Day 8: Kunming, Sunday 28th September 2025
Zhong'aifang Arch, Nanping Walking Street
24°, cloudy, clearing
NZ$1 = Y4
Y1=NZ$0.25
Got up at 8am when up stairs for breakfast in the very pretty breakfast room; this morning we had what we believe to be Dan Dan Noodles; a mince beef dish, with spaghetti like noodles and a broth at the bottom of the bowl. We also had a boiled egg, corn, tomatoes, nuts, pickles and warm soy milk, and of course tea. It was very tasty, but a too much and a little spicy.
Back to the room, got organised and left at 8:50am, walked west and north through shopping streets then into a more residential area with apartment buildings, and some important looking Government Buildings, and eventually found Huashan W Road ( which felt very nice with trees and good quality apartments ), and then cut through an alleyway to the East Gate of Green Lake Park at 9:15am .
We entered the Park ( free ) and walked around. Not a lot to say about it; it was very pleasant with many lakes, kids play areas, people doing tai chi, a mini train, temples and small shops and stalls, but it wasn’t overly exciting and wasn’t that busy. Liz bought ( fake ) jade bracelet ( Y60 ) from stall holder ( after a brief haggle ).
We walked around the islands in the lake then out the east gate ( where we went in ) around Chuihi S Rd to the South Gate to the park, and found a tea house. Sat inside and drank our teas ( they only served tea ) at 10:30am. The area around the park seems very nice with small apartment buildings similar to a French type of city.
We later discovered that Kunming has a strong connection to France, as when the France were in control of Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos Kunming was the closest Chinese city to those countries and so the French had a trading post in Kunming; the legacy of this a lot of people of French heritage , a lot of French style architecture and a love for French Boulangerie, as we would discover at lunch time.
Off again, and headed north and east around the lake, back past the East Gate then onto Yuantong Rd, up the hill and to the Yuantong Buddhist Temple at 11:15am. This temple sits at the foot of Yuantong Mountain and fronts to the main road ( with hospitals, shops etc ) with a large set of doors. We paid Y6 ea to enter and walked through the gates and in. We walked down from the road to the main temple area and then looked around the prayer halls and the lake at the heart of the temple. It was very peaceful and quiet ( you realise how there is a constant hum of noise in most places in China when you go somewhere where there is people speaking quietly and also not large crowds ). We found the resident cat ( he was snoozing ) and watched the frogs and herons in the lake.
We are not spiritual people, but it is hard not to feel at peace in a nice temple complex.
Left the temple at 12pm, walked east on Yuantong Rd to Chuanxin Gulou metro tation, and took line 2 north to Baiyun Rd station (just 2 stops ), exited the station into the basement of Tongde Kunming Plaza Mall. After quick look around we found lunch at Bon Appitit ( french bakery / café ), where we had very non tradition Chinese food; Y35 for grilled basil/chicken baguette, a fillet mignon roll, coffee and abutter cookie. Very nice and a super helpful staff member taking responsibility to make sure we understood what the food was, how to order etc. It is tricky enough to order food in Chinese without the food being named in French first; but we got there.
We wandered through the mall after lunch, then back on the metro at 1:45pm then to Jiaosanqiao Station and walked back to the hotel.
We rested, and booked trains/hotels for the last bit of the trip ( from Zhangjiajie to Shanghai ).
Out at 6:15pm for tea, we walked back to Nanjing Pedestrian Street ( about a km ) found another mall with a food court in the basement ( Shuncheng Mall ) and had tea at a very busy restaurant (stir fry yellow beef, vege dumplings, potatos in tomato and 2 beers, Y103). They put an egg timer on the table when you ordered and we managed to figure out that anything not delivered before the timer ran out was free; we didn't get anything for free.
Walked back to hotel at 8pm, then I went out to take some photos of the pedestrian ‘donut’ up the road; this was a circular pedestrian bridge ( sort of like a roundabout for people ) above a main intersection. Back at 9pm.
Zoomable Map ( pin is located on the Xisheyin City Hotel )