Learning About the Bai People at the Yang Liping Opera House, Dali, China

We celebrated S's birthday with J this year! We went to a nice restaurant in the ancient city, ate an early hot pot dinner, a typical Bai people’s meal. After the early dinner, we walked around the ancient city also looking for the church which we would attend the next day, Sunday. We found it and hurried to the concert hall for the concert later.

Always interested in other people’s cultures and music, we wanted to learn more about the Bai people through their songs and dance. J. was able to get us the tickets to watch a musical performance at the Yang Laiping Opera House not far from our hotel. We did the walk from our hotel to the opera house in about 20 minutes. A nice, comfortable walk with light breezes blowing on our faces. It was an hour long show and we were introduced to the Bai people’s customs and traditions through songs and dance. Excellent indeed!

What I appreciated most about the show was the importance it placed on the contributions of women in the Bai society. The show was good, but it was not a full house. The Yang Liping opera house is a beautiful building! After the show, we took time to go around and admire the structure and took a good view of the city from the roof section of the building. We were pleasantly surprised to find a small night market just not too far from the Opera House. We went in for some snacks and drinks and met a couple of girls from Yunnan itself. We had a nice exchange. Always nice to meet with other local people and learned from them. We walked back to Wamao hotel. It was around 930p.m., our innkeeper was waiting for us and brought out a birthday cake, with paper plates, candles and cutting knife for us to celebrate S. birthday, what a nice gesture from our hosts! RT, DALI, CHINA 20230805

Enjoying the Ancient Town of Dali, China!

It was too bad that the Wamao Hotel where we stayed for the first night in Dali didn’t have room for us. But Mr. and MRS. Zheng was so nice that they found us a double room in another inn nearby. So we moved all our luggage and into the new hotel and stayed there for only one night. Since we were staying close to the Dali ancient city, we were close enough to enjoy the shops , cafes and all the nice things Dali has to offer. We had a busy day yesterday so we took it easy for today. We had breakfast in the nearby little place and then parked ourselves in a café shop playing nice soft western music and caught up with our paperwork and emails etc. It was raining all afternoon and we stayed at the café, a nice place indeed providing free WiFi and plugs for power. I caught up with my blogging notes.

We walked around the ancient city, and saw how the mountain water was carried down via the waterway bringing water into the town. We love Dali! It has character and is a beautiful city, e,g, even the garage containers looked like clay flower pots! The streets were busy, full of tourists and vendors trying to sell their wares.

We came across an open eating area where musicians were serenading diners enjoying their food with families, friends and listening to the singers. The place was humming with young people, families with little kids, local people as well as tourists alike. The place was lit up like a Christmas tree with numerous strings of lights hanging overhead brightening up everything. We were entertained by three different musicians while we were there enjoying Yunnan’s famous hot pot dinners. This outdoor eatery was alive with sounds and music and laughers! People were happy and enjoying themselves! We passed by many music bars and went into one. Ordered some drinks and really enjoy the music. There was a 15 musicians line up and we heard 3 who were quite good. It was another enjoyable day but less busy. RT, Dali, China 08042023

A Visit to An Ancient Town of the Bai People in Yunnan, China!

This was our first day in Dali, Yunnan. We all got up around 8am in the morning. I did my bible reading while J. did his I hour game on his cell. I thank God that S. was able to share a verse about love with J. who was quite receptive about our sharing. I prayed that this would be a pattern of our travel, sharing a passage from the bible daily with our son whom we didn’t do our part in teaching them God’s words when they were children. God please forgive and help us. We went out for breakfast at a place close by the hotel and met a lady trying to sell us a day tour. Since we had a good experience with the Stone Forest tour, We bought this tour without much hesitation. ( 100 Y/ person) We jumped onto the bus seating another 20 tourists and joining them for this day trip. The traffic was painfully slow. Our bus tour guide gave us some excellent info about the Bai people, the inhabitants of the Yunnan region.

