Some highlights of Kunming, China 2007

we landed, climbed trees and...hung out with our friends

23^rd Dec

Today we left for Kunming China. Cecilia and I flew into Kunming in 1995 as a two year old married couple. We arrived today as a 14 year old married couple of three kids!

Cecilia had our winter jackets dusted off. We carried them onto the plane. It was 5 degrees outside when we walked into Kunming airport. Forward thinking Cc had brought some warmer clothes just in case our standard jackets were not good enough. Praise God for Cc!

The kids were a little excited. They didn’t really have much idea about what to expect. To them it was just another ‘Asian city’. For Cc and I, it was a journey back to the past- a time without kids, a time when we ‘didn’t really know each other’. It was a time of new zeal for God’s work. Cc and I rarely talked about ‘going’ back after we left. We scratched around the idea several times, but never with any seriousness. We never thought we’d see Kunming or our friends again. We didn’t think they’d still be living in Kunming after all these years.

Bob and Haedy met us at the air port gate…We’d been wondering what a decade of life does to a person in Kunming. For Bob, the out ward appearance was ‘less’….less hair and less weight. For Haedy, in my mind, she had remained much the same in appearance.

We hugged each other, stared and laughed…I could feel a tear in my eye, I wiped it away. We then introduced the kids. It was fun to do that…a moment of feeling proud parents. Haedy kept saying, ‘I can’t believe you’ve got three kids’. Neither could we really, but it was true, in 11 years with the Lord’s help we had had 22 years (combined years10+8+ 4) of family life!!!

We piled into Bob’s little van and drove slowly into the crowded, noisy, streets…it was like bumper cars at the Royal Show…except for the bumping. Nobody touched us. But every body was so close- amazing skills! The city had grown to 5.5 million people. It my estimation, it was less than half the size 11 years ago.

As we flew in I caught a glimpse of a kilometer long train loaded with huge D24 bulldozers…Were they for export or import? Seeing the construction taking place on the ground, I could see how ‘Zhiang the Builder’ had ordered them to spread the Kunming metropolis further.

Coming from a town of 600, 000 people (Vientiane) and a nation of 4 million (Singapore)… Kunming seemed big to us. On the first day I ran down the ‘Orchard Road’ of Kunming with Bob. It was cold and I got tired very quickly- Bob ran fast and we were 2000 meters above sea level. But the run took me past 3 Wall Marts; 1 KFC and 2 Mac Dondalds!

The streets were packed with goodies…the roads were jammed with new buses and cars…the bike lanes were cluttered with electric scooters and the odd bike. No more old blue ‘Mao’ suites. I saw more colour and fashion on the street in 30 minutes than I had seen in a whole year in Laos. There were ‘real’ Gucci, NIKE and Adidas shops alongside the fake. I saw a group of teen’s staring longingly into the sleek glassy Pierre Cardin watch cabinet.

I could still see the ‘old’ Kunming behind all the new and the bright. People still wear simple clothes; sun burnt faces still sell potatoes and corn from coal fired 44 gallon drums; bike riders still bundle their bikes and negotiate cars with great skill. Forming this view of things seems cliche- ‘Kunming appears to be clamoring for everything new and modern and has found a disdain for everything simple and old’.

Is this my personal opinion for what is good? Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it neither right nor wrong? Is it bad? Should China develop less like the ‘WEST’? Is China following the WEST? Should China ‘deprive’ themselves of development for the sake of using fewer resources and thereby polluting less? American didn’t, isn’t....won’t. Why should they?

We played monopoly...













we visited our 'old homestead'












the kids kept saying, 'once upon a time...'

we 'bao zhaozi'...make Chinese dumpling!!

we walked the streets...






















we love China...




























we got our nail clipped...



























but there's no doubt about it, we had a fantastic trip with wonderful friends, good tucker and in the sprawling metropolis...
but we'd much rather be in our little Lao home and sleeping our our own little pillows! Thanks for praying us back home!!!