Next Stop...China!
Trip Start
Feb 13, 2004
1
11
23
Trip End
Jun 05, 2004
Jinhong, China
Monday, April 5, 2004
The China today people here seem to eat, drink, sleep, work and comminicate like the rest of us. In the city, kids play video games at the internet place, people have dinner at their favourite hangouts, other's are buying and selling stuff in stores and so on and so on.
After a couple of the windiest roads I've ever travelled on (in Northern Laos) I reached the border with China. The jungle, the bamboo huts, and almost dirt road were replaced by a Chinese 'instant city' at the border complete with a soon to be finished shopping mall/trade center.
After a few more hours on the bus I made it to Jinhong, a city in the south of the Chinese province of Yunnan.In this city I saw almost no foreigners expect for Lao and Burmese people. The Burmese people come hear to sell Jade to the Chinese. I didn't spend too much time here as I bought the first ticket I could north to Dali City (In the north of the same province. Unfortunately it was a 20 hour sleeper bus ride. You get a bed that seems to be designed for a small child...not extremely comfortable, but not that bad either. The views though were truly fantastic.