We were blown away by the beauty of the region and the ancient town of the Bai people. We only had about an hour to explore this old town. There were lotus flowers blooming in the lake which I have never seen before until now. The buildings were constructed in the style of the Bai people with the exterior walls of the houses decorated with their ethnic art work and paintings. I was surprised at the reasonable condition of these buildings as this town existed since a hundred years before Jesus was born. Our tour group had lunch at a local restaurant and while eating, the local vendors kept coming to our table trying to sell their goods such as local snacks, crafts and souvenirs . They kept asking our son who seemed to have gotten their attention.

After lunch, we were given an hour of free bike riding. Since S and I were having some problem with our balance, we told Y to go ahead and explore the area on his bike while we tested our bike riding skill in the nearby empty parking lot. Our legs seemed to have become so stiffed that I was having pain while stretching my legs on the pedal. It was a good opportunity to refresh ourselves on the bike riding activity.

After the biking activity, the tour bus took us to a place constructed in a style similar to the Greek style. It attracted a lot of tourists and has become a tourist attraction. But it started raining cats and dogs and we took shelter in a café half way up to the buildng therefore we didn’t see much.

On our way back to the city, we passed by Lake ERHAI. The scenery was breathtaking! With the majestic mountains as the backdrop, palm tress lining the roadways, it was beautiful! RT, Yunnan Region, China 08032023

Travelling by Train from Kunming to Dali, China

I was pleasantly surprised that J. set his alarm at 730am and were up while I was praying. I was glad that I could share a passage from 1 Samuel about how God looked at the inside of man, not the outward appearance. J. was a little distracted, unable to focus the whole sharing time. But this was the first time. I do pray that there would be more sharing time and that he will improve his attitude and attention. While I was getting ready, both father and son went downstairs to get some breakfast. They bought back some soya milk, eggs and vegetable buns. Yummy for less than 15 yuens. We set out to go to a market and went into two teashops to taste the famous Yunnan tea. We were warmly welcome to taste this famous local product. We learnt that as there were a great variety of teas being produced in the Yunnan region, therefore there were a wide range of the prices for teas. It was a valuable

lesson tasting and learning about the production of teas. We checked out of our hotel at around 230pm and took a taxi back to the pedestrian market and bought the tea where we tasted the night before. The lady who served us came and we bought the tea from her. I do hope that this tea will help me to have a better sleep. My goal is to find the tea which would help me and y friends to have a good sleep. Just after we bought the tea, rain started pouring down as we were trying to get a cab taking us to the train station. The tropical rain was quite a downpour. We tried to get a cab while standing under a small shelter. Finally, a cab came taking us to the train station and we made it to the Kumming train station in time for our 5:30pm train. Praise God! Sitting separately at three different seats, we were scattered on the train but lucky to get a ticket to Dali. Some poor souls had to stand all the way as there were no more sitting tickets available. I caught up with my writing about our travel during this train ride but were unable to post any of them within China. After 2 and ½ hours we arrived at Dali. What a scene! Huge number of visitors kept pouring out of the train station and coming into Dali. Not knowing how long it would take to get a cab, we went to the nearby restaurant and had our first dinner in Dali. After waiting for over 40 minutes for a didi as there were 90 some passengers before us, we finally got a cab taking us to the ancient city. The traffic was jammed pack with cars and it took more than half an hour to travel the 15 km from the downtown train station to the ancient city. Our hosts were waiting for us at the main road, greeting and welcoming us warmly to their newly renovated hotel. They came to our room with a bowl of fresh fruits, how nice was that! This was a beautiful place! I would take a better look tomorrow as we were tired from travelling and went to bed right away. RT, kunming to Dali, China 08022023

A Day Trip to the Spectacular Stone Forest, Kunming, China

We signed up and paid for a one day bus tour and needed to be at the bus station to board the bus at 8am. It was raining all night and when we got up, it was still raining. In fact the weather forecast that it would rain all day and everyday for the rest of the week in the region. We were agonizing whether we should call the tour company and cancel our trip booking. But the tour company assured us the trip would go ahead with about 20 other toursits. It was not an easy decision as we were concerned about our safety and that the roads might be slippery creating a driving hazard. I prayed quietly myself and felt a snese of peace so I agreed with Y. not to cancel the trip since we already paid a deposit of 100 yuens.

