Eyes on China – A China travel Blog

The world horticultural garden exposition in northest Kunming is a global exposition of the highest degree. First opened in May of 1999, this theme park remains a dazzling display of sights, sounds and colors. Containing dozens of theme gardens, this park will impress and amaze anyone interested in natural or man-made science, art, poetry or Chinese architecture.

I took the #71 bus from Beijing Lu in downtown Kunming to the main entrance to the gardens. The bus fare was only 1 RMB. Entrance into the gardens was 100 RMB. Although this entrance fee may seem high, compared to other destination theme parks, I thought it was very fair. After I paid the entrance fee, I was given a plastic card and a colorful map to enter the park. Being a naturalist-at-heart and a gardener by trade, I knew upon entering the gates that this place was special.

I woke up startled. The deafening sound coming from outside seemed to make the whole bus tremble. We were crossing an old wooden bridge, below was a roaring chocolate brown river.
“Jinsha Jiang”
An old man sitting next to me was pointing at the river. I looked at him tiredly still trying to wake up.
“Jinsha Jiang” He repeated again.

Jinsha Jiang, as the locals call it, translates to Golden Sands River. This river is actually a part of the great Yangtze River or Chang Jiang. It is the longest river in Asia, and the third longest in the world. It stretches from Qinghai, (a province near Tibet) to Shanghai.
The river has many names, but I will always remember it as the river that almost took my life.

A Story of Creation 
 
In the beginning, there was nothing but chaos and from this sprang a single egg. Inside the egg, Pan Gu (盘古) was growing, and he became so enormous that eventually he broke the egg. Some parts of the egg spiralled high to become the heavens and other parts of the egg sank and became the earth. Pan Gu thought this was beautiful, but he was frightened that somehow the earth and the sky would return to each other and so he put his body between them. For 18,000 years Pan Gu stood between the earth and the sky, continuing to grow and pushing them further and further apart until at last he was exhausted and fell asleep. He never woke again.

Everything has a beginning and an end. QinHuangDao, a coastal city in Hebei province, is a city containing more than one important Asian beginning. I went there to begin my first May Golden week holiday.

QinHuangDao is named after the famous Chinese emperor QinShiHuangDi, the man typically credited with building the great wall. From what I understood while there, he sometimes went to QinHuangDao in the summer to cool off and hang out. Today, the cities ShanHaiGuan and BeiDaiHe seem more popular and touristy. The three cities are close enough together that they don’t really stand out in my head as distinct places, although each sports its own special attractions.

Something about living in China gets under your skin. Whether it’s the job opportunities, friendly, helpful people or the awesome, chiseled rock faces inscribed with Chinese characters (Hanzi), I don’t know. But, living in a remote mountain village has brought about some unexpected changes to my complexion. Literally, something has caused a tremendous outbreak of skin rash and pimples that must be the result of my Chinese diet.
So, I decided to do something about it. I figured if I drink plenty of water and spend some time in a hot springs, it would do my complexion some good.
I had a 3-day weekend the first week in June and wanted to get out of Weixin and explore some hot springs.I discovered that there is a large (and very hot) mountain spring located near the city of Yibin in S.E. Sichuan Province. Yibin is the closest big city from where I am living in N.E. Yunnan Province and have never been up to Sichuan. After doing a Google search, I found out: