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Thursday, January 27, 2005

Southwest China's attractions (for kiwis)

The New Zealand Herald: "Not only are the attractions and food first-class but getting to them can be just as absorbing - from busing hundreds of kilometres on new expressways to cramming on a China Eastern jetliner, while rubbing shoulders with People's Liberation Army officers and loud, pushy domestic Chinese tourists."

"To visit the cities of Kunming, Chongqing and Chengdu is to experience first-hand the extraordinary changes sweeping the country. Blazing economic growth of 9 per cent is transforming the landscape."

"Chinese people thirst for development and that trend can be seen everywhere. Our Chengdu guide proudly told us the Chinese have two aspirations: a home phone (many have now realised that and also have cellphones) and a car.

The hundreds of construction cranes are another indication of growth."

"My favourite memory of Kunming is of a cart pulled by a donkey competing at a motorway interchange with every type of vehicle you can imagine."

"In Kunming's busy areas, stallholders selling souvenirs harassed us, calling out "hollo", the only English they seemed to know. Their hard-sell techniques are off-putting at first but bargaining can be fun."

"In one case we asked to see a "real" rural village and were taken to place near the stone carvings of Dazu. It has been hosting tourists since the early 1980s."

"These days in China you have to go quite a distance to really get off the beaten track. And a basic grasp of Mandarin is essential because few locals speak English."

1 comment:

stevesadlov said...

"My favourite memory of Kunming is of a cart pulled by a donkey competing at a motorway interchange with every type of vehicle you can imagine."

Someday, that cart will compete with T-90 tanks and massive TELs carrying nuclear tipped DF-21 missiles, racing south to invade Thailand, Malaysia and on to Singapre. Are they ready for history to repeat, except this time with nuclear fire?