I looked forward to the day trip to Stone Forest ( SHILIN). Since our hotel didn’t offer breakfast, we bought some take out – 3 boiled eggs and 3 buns from the mom n pop shop next to our hotel. We were fortunate that when we got to the assembly place the bus was still there so off we went. As the tour bus drove out of Kunming the weather started to clear up. Prasie God! We had a Yunnan lady tour guide on the bus explaining to us the customes of the Yunnan people. Throughout the two hour bus ride, she gave us good information on various things. After we arrived at the Stone Forest, our bus tour guide handed us over to a local Yunnan guide dressed in his Yunnan costumes. I never heard of the Stone Forest and was surprised to learn that it has been desingated as an UNESCO Geo museum. The Stone Forest Park is a huge park. I saw for the first time how China handle its huge crowds on its public transportation systems and how passengers lining up and going through the train and subway gates etc., the system is amazingly efficient at dealing with huge crowds!

The Stone Forest is quite unique, I have never seen anything like this, with huge boulders jetting up from the ground in various sizes, shapes and with crevices in between these huge rocks. I remember visiting the Grotto in northern Ontario. The Grotto is nothing comparing to the Stone Forest. Things that stood out for me: 1. The spectacular beauty of this natural scenery – never in my life could I imagine I would see something so unique and breathtaking! 2. The huge number of visitors to this site – we have travlled in many different parts of the world. The most crowded place we ever seen was this place and Tokyo. 3. The Stone Forest was clean, well managed and the visitors to this place were well behaved. I didn’t see too much littering, empty bottles lying around etc. Pleasantly surprised! We finished our walking tour of the Stone Forest in a couple of hours, having seen only a fraction of what it has to offer. We met our bus guide back and she took the group tour passengers to a nearby restaurant for a lunch and this concluded our tour.

After more than an hour and half bus ride, we were dropped off at the Pedestrain Market where we did some shopping and tasted the different famous Yunan teas. But Y. thought we should not buy the tea there until we shopped around more and see if this type of tea could help with my insomnia. For dinner, we dined at the local vegetarian restaurant serving diners the various local grown mushrooms as the main course. It was our very first mushroom hot pot dinner. It was surprisingly delicious! One of the servers was very friendly to us and we chatted with her quite a bit. We found out that she was a university student working part time to support herself. We were happy to learn that Chinese young people could find part time employment to support their higher education as this was not common years ago. A good thing for the young Chinese! The young people exchanged their wechat no. Hopefully they would keep in touch and we wish this nice hardworking young lady all the best. We went back to our hotel, relaxed and watched cctv for a while, enjoying the positive reporting about the military and its people. I went to sleep at around 12pm sleeping like a baby! RT, Kunming, China 08012023

Riding a Sleeper Train to Kunming, China

July and August are the months for many Chinese people to travel around, therefore we could not get a ticket to Dali, Yunnan, directly. However, J. was able to solve the problem by buying more expensive sleeper tickets for the three of us from Guiyang to Kunming and from there we could take the fast train to Dali. We got up early for an early train at the Guiyang train station for a ride to Kunming. We got to the station a little before 8am and bought some snacks at the train Station - a huge, clean and modern station. There were many shops open where travellers could buy what they needed. I was surprised to see many special massage chairs on the main level of the train station where travellers could have a massage while waiitng. The self check in system for boarding was efficicent too. Since J. typed in 1 number wrong when purchasing the train tickets online, we could not use that automatic check in system and must go to the in person check in for assistance. The train personnel was efficient and we got on with no problem at all.

This was the first time we ever rode on a sleeper train. All of us were in the same sleeper cabin. It had 2 bunk beds and could sleep 4 people comfortably. There were the three of us and no one else was in the same cabin. We had total privacy and no one bothered us at all except for the conductor checking our tickets. It was quiet, private and comfortable. One could easily has a good sleep here. The scenery on the train was spectacular as the fast train speeded past mountains after strangely shaped mountains!

