108. A second New Year in Kunming

We had entered China before we'd even left Laos. Boten special

economic zone straddles the border and was built by the Chinese. It

looks like China. The street signs, the shops, the policemen, the

concrete apartment blocks. Chinese truck drivers were already forming

a queue before the Lao immigration windows opened for the day. By nine

thirty we were through both Lao and Chinese immigration and apart from

a cursory inspection by a serious young Chinese customs officer of our

passports, we were waved into China's Yunnan province.

We followed the main highway to Mengla, the road so wide at times it

resembled a runway. Laos is small scale. Little of small-scale China

remains. Agriculture is a serious business this side of the border.

Polythene wrapped fields, valley floors covered with protective

netting, along with prolific use of the latest modern wonder

chemicals. Bananas grew cocooned in large blue plastic bags and were

kept insulated from the winter chill with white foam wrapping. All of

which gathered in small mountains of rubbish piles along the roadside.

For many centuries Yunnan lay beyond the reach of the feudal states

and then empires of the Middle Kingdom. Thant Myint U describes Yunnan

as "China's wild southwest. It was a land of outlaws and miscreants

and exotic religious sects, a place where musket-slinging Han settlers

battled bow and arrow-wielding tribesmen and aliens from beyond the

pale. Its jungle-clad mountains teemed with fearsome animals and its

torrential rivers, thousand foot cliffs and deadly miasmas deterred

all but the hardiest of frontiersmen." The jungle has for the most

part been replaced by cash crops and plantation trees and many of the

rivers have been dammed for hydropower to feed the nation's insatiable

appetite for energy. Still some pockets remained and we spent several

days following the quiet backroads northwards from Mengla to

Jiangcheng, through the Dai villages - now a hotch-potch of

traditional wooden houses and generic concrete boxes. The road wound

mercilessly over the mountains that dominate the province. This is

China's most ethnically diverse and biodiverse region and home to some

of Asia's major rivers - the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, the Yangtze and

the Pearl rivers all pass through the province on their way down from

the adajacent Tibetan plateau.

Occupying a pivotal position with its international borders to south

east Asia and in particular Burma and a coveted supply route to the

Indian ocean, the province has become of prime importance in the

country's development policies. The old city of Kunming where we

arrived a couple of days ago has been razed to the ground in the past

twenty years and replaced with a modern skyline and yet remarkably

devoid of inhabitants. It's the Spring festival - the Chinese New Year

- and the largest annual human migration is taking place. Over 200

million Chinese are returning home - mostly migrant workers from the

cities to their rural homelands, often a trio of father, mother and

child on a motorbike. Most businesses are closed and fireworks blast

away in fresh nighttime air. Strong winds blow away any pollution and

visitors from northern smog-bound cities are astounded that they can

see the stars in this 1900 metre high metropolis of 6 million people.

Kunming, Yunnan, People's Republic of China
Pedalled: 67,188 km

Thanks to more donations, we're almost at the first thousand - 992
euros have been raised so far for the Peter McVerry Trust. Donations
can be made via my webpage on mycharity.ie -
www.mycharity.ie/event/julian_bloomer_the_slow_way_home