Month July 2007

hobby


MY NEW HOBBY

If there is one thing the Chinese know well…. it’s kites. I mean after all they invented them a few thousand years ago!

Kunming is the perfect place for this activity. Nice weather and windy! So I decided to get set up and start flying! I found a kite shop near Dauguan Park where they make their kites. I bought a 1 meter nylon job and a kite line reel. Check out the pic and you can see my rig. I’m at Fujian Lake launching my kite here. This rig is stainless steel loaded with 1500 meters of special line. This machine is unlike anything around. I’ve looked all over the web and nobody makes these, but they seem to be a standard design here in China. I paid $22.00 for it, and another $3.75 for the hand made kite.

On any day the sky is filled with kites here. It’s a lot of fun that involves more skill than I first thought. You’ve got to pay attention to keep it flying and slowly get to altitude. I’m able to get all 1500 meters of line out most of the time. It turns out that you end up getting some good exercise out of this as well.

I bought another kite thats a parafoil design. Much bigger at about 1.5 meters across and total of about 5 meters long. This one almost goes into the power kite category. It has some serious pull flying this baby. After you get this one back down, your arms feel like they are going to fall off!

Anyway, it’s a fun sport that requires little investment, plus I can load up my little moto and take it anywhere. Every year the world’s famous kite city in Eastern China (Weifang) holds it’s kite exhibition. Competitors from all over the world come here to take part. I’m planning to go next year.


marriages


KUNMING MARRIAGE

Ever since I came to Kunming I have observed what I thought to be an amazing amount of weddings in this city.

On a daily basis I see these caravans of cars all decorated with fresh cut flowers moving through the city. Usually on average there are about 10 cars following a limo. The cars have these flowers all over them and the whole line follows a dumpy little van with it’s back door open. Inside is a dude with a video camera filming this procession.

I see these caravans on an average of 5 or 6 a day. On the weekends I easily see 10 or more. Close to my condo is Dianchi Lake and a waterfront public park where I like to go fly my kites. This seems to be a popular destination for these wedding caravans. This park is a few km’s in length and is just a big walkway for people to walk along the lake shore.

The wedding party stops along this road and everyone piles out with the bride and groom in full dress regatta. Then they spend time taking photos all along this park. As I stand there with my beer and kite, I can see several brides around me getting their pictures taken. On the weekends this park is full of groups of these weddings. It is not unusual to see 10 weddings at the same time. I cannot believe there are so many people getting married in Kunming.

Just the other day I met a fellow who owns a wedding photography business here. I had the chance to ask him about how many weddings are done here. He said that there are 1000 weddings a month that register their caravan permits. But he said another 1000 people marry who just go to the register office. So it’s not my imagination. There are a TON of people who marry in this city. It is simply unbelievable. So how many people all over China marry everyday? It’s scary to think about it.

The mandatory “one-child” per family law makes perfect sense to me in China. No wonder there are so many people in China!