J. went to sleep while I caught up with my blogging notes. We were on the train for about 2 ½ hours and arrived at Kunming. Again, we saw a huge, modern and efficient train station. We were able to take the subway directly from the train station, a 40 km distance for a few yuens in a modern, clean and comfortable train. We got to our destination in less than an hour. Amazing! Kumming is a city with about 8 million people. From what we observed - the streets were clean, many of which were lined with colourful flowers growing from planters hanging on both sides of the road. It was about noon when we checked into our hotel room which came with two beds and a nice sitting area.( 260 yuens) This hotel was not renovated as nicely as the one we stayed in Gui Yang, for 560 yuens, double the amount we paid. However, it was centrally located and we were able to get to the old street shopping area conveniently. We had fresh fish hotpot for lunch in a restaurant in the shopping centre. It was a good fish meal served with pork belly, lunch meat, beef and veggies. (197 yuens, good price for a freshly made fish lunch for 3!) After lunch, we strolled in the old street shopping area and went in a tea shop for a latte. This used to be an old shop belonging to a merchant who had a packaging business. The place was over a hundred years old with beautiful wood cravings all around. It was a busy cafe but with a tranquil setting tucked away in the middle of the Kunming shopping district. We enjoyed the latte, the chic decor, and nice ambience. We could have easily spent the whole afternoon reading a book and just relaxing there. After the coffee break, we went shopping in a mall called Joy CITY. I bought a fresh durian ( 180 Y) but later found out from the bus tour guide that it should had been only about 80 -100 yuens. My family always teases me that I am a sucker always falling for the tourist trap things.

Since we had quite a big lunch, we didn’t want to have another heavy dinner. I ate a lot of the durian for dinner while S.and J. had some tofu and potatoes. We sat outside of the mall where there was a big stage set up for a music festival. I had never been to an open concert in China, therefore it was quite a treat for me enjoying the music with the locals while sipping the local beer. I was happy to see so many local Chinese able to enjoy a free open concert just like us in North America. They did even better than us as the Chinese were allowed to sit where the beer drinkers were drinking without having to buy a drink from the beer company sponsoring the show. Very nice indeed for those who didn’t drink or for those who could’t afford it. We sat in the square, enjoying the breezes, nice fine weather and a free musical performance, a far cry from the hot weather in Guangzhou. It was another fun day! RT Kunming, China 31072023

Our First Week in Guangzhou, China, 2023

Before the end of 2023, I would like to include our wonderful trip to Asia in the summer of 2023 so that we can look back in the future and remember the joyful time we had there. I will edit my posts on China later and will include pictures in them. If your are reading and are interested, please check back later as I am currently having problems uploading the pictures to my blog posts. Day 1 - China After spending a few days in Taipei and stayed at Rev. V's house, we flew from Taipei to Guangzhou. It was not a good experience at the airport. China was supposed to use an automated arrival procedure but the machines did not work for fingerprintes and I was surprised that there was only one uniformed officer available to help the travellers. He was busy helping everyone and he gave us a lot of assistance to make it through the process. At the Chinese custom, the officers were efficent. One of them took our pictures and finger prints, then off we went. J was waiting and he met us at the arrival gate. We were so glad to see him and he looked good! We had some big hugs as we haven't seen him for almost 4 years! Our first experience with the subway system in China. J. helped us bought a subway card each.(59 Y each) We took the train to the subway station closest to J's apartment and from there we took a taxi home. We arrived at J's apartment and he was proud to show us his place. We could see that he was very proud of buying the place himself. Small, but a very functional and convenient place in the heart of a big city. So glad that he has a place of his own! J. ordered take out from his cell phone and within 20 minutes, his beer and water were delivered. (25 y)

