in Kunming Dali, Lijging. We ate mushrooms everyday
so many different shapes and sizes and cooked in every
way. I think this was a highlight of this trip.
that looked good and were so proud of ourselves for
creating such great plates of food.
in Kunming. We started talking to
a woman who was going there and
we became friends with her and her
family. We bought a lot of teas for
the rest of my life. My tea hasnt arrived
yet, but Katherines has. Now we only
drink tea all day.
our tea purchase.
Here we are at the little people village
living here at the dwarf empire where they do shows
sing and run the kingdom.
We're actually in Lijiang today but let's backtrack to Kunming in Yunnan province - our first stop in southwest China. It is known for being laid-back and full of flowers. Its name means "South of the Clouds" and it has been dubbed "Spring City" because of its year round pleasant weather. And pleasant the weather was and we did see some nice flowers and a lovely downtown pedestrian area lined with willow trees. But let's be honest here, whatever it may have been in the past to deserve these poetic descriptions, it now comes off as another overbuilt Chinese mess of a city clouded in a grey smoggy haze. Yes, there are some pleasant parks here (but the plants to me looked like they were gasping for air) and I haven't seen another big Chinese city in over 25 years, but still. It is another enormous sprawling city which appears to still be growing rapidly. But there are parks. And Grace and I danced in one with the ladies of Kunming early one morning by the bird and flower market, then strolled along that lovely willow-lined shopping street and bought some famous Yunnan Baiyao or Yunnan White Medicine made of over 100 herbs and said to heal all wounds.
PHOTOS of park & the market
But we were in Kunming to taste tea! And look for the Kingdom of the Dwarves. Grace had gleaned years ago - and it caught both of our fancies - that somewhere in Kunming there is an entertainment/amusement park that is run and staffed entirely by Chinese dwarves. I preferred the more politically-correct "little people" but, no, it is called the "Dwarf Kingdom". So in China, get used to it.
But first to taste tea! Now getting to the big Tea Market our first morning in China, given that we speak no Chinese and it is off the tourist map, was challenging. At breakfast we weren't able to even order tea and got a cup of hot water instead. But lo and behold as we bumbled our way off the bus in the general direction of the Tea Market, the good tea fairy appeared. She was to take us under her wings for the next two days but first she lead us to her sister's tea station in the market. And there we drank tea and more tea and more tea, each one more delicious than the last - most of them types of the famous Pu'er tea of Yunnan province as well as an enticing smoky green tea called tuocha.
PHOTOS of tea tasting
So we tasted teas and collected large samples and tried to stop drinking the tiny cups of tea, but somehow couldn't say "no" in Chinese and weren't sure how to stop the pourings. Needless to say we were buzzing.
Finally the "conversation" (no one spoke English) turned to inquiring about the Dwarf Kingdom. By this time our hosts had become a small group and everyone there - like everyone else we had asked since arriving in Kunming - looked at us as if we were a little nuts. But they persevered and found the key to the kingdom, about an hour plus away. The tea fairy waived her magic wand (cellphone), with hand signals told us to wait ten minutes and before we knew it we were being chauffered by her lovely sister out of cloggy smoggy Kunming and through its cloggy smoggy exurbs to the magical kingdom of the dwarves.
And magic it was! In the first few minutes of our arrival, while chatting with one of the dwarves in the giftshop, we met the Chinese English-speaking anthropologist Peter who offered to escort us around the village. He's a student at Yumman University in Kunming doing his thesis on the dwarves and living with them during his summer break. Of course this was just what we needed and we spent a delightful afternoon actually being able to communicate with these charming little people and talk about their lives in and out of the Kingdom.
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