and threw it at him for a “hands on” demo. A crowd gathered and off he went with his glue on my boot. A minute later he had indeed fixed my ripped boot! I was sold! Gimme 6, handing him 10 RMB. He handed me 2 bottles and refused take my money! I guess the Lao Wei advertisement factor was payment enough for him. Still I wanted more, but I couldn’t get him to understand, so I walked away with only two. As I left, another person was taking off her shoe to get it fixed!
I think next week I’ll repackage this stuff and sell it as a nylon hose repair miracle. Demo videos to follow………………hehe………………………
September 22 was a banner day throughout China. It marks China’s first participation in the International No Car Day where everyone is supposed to leave their car at home. China ordered 108 cities here to ban cars and use only public transport. This is a big deal for modern China to do. First, there are more cars being produced in China than anywhere in the world. The Chinese in just recent years have become the largest consumers of cars. It is a sign of wealth and success to throw away the bike and buy a car. The sad fact is that the Chinese have little idea how to actually use cars. They still think bike rules apply for driving a car. As a result, China has the highest fatality rate in the world through car accidents. Last year over 100,000 deaths attributed to car accidents here. Couple this with the explosive growth rate of car ownership in China, and this will only get worse.Kunming is a city about the same size as Seattle metro area. Seattle has about 1 million people and typical major car congestion problems. Kunming has over 5 million people AND over 400 new cars a day are added to it’s streets! You can see the problems with cars here are out of control compared to Seattle. Beijing is adding 1000 new cars a day to their city. Growth like this is not found anywhere else in the world. Needless to say, driving in China is both dangerous and not at all pleasant. My car generally stays in the garage unless we are going out of town. I use my moto everywhere, which is fast and easy.So today all cars were banned from Kunming. I went into town and still found the streets very busy, but nothing like it normally is here. The only thing driving was the busses and taxi’s. It was strange to see the roads full of only taxi’s everywhere. You should see the video I did. I still can’t believe how many taxi’s there are in Kunming!
UPDATE 10/19/07………
Kunming newspaper Dushi Shibao is reporting that beginning on the 27th of this month, “Kunming will be the first city in China to have monthly ‘No-car days'”. After this month, private cars will be banned from entering the city’s ring road between the hours of 9:00 am and 7:00 pm on the fourth Saturday of each month.
On September 22 Kunming was one of more than 100 Chinese cities to ban private cars downtown during the day. For twelve hours, downtown Kunming’s streets were primarily occupied by buses, taxis, electric scooters and bicycles. The city’s effort was one of the most successful in the country, while Beijing and Shanghai’s no-car days received lukewarm reviews.
According to municipal government statistics, September’s no-car day had a significant effect on air quality. Carbon monoxide levels dropped 32.9 percent, nitrogen dioxide levels dropped 45.1 percent, ozone was down 39.5 percent, carbon dioxide was down 15.4 percent and airborne particulate matter was reduced by more than one-fifth.
