Part 4: "Trailmarkers are for babies"- Kunming and Lijiang

Kunming was, what I imagine, your typical Chinese city would be like. Think tons of traffic, taxis that won't take you to where you want to go because it's too far, mostly gray sky, tall buildings, disabled beggars on every corner, Chinese people wandering around.

But there were a few surprises for me... because I had no idea what a typical Chinese city was.

1. We woke up every morning in our hotel to the complimentary Chinese style breakfast. I guess I was thinking some clumpy rice porridge because when I woke to the massive buffet spread before me I was ecstatic. Potatoes, three kinds of eggs, varieties of noodles and rice, meats, bread stuff, french fries, fruit, choice of drinks and my personal favorite: as much bo cai (stir fried spinach) as one could possibly eat. As a result I counted my stay in Kunming, not in the number of nights I was there, but in the number of breakfasts I ate: 4 delicious breakfasts.

2. The group of us that met in Kunming together decided one morning (it being a Sunday) that we were going to find some place to go to a service. After failing miserably to find the one recommended to us (actually possible in a city as large as Kunming, not at all possible in Lhasa) we decided to wander around. And thus we wandered right into one of the most breathtaking experiences of my whole trip:
In what on a normal day would have appeared to be a simple shop front, on this day, with the gates rolled up and loud piano music and microphoned speaking blaring from somewhere deep within, was a government sanctioned Church. The first Church I had ever seen in China. Without even thinking, I took one of the plastic stools that they handed me as we walked up and sat down in a row with some other Chinese faithful outside on the sidewalk. We had to sit outside because the medium sized room was absolutely flooded with all manner of people. Old women with graying hair swept up in a bun, young children squiggling in their seats, teens and college students bending forward to listen with pens and paper in hand. When they sang a familiar tune with Chinese lyrics I was totally mesmerized to hear the praises of the One who is worthy echoing off the lips of so many in a language that I had only been able to use for trade. When the speaking was read from the text which I love all I could do was sit back and let it, the whole experience, and this amazing fellowship just wash all over me. I had never seen anything like it.

We weren't really in Kunming that long... the deal was that we were going to hop on an 8 hour long bus (with complimentary lunch and disgusting trough squatties included) to go to Lijiang. We were going to hike our way through the famed Tiger Leaping Gorge.

I can't even beign to describe the majesty of this experience. If I had been totally blown away but the Church we stumbled into, this gorge and these mountains spoke as loudly as those songs had been sung to the praise of their Maker.

Green trees and thick foliage gave way to dusty and often precarious rocks gave way to slick and refreshing waterfalls. A horseback ride up the 28 switchbacks (of doom) to the peak of the trail was an amazing opportunity to learn some Chinese and watch the turquoise waters at the bottom of the gorge slowly turn into a tiny thread. A night in a random guest house provided an amazing view, not only of a marajuana farm, but of the five fingered mountain. That night, despite the really cold chill I couldn't resist laying on the roof to stare up at the biggest night sky full of the clearest stars listening to the waters of the river push their way between those mountains somewhere far below. Another day of hiking through fields and over mountains, playing tag with a herd of goats brought us slowly down close to the base of the gorge where we stayed at another guest house, and met a very interesting character.

When I met Sean he was a disembodied voice stuck in a tree. He came down and I discovered that he, the owner of this guest house, was a Tibetan man, with long hair tied up in a pony tail, and a severly crippled hand. His English was good and we were able to have many enlightening converstations. Did you know that trailmarkers are for babies? and that tigers are only scared of two things: pregnant women and bird poop? that Christians have some powerful words? that all dogs should be called 'barbeque'? and did you know that white girls can't possibly know how to cook potatos in a bed of coals? Well I showed him... I haven't sat in North Carolina outside roasting potatoes over a bed of coals to eat some of the most delicious potatoes in the world with my family to be told that. So I roasted him some potatoes. It was sad to leave the next morning to head back to Lijiang, despite the fact that Lijiang itself was a pretty interesting place.

Once we arrived back in Kunming (again via the 8 hour bus complimentary lunch and scuzzy trough squatties included) we had an extra day before heading to Thailand so we decided to make the most of it and headed to the stone forest. Like everything in China, I'm not sure how much of it was natural and how much of it was man made, but it was an incredible place... literally a forest of towering limestone formations that stretched for what felt like miles, easy to be amused and easier to get lost. We only got out because there happend to be a Korean tour group nearby and we simply added ourselves to the mix.

What a privledge to see Him in so many extremes: from the heart of city to the heights of mountains!