Kunming''s Beautiful Park , China's Military School, Ancient Village

After staying in Chuxiong, the Fire City in China, for three days, we started our joureny home towards southern China. One of the cities we wanted to spend a little more time there was Kunming. A beautiful city with lots of history and parks and natural beauty. There were many places to go and lots of things to see therefore we only focused on three things that were close by and interested us the most.

One of the places we enjoyed visiting a lot on this trip were the parks in China. Parks are favourite places for CHinese people who gather there for various activities such as exercising, dancing and meeting friends. I have found that parks in China are usually quite huge and spacious, often with winding paths, lined with huge mature trees, some are over a few hundred years old.

We visited the Jade Park in Kunming. On the afternoon of our visit, there was an elderly gentleman, looking fit and strong, standing at the entrance to the park and conducting a phathom orchestra. He set up the sound system playing some nice classical music which we could hear about half a mile away. He was directing the invisible orchestra with such enthusiasm and strength that he drew quite a crowd gathering around him. We stood there enjoyed this free concert for sometime. From what we could oberve, Chinese people are quite free to do what they want to do in their daioy lives as long as they are not doing something illegal. Life is China is not as opperessive as what we think.

We aslo visited China's first Military College which is located just across the street from Jake Lake. I learned a lot about Chinese history and some of their heroes who fought valiantly for their country during the wars.

We visited our third minority tribe ancinet town on this trip in Kunming. At the beginning of our China trip, I used to think the ancient towns were some rare towns discovered and preserved for Chinese people and visitors to visit. Having visited three of them, I realize it is the CHinese government policy to promote racial harmony and unity among the 56 different tribes of people within China as well as using this Minority Tribe Village concept to promote understanding and respect OF the minorities' cultures/ customs and thereby also promoting tourism and creating jobs for these communities and lifting these sometimes backward tribes out of poverty. What a smart idea and great way of creating jobs and helping with the tribes' economy! Keep up the great work! RT Kunmin, Province of Yunnan China