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Hi
all this is my little piece on Kunming south west china (Jade capital)
We
arrived by train after a 18hr train ride over night, arriving at the station
on time may I add we came out of the station and headed down the main street
to find a hotel we dualu did and had a nice 4 star hotel for around £20 per
night.
Kunming is a area which they say is spring time all year round average
temperature is around 18-20c.we only had 3 days there so we went and made
the most of it. We were there to look and find out more about the huge jade
market there and it is huge as every shop and back street is all jade
in-fact it is hard to find anything else. This area seems to be the heart of
the jade trade and I saw and handled some items which was so beautifully
crafted by hand and cost around 1 million pounds and that was a wholesale
price. But of course the smaller sellable items start at 20p but I can see
why the huge amount of money can be made and traded here. As the Chinese
adore there jade and is a sign of wealth.
We
spent a day taking the cable car up to the dragon’s gate on top of the
mountain and visiting the culture village which is worth a look as the
entrance fee includes live shows. The first cable car was very modern but
the second cable car was very old and skimmed along the edge of a long drop
but I must say the scenery was beautiful and when you get up to the top and
pay another entrance fee it is money well spent but china being china the
park was so huge we never got all around it and it is not for anyone with a
heart complaint. As there are many steps to climb and they are up and down
as most of it is carved out the side of the mountain. Again you can stop off
sit back and take in the view over the lake. As I said we were only there for 3
days and there was so much to see which we did not manage. I wanted to see
the stone forest which is a whole forest turned to stone around the same
time as the dinosaurs were wiped out also has caves to discover and many
other things to do. We also spent time in the culture village which is worth
a look as it tells you the history of the 50 odd different ethnic tribes in
china and each tribe has its own area with building and shows or showing you
different crafts they did and how they lived in the past. One word of advice
is hire a bike, well worth it as again the area that is covers is huge. And I
reckon would need a whole day just to do it justice as with most parks and
attraction in china
Kunming has a population of around 6.5 million people but it never seemed
like it and the city is low level not like the bigger cities in china with
their new modern buildings. I would like to go back and spend more time there
as I did not get to see half of what I wanted to see as we spent most of our
time going around all the jade markets and shops looking at all the
wonderful workmanship on show there as you will see from my photos I have
sent along with small introduction to Kunming china.
If
there is anything that interests you in my small stories or looking to buy
anything from china please get in touch with me via the email link or via my
website at
www.wetalkchina.com please have a look see what we do. We
have opened a new business there also called Guangzhou Alba Trading Company
to try and help small business in the wines and spirit area to enter china
with little hassle. Again if you want to know anything or intend to visit
wonderful china give me a shout and I will try to give you the best advice
on do's and don’ts. Please enjoy the photos
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