Tuesday, December 13, 2011

People mover

While a lot of big Chinese cities are thoroughly modern, with Western shops, cars and other modern amenities, there is a Chinese, just yards away, which is rural and backward. Backward in a good way, not a bad way. For me, it is this backward China that I come to see and to enjoy. The capital of Yunnan province is Kunming and is very modern, they have Pizza huts, McDonalds, and Dolce & Gabbana and more cars than there's room on the roads for. Just an hour away are little villages where people lived like they did 100 years ago. The best time to visit is on a Sunday, every villager would have come to town, bringing their surplus and buying whatever else they needed. It is a fascinating spectacle and most likely you would be the only foreigner in town.

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