yunnan

So, as I write this, I am sitting in a tibetan-themed hostel in Dali, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas. We left Kunming last night on an overnight train, and arrived here early this morning. After some taxi haggling and random wandering, we finally found this hostel. The best part of this place is that it serves large, western-style breakfasts, complete with yak bacon. So far, our trip has been good, although not without small mixups (somehow, we found ourselves wandering around a small random village an hour outside of Kunming yesterday, instead of going to 1)the stone forest, or 2)this village with many ethnic minorities, our original two choices. But anyways, it was still very interesting.) We also met an elderly woman who was part of the "barefoot doctor" program, in which young doctors from large cities were sent into the countryside to serve rural communities. This woman was originally from Shanghai, and because her father and brother had studied in America, and she herself had gone to a mission school, she found herself sent to the remote regions of Yunnan. She said that living with ethnic minorities and teaching them medicine, Chinese, and 'culture' was one of the best experiences of her life. (She bestowed lavish praise on chairman Mao because of it.) Even after she was allowed back to Shanghai, she chose to come back and work in Yunnan. It's interesting to hear different points of view on the cultural revolution, especially after reading Anchee Min's "Becoming Madame Mao," our book club book. It's a semi-fictional biography about Mao's final wife, and I would definitely recommend it.
It's amazing how different Yunnan is from Shandong, or really anywhere else I've been in China (except maybe Chengdu). The climate, the architecture, and the people are all so different, it really doesn't feel like the same country. It was a huge shock to see palm trees. It's also taking a while to get used to "Yunanese," so far, it seems like most people I talk to can understand me perfectly, but I can barely understand them.