My adventure in China part whatever it is now

I will now give you an introduction to the places I went while travelling in China. For the majority of our stay, we were in Kunming a city situated in Yunnan province in Southwestern China. Suprisingly, the infrastructure was quite advanced for a city in China not named Beijing or Shanghai. I suppose this is partly due to the large tourist industry from both within and outside China. Now for some random thoughts about Kunming:

• It was hot
• It was really hot!
• For some reason, Wentworth Miller (the actor who plays Michael Scofield on Prison Break) is some kind of model extraordinare in Kunming. I saw him on billboards all over the city promoting some sort of new housing development(I`m guessing). I didn`t get a picture of this but suffice to say he wore a purple shirt, carried a man purse and had CGI water splash all over him.
• There were tropical plants all over the place (because it was hot)
• The soil there was red due to Iron deposits
• Taxis were all tagged with a sticker that had a cute cartoon animal and a number. The sign on the sticker read: ``Do you think I am cute? If you do , please remember me.`` Apparently this was some way of protecting foreign visitors from being ripped off by local cab drivers
• Buses all had bus lanes and almost never merged with other traffic
• People there don`t follow traffic reguations (I`m not fully aware of the traffic reguations but I don`t need to know them to know they weren`t being followed)
• On street corners of big intersections, there were police alarms shaped like robocop. If you were in trouble, you could just press the button and get help.
• Speaking of police officers, I saw some patroling the streets on Segways (advanced indeed)
• Did I mention it was hot?

Now on to some actual specific attractions...

World Botanical Expo site in Kunming: Apparently, Kunming was host to some worldwide botanical expo. Every country set up a garden to display the special fauna and culture of their region. I didn`t see the Canada display but let's just say maple trees probably wouldn't have survived down there (because it was hot).



The Stone Forest: A pile of prehistoric rocks have never been so exciting. This practically named attraction used to be the sea floor when dinosaurs roamed the Earth but was brought up to the surface due to some tectonic movement. The park was very large and we had to use a golf cart so see all the major attractions. Along the way, the tour guide mentioned that some of the rock formations looked like people or things. I will let you decide:



The Wild Elephant Valley: Apparently, this was a triple A attraction according to the official bureau of tourism in China. Also apparently, the Chinese government grade their attractions like we grade out beef. Anyway, this was the only place you were ever going to see wild elephants in China. There were elephant performances, bird performances, and the highlight of the park is a 40 min tram ride over pristine (as pristine as an attraction can be in China) tropical rainforest.



The Birds Nest Stadium and the Watercube: Probably now one of the most popular attractions in all of China. These buildings truly are the result of some great designs and even better engineering. However, I must say that the whole experience was a little underwhelming for me because the Olympics were long over and you had to buy tickets to get inside (and there is nothing inside. Believe me, I was there). Another thing occurs to me just now. You still haven`t seen a picture of me in any of my so called adventures. For all you know, I could have made this whole trip up, taking pictures off the ever fruitful internet. However, I also want to keep this blog and my identity (what identity, ha!) private, at least to those people who don`t already know who I actually am (which is probably nobody but it`s good to keep some things mysterious like the location of Springfield). As a compromise, I will post a couple pictures with me and the Olympic stadiums blurred out enough so that those who know me will recognize me and those who don`t won`t. (All editing was done with Picasa as I was too lazy to use better software).