China: In Search of the Past: Part 5: Kunming, World War 2

After flying cross-country to Dali, we're eager for our "slow" train through Yunnan's scenic mountains down to Kunming. But soon after arriving at the station, we are ordered to evacuate, due to "equipment problems." Everyone, even support personnel, is driven out while police and security officers pour in. With no further explanation, we all stand around, trading rumors—many translated to me by a young Chinese woman. She doesn't believe the official reason. As this is a restive border region, I think maybe separatists or escaped prisoners? The burning question: Will we be able to continue our travels? Will this be a short delay or should we try to catch a long-distance bus? By now we're joined by three European grad students. With the woman (in a hurry to reach Kunming for the World Cup broadcast), we decide on the sure bet and traipse several blocks to the bus terminal... Along with many others, desperate to get on the road. Seats are difficult to obtain, but the woman makes sure we are all taken care of before moving on. Throughout China, I find people eager to help—often going out of their way to do so.

We're lucky to get the very last seats on a crowded bus. Still, I'm sorry to miss our train ride through the countryside as it descends to  a broad highland plateau. We reach the outskirts of Kunming at dusk.

Now a major city, Kunming was a small railway stop until World War 2 shook things up. Drawn here for book research, I come in search of that wartime past when China was struggling to hold off Japan. American support became critical, and the famed Flying Tigers established a base on this remote plateau. Later, so did the US intelligence agency, OSS, the Office of Strategic Services. Late in the war, my characters were posted here, undertook secret missions, and fell in love. 

By great coincidence, our landscape designer friend who's worked in Kunming off-and-on for 20 years is here now. We're lucky to have him as our guide, as I attempt to conjure what it was like, back in the day. Tim witnessed the wholesale leveling caused by "development" and predicted they'd rebuild "old town" in ten years. It took them five. We begin in the northern hillsides at the 17C Tongwa, or Golden Temple, on Mingfeng, Singing Phoenix Hill.

The next day we visit Lake Dianchi, "Sparkling Pearl Embedded in a Highland." It spreads before us like a sea of lotus blossoms and water lilies. The US Air Force base was nearby south of town, so my characters would have known it.

Lotus blooms

Water lily

The crowds are out with their cameras to enjoy a perfect Sunday.

I see proud families posing in front of this hammer and sickle.

Topiary hammer and sickle

Green Lake Hotel is worth a trip just for the sumptuous breakfast buffet, which we've fantasized about since our visit five years ago. We're in the old University and French district across from Green Lake, a precious oasis in the big city. The park is a lively spot where lovers meet, as well as old people doing traditional songs and folk dances. Even singing pro-Mao songs.

I scout-out more potential settings for my book. French colonial buildings, cobbled streets and lanes.

In what used to be the Kafka Cafe, I find another prized vintage piece. 

Like all of China, development and overdevelopment have paved over the past, but bits and pieces remain for her citizens to cherish. Soon we're off to Chongqing, the wartime capital of Nationalist China, the second main base of American operations. 

Next stop: Chongqing (old Chungking)

China: In Search of the Past: Part 4: The Four Olds, From Coastal Hunan to Mountainous Yunnan

Eternal Audrey at Changsha Airport newsstand

After many detours, it's back to China. We've been heading north from the Vietnam border of Guangxi Province to Hunan Province—still in the south yet far from the rural, traditional countryside we've been traversing. It's a shock arriving at the huge railway station of capital Changsha. Hunan is the birthplace of Mao Zedong, who has been resurrected as a figure of reverence by the current leadership. His home village is a place of pilgrimage. We did not visit.

At Changsha's Mayishun 89 hotel, a beautifully restored mansion, I get my first glimpse of how precious are pieces of the past in a land where 20C history was erased. For the rest of our travels, I'll see the value placed on historic artifacts, mostly destroyed during Mao's Cultural Revolution against the Four Olds—Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. This loss is still felt today.

As my book is partly set in 1940s China, I'm "scouting" locations. Perhaps this will be the secret police chief's sitting room. And bath.

My daughter calls breakfast a social construct. Why not greet the day with spicy noodle soup with eggs—and a side of watermelon?

Outside the courtyard gate, Changsha's summer humidity makes it difficult to move. We're not sorry to board our cross-country flight to the mountains of fabled Dali, Yunnan Province. This southwest region borders Thailand, Laos, and Burma, creating a mix of bloodlines with several indigenous peoples. From the days of warlords and warring kingdoms... Dali's old city walls.

The Old Town walls and temple at night.

Avoiding China's pervasive over-development, Dali has followed a wiser path. As a result the natural beauty and traditional culture are a big tourist draw. Especially for the majority Han Chinese, who are drawn to its village-like charm, clean air—and again, sense of a lost past. Everyone hits Old Town's rousing night market.

The Cangshan mountains provide a stunning backdrop for the old market street. 

Dali's traditional style is reflected in these views from our homey yet refined Old Town guesthouse, Yunxi Boutique Inn. It's a fine place to chill after our busy travel—especially its peaceful terrace.

Yun Xi Boutique Inn

The next day, taking a bus up the mountain to Lijiang, we have another view of the old city walls.

Reaching Lijiang two hours later, I'm seething at the tragedy of tourism run amok. Even so, this old tribal village is insanely lovely.

Lijiang is a World Heritage site, which "deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity." Seeing this tourist Disneyland, I doubt the cynical development is what UNESCO envisioned.

Yet Lijiang's natural charm can not be denied, every angle massively photogenic.

Conflicted by the pull of past and present, we take the bus back to Dali for more Night Market fun.

Next stop: Kunming, Yunnan