Kunming – Page 7 – Travel and Living in China…

Anning

ANNING

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I am about 30 minutes west of Kunming in a little town called Anning. It is the site of the worlds first hot spring. I am sitting next to this spring. This region around Kunming has many hot springs and rich mineral water from the thermal activity here. This area is very popular with tourists because of the hot springs and the special healing properties of this mineral water.
I walked around the little roads in the area and discovered this hot springs facility nestled in the pine forest. It is called the Jinfang Forest Pools. This place has about 15 spring pools built amongst the pine trees and each is filled with the hot spring water. The water temp is naturally around 118F. Then each pool is combined with various chinese medicinal herbs which colors the water and each has a different healing quality. They also have these pools at different temperatures to create the proper medical effects to your body. Then there is also a big central swimming pool with plain hot springs water. There is a restaurant , tea house, hotel and sauna facility as well.
I decided to spend New Years night here, so I got a room which has it’s own private hot springs pool in the garden outside my room. This was $85 for the room, breakfast, and entry into the main facility with all the pools. The day is clear, sunny, 70F and at night it dropped to about 50F. I chilled my Champagne in the toilet, and enjoyed New Years Eve soaking in my private hot tub under the clear night skies after dinner in the restaurant. What a perfect way to bring in the New Year! The next day I spent all afternoon soaking in the herbal hot springs going to each pool, some filled with flowers and others with oranges and fruit oils. I visited a Buddist Temple near the hotel and watched a lady cutting and drying tobacco which they grow here. Be sure to see the pics in the Anning folder!
So anyway, Happy New Year!

Got my license!

GOT MY LICENSE!

Yesterday morning it was off to the Chinese drivers license office for my test. They handed me a 100 question test in English for God’s sake! Of course I only had a Chinese book to study, but what the hell. Anyway, I take this test with questions like…”When traveling in a primary car on a road unmarked by signs, you can….A. raise your speed to fit the road. B. lower your speed and watch for cows……..C. remain seated and alert. Hmmmm. what the hell do they want here?????? Let’s not forget showing a picture of a Chinese sign and I have 3 choices to know what it says!!! Somehow I managed to get an 83 on the test. I was feeling quite proud of myself until they informed me that I failed! I need a 90 or better to pass. I took the test again, and got a 95! Go figure. So now I am the proud owner of a Chinese drivers license. COOL!!!!
So I drove around a little, dodging horse carts, bicycles, people, dogs, motorcycles, cars, small animals and cows… all normal in the downtown section. You can imagine what happens outside of downtown! There are things being pulled, pushed, dragged and generally just lying around all over the place! Makes driving here a real eye opener! Pictures to follow later! Thats it for now………………..

Christmas in Sanya

XMAS IN SANYA

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Merry Christmas everyone! I enjoyed my holiday in the South China sea island of Hainan. This town is called Sanya and is considered the Hawaii of the far east. The weather here is in the 70’s and sunny. I did have a few days of cloudy skies, but it is still warm. The sea is cool but you can swim. Beautiful beaches and good food abounds.
I stayed at two different resorts. The Catus Resort and the Sanya Shanhaitian Hotel are 5 start resorts. There is a lot to see around the island, although I opted for a relaxed venue and enjoyed going to the beach and eating. I guess things are expensive for Chinese standards, but still reasonable considering. They just had the Miss World competition here on Dec 10th. All in all I think the Hawaii refrence is over rated, but still this is a very nice place to visit. Many things come form this island. They grow coffee, pepper (table), cocoa, coconuts, rubber seem to be the main exports from here.
Walking down the beach, I was confronted by a Chinese military dude with a big dog. He seemed nervous and excited as he told me to turn around and go back. Apparently this part of the beach was “military” and I was not welcome there. I later found out this was where the US fighter plane was damaged and forced to land last year by the mid air collision with a Chinese fighter plane.
You can see some of my pictures from here to get an idea of Sanya. THe Chinese love their fireworks and I was surprised to be able to buy 8″ shells to launch form the beach! They cost about $4.50 each. I just watched as a barrage of these shells were launched all night Christmas eve. I can’t believe you can play with this stuff.
The Chinese go on the beach wearing suits and ties. SOme actually wear bathing suits and swim, but most try to stay out of the sun and just walk around. It is funny to see them in suits and barefoot walking around.