Simon Lewis: Comrade Hack

Yunnan has a set of micro climates. Kunming, at the heart of the province, is relatively mild all year round, though rainy. Far southern and south western parts of the province have tropical rainforest climates and a monsoon from May to October, so they’re best visited in winter.

The area north of Kunming is vulnerable to freezing from November to February and places north of Lijiang such as Lugu Lake and Deqin get very cold indeed, and snow is frequent, so this area is best visited between May and August.

Times of year definitely to avoid are Chinese national holidays the first weeks of May and October – prices rocket and every tourist destination is uncomfortably busy. Also, try to avoid travelling just before Chinese New Year, which falls in January or February, as transport networks are over stretched.

Getting There

There are no direct flights from the west, but Kunming is only an hour and a half from Bangkok on Thai air.

Getting Around

Southwest Airlines is reliable and comparatively inexpensive; a ticket from Kunming to Lijiang, for example, costs around $45. Roads are generally good, at least between the cities, and most long distance travel is done on cramped but tolerably comfortable sleeper buses. Fast, a/c luxury buses run between popular tourist destinations. For foreigners, hiring a car involves too much paper work to be worth it; it s cheaper and less hassle to hire a car and driver.

Cost of Travel

Generally a bit more expensive than neighbouring south east Asian countries, but still very cheap by western standards. Rock bottom hotel rooms cost around $2-3, a decent mid-range a/c room costs $10 and the very best around $60 (though concessionary advance booking rates are often available). Eating out in China is usually a bargain; a decent meal for two costs around $4.

• Bottle of beer: 20p
• Cup of coffee: 50p
• Two-litre bottle of mineral water: 40p

Health & Safety

There is some risk of malaria in Xishuangbanna.

Food & Drink

Food is immensely important to the Chinese; they talk about it the way the English do about weather, and ‘have you eaten?’ is a standard greeting. Despite the impression you might have from Chinese takeaways at home, Chinese cuisine is regional, and in Yunnan each minority has its own specialities.

Eating is a social occasion and the Chinese like their restaurants to be ‘renao’, hot and noisy. Slurping is considered a sign of appreciation, and isn’t rude, but leaving rice in your bowl is. The ultimate in good table manners is to put a tasty morsel in someone else’s bowl.

• Over the bridge noodles

This tasty local dish was said to have been created by a scholar’s wife. She used to take lunch to her husband when he was out writing poetry in an island pavilion, but by the time she had crossed the bridge to the island the noodles were cold – until she had the idea of keeping them warm by pouring an insulating layer of oil on top of the soup. Order this popular dish today and you’ll be given a hot chicken broth with a layer of oil floating on top, and, on a separate dish, noodles, pork, vegetables and egg to slip into it.

• Naxi bread or ‘baba’

This staple of the Naxi people is a deep fried patty of flour lard and sesame oil with a stuffing of meat or vegetables; it’s common in Lijiang.

• Stinky tofu

Love it or loathe it, you can’t avoid it; that pong isn’t the drains, it’s this regional delicacy ‘rotten’ tofu barbecued then covered with spice. It’s available at every street corner after dark.

• Crisp skinned duck

The whole duck is basted with honey and roasted over a pine needle fire.

• Fake meat

You’ll find vegetarian restaurants outside Buddhist temples; the biggest is opposite the Yuantong Temple in Kunming. Most dishes feature fake meat, often made using cunningly spiced tofu and potato, which can taste eerily like the real thing.

Matriachal Minorities

Anyone spending any time in Lijiang will soon notice the dominant role women play in Naxi culture; they’re running the businesses while the rather underemployed men while away their time with gardening, falconry and the like. Naxi society is, to a large extent, matriarchal, with inheritance passing to the eldest daughter. In more remote communities, children are kept by the mother while the father stays in his own mother’s house and provides financial support. The Naxi language reflects the feminine bias; ‘woman stone’ means boulder, but ‘man stone’ pebble.

Even more girl power is in evidence in the Mosuo people, who live beside Lugu Lake. Their axia system of marriage means, broadly, that any woman ditches her lover when she feels like it, and any children are raised in the mother’s house. Family names pass from mother to daughter. Children might know who their father is, but the bond is not seen as special.

Dr Joseph Rock

Joseph Rock was a larger than life Austrian botanist who lived in Lijiang between 1922 and 1949. As well as sending over eighty thousand plant specimens back and pioneering the use of photography in the field, he was a keen defender of Naxi culture and compiled the first dictionary of their language. His reports for National Geographic made him widely known in the west. His fastidiousness made him notorious, and he travelled with an entourage to rival any western film star, including cooks, hundreds of mercenaries, and servants to carry such dubious necessities as his gramophone, gold dinner service and collapsible bathtub.

Smuggling

Any visitor off the beaten track will find having his passport inspected at roadside checkpoints a common occurrence. This is because Yunnan, at the crossroads of south east Asia and the edge of the golden triangle, is a haven for smugglers.

Around 800 kilograms of heroin a month is estimated to flow across the ill policed border, bringing social dysfunction in its wake; rates of HIV infection in border towns such as Ruili are the highest in China. Another lucrative trade is in the body parts of endangered species such as pangolins and muntjacs, which are trapped in the forests of Burma or in Xishuangbanna. They’re consumed either as delicacies or medicines, usually aphrodisiacs. But surely the most macabre trade is in boy children, kidnapped then sold to families desperate for a male heir. Over two hundred boys have gone missing in Kunming in the last three years.

Tea

As with most Chinese customs, tea cultivation has been going on for a very long time; one of Yunnan’s most popular destinations – admittedly only for Chinese tourists – is the rather unremarkable looking ‘King of Tea Trees,’ in Xishuangbanna, which is nearly two thousand years old.

Broadly, Yunnan teas come in four categories; green, black, flower and pu’er. This last is half fermented and steamed into blocks – originally for ease of transport on the long ride to the main market of Tibet. It has a musty taste that lingers in the mouth. Tea shops stock thousands of varieties, and are more than willing to let you sample their stock; you’re not expected to buy anything until you’ve tasted it, but take note that some teas are extremely expensive.

Tea is drunk for health as well as refreshment; Snow tea is good for sore throats, flower tea is regarded as a sedative, and ‘slimmers tea’ is, it is claimed, an appetite suppressant.

| Wanderlust magazine | October 04 | Issue 66 |