Kunming: Grand View Park and Kunming Lake
Because Scott would be spending the day at the post office, his lover Xiaoyao and I made an excursion to Grand View Park. Weighty clouds hung in the sky, and a quick wind dappled the surface of the lakes. A fleet of kites sailed the skies. It was a beautiful day.
Indeed, the kites swam through the sky! The more interesting ones I saw swimming about were a pair of octopi and a shark:
We walked around a bit, enjoying the scenery that our $1.25 bought us, strolling by ponds cut with ducks and geese, gardens, pavilions, and carnival rides. In a short hour and a half, we saw