Cherry blossoms

Ahhh, Kunming!!
The city of flowers and sunshine...dum-di-dum...
Or so goes the eternal chant of the tourism office. But, believe or not, for once it's all true!
Kunming is called the 'spring city' of China, as all year round the weather is like in the spring. And the 'city of flowers', for obvious reasons. Despite being a big Chinese city with all the usual ugly buildings covered in bathroom-like tiles, Kunming has some beautiful parks, full of green and flowers. On one side, the city is bordered by a big, big lake, reaching over 40 km in length. Right now, it's the time for the cherry blossoms to be at their finest, covering the city in pretty, pink flower clouds.

And the sunshine. :) :) Since my arrival here, i've seen two or three cloudy days, and for the rest of the time it's sunny sunny sunny. And one of the first things I noticed here when I first got here in November was the bright blue sky. What a difference from the smoke and haze-covered skies of so many Chinese cities.

So, as cities go, not a bad place to be at all.

...But the real beauty lies in the province all around Kunming -- Yunnan. So far i have only been to a few places in person, but I've seen lots and lots of pictures and heard many stories. And everything suggests that Yunnan is one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen in the world. From the snowy mountains to volcanoes to the south, where the weather and culture are like those of South-East Asia. The 26 different ethnic groups bring their different flavours to the life and culture of the province, although some of it annoyingly employed by the tourism industry (of course).

Lots to see, and to do, over time.

But right now, I've had enough of travelling and seeing new places, I'm quite happy to get down to my studies on monday. This said, I've just spent a wonderful day with a buddhist monk and some other people from the Kunming Buddhist Seminary, with whom i might yet be doing some projects. We'll see what will happen with all that.

Will post some pictures soon, I think. :)