Day 2 - First Breakfast in Guangzhou and exploring the neighborhood We strolled around the neighbourhood and discovered there were number of nice North American style coffee shops. We chose one closest to the apartment and ordered lattes and pineapple buns for our simple breakfast. We also bought sheng fun from the next shop. We were informed by BOBO, our coffee shop server, that we could order the food, bring and eat in the coffee shop. That was convenient indeed! In Canada, the shop owners would not like that at all. As we sipped our latte, we talked to Bobo and started making our first friend in this big city of almost fourteen million inhabitants! The next thing we did was buying a sim card for our cell phones so that we could communcate eaily with one another. China Mobile was not too far and for 239.00 yuens, we could have unlimited talking and texting for a month in China. We also went to the Bank of China and exchanged some Canadian currency to Yuens there. We enjoyed our first dinner at a nearby caferia style restaurant. I had fish, veggie soup, congee (22 Y) J n S. had meat, veggie (22 Y). The meal came with soup, rice and tea. A evry inexpensive dinner! After our nice dinner, we walked to Walmart looking for a fridge. There were so many people there! I noticed that Chinese Walmart stores mainly sold groceries and clothing. We couldn't find any shelving or storage accessories there. We took the bus back to J'S place. It was a busy day. Day 3 I did my daily devotion in the morning and was getting ready to share something from the B.book with J. Amazing Delivery System in Guangzhou we had coffee n cheung fen for the 2nd day from the neighborhood's small restaurant. We have also befriended a nice server, Bobo, who helped me to send a parcel to my brother's friend in another part of China. Bobo found us a delivery company which came and picked up the parcel within 30 minutes for 11 Y, about 2 Canadian dollars. Bobo used wechat to pay the company on our behalf. The delivery system was so efficient in China! It saved us a lot of time not going to the post office and waiting in line to have the parcel weighted, then buying the stamps and sending it etc. Absolutely amazing! After a couple of days, we received a message that the intended recipient received the parcel.How cool was that!

Birthday Dinner at a Hot pot Restaurant We celebrated my birthday with our son in China! The last time we celebrated my birthday with him was more than nine years ago. Therefore this birthday celebration was very special for me. J. took us to a nice restaurant located within a shopping mall where We had my birthday dinner. The restaurant was called Hai Di Lao, a chain hot pot restaurant.(My husand told me there are three of this restaurant in Toronto. I never knew about this.) Hai Di Lao - a beautiful, spacious, clean, modern and welcoming place. The service was good; the food was delicious and different while the ambience was elegant and great for conversation. Since we were there for an early dinner, it was not too busy yet. We all enjoyed the food and the calm atmosphere a lot! Close to the end of our meal, the restaurant staff came, put a birthday hat on my head and presented us with a birthday treat - a plate of beautifully arranged sliced fruit with a candle on top of it. How creative was this. No sweet cakes, I liked it a lot since I was trying to avoid sweet desserts and watching my weight! They sang birthday song, took a picture of us and by the end of our dinner presented the birthday picture to us in a nice picture frame! That was a nice gesture by the restaurant to the customers.

One interesting thing I noticed was that for a diner eating alone, the restaurnat placed a huge stuffed animal sitting opposite from the diner giving the illusion that this lone diner had company with him/her while eating here. Very interesting!

After dinner, we went to watch a Chinese movie with English subtitle in the same shopping mall - Chang On 30,000 miles - a newly released movie about one of the most famous poets in China. An excellent animated movie produced in China, educational and informative. We all learned a lot about some Chinese history and the famous poet. I had and a great time with my family on my birthday. Thank God for His blessings! Day 4 Since Guangzhou was very hot for the past few days, we asked J. to take us somewhere cooler and we decided to leave town for a while. I got up early today and cleaned as much as I could before leaving for Gui Yang. I felt good that I could help J. doing something in his apartment. He made a comment 'Now the kitchen looks great! My apartment looks like a home now." This made me very happy that I could help him. I couldnt believe that it took me almost two hours to pack and got ready for our trip. We bought some takeout food and got to the train station. Unfortunately, J. made a mistake in S.'s ticket information and it took a little time to explain and correct it at the train station. We took the fast train at about 330pm. Our first experience riding on the Chinese fast train. It was a clean, spacious modern train. We sat comfortably along with lots of other families travelling. We arrived in Guiyang after 9pm and took the subway to our hotel. We only needed to walk a few minutes passing by a mini night market on our way. We bought a duck leg and other food from a street vendor, my first night market food purchase, and checked into our hotel. We slept like babies! RT, Guangzhou 07282023