1 week

It's been one week since we arrived in Kunming. I now have a better global view of the city. And I now have bike: last night, I went to the central station from our appartment: I crossed the city. It was sunset then so on my way back I had a chance to see Kunming by night. It was, as expected, luminous!
On Thursday, we had a nice tour from the golden temple to the “expo 99” park (from the horticultural international meeting in Kunming, 1999). It wasn’t planned to visit the expo ‘cause Y. told us it was expensive for what it was, but it was nice anyway. We actually took the cable car to try to leave from the very noisy, dirty, crowdy hill where you can visit (but not really enjoy) all the tourist attractions put under the name “golden temple”... this site is just above the expo park. But actually, if you take the cable car, you’ve got to pay for tickets to the expo that you need to cross to get out.
Today, we went to the park next to the lake of Kunming. There were fewer people than at the temple so it was really more pleasant! We don’t really know how much people we can expect in such places because of the holiday. The train station of Kunming is amazing: so many people waiting. The station looks really new but already too small! But then again it’s maybe because of the holiday.
I got ticket Wednesday for Shilin (stone forest) on Friday but I forgot to take return tickets. Actually it seems that return tickets doesn’t exist. No train from Shilin to Kunming? I was “told” so at the central station... Mei you! I went then (on my old bike) to the camellia hotel. I did right cause they have there a ticket office where they speak English (did I read that in my guide?). Looks like we have to take a bus on the way back. We’ll see tomorrow (Saturday)... Oh yeah: we missed our train this morning (bad time planning...) but we could get the ticket to be valid on the next day: lucky us!

About my bike: I found it myself! Ok, it’s 100 kuai (10 euros), we surely can find cheaper. One day, I went in the street, looking for bikes, and I asked one old woman working in the street (actually she was holding a very small shop to repair bikes with her husband). She understood me (which is already a good thing) and I understood her when she told me to come the next day to pick up the bike (and pay)! After a few days in china, I thought it was cool.
It’s dangerous to ride a bike in the street of Kunming but I think it’s fun (you do have to pay attention to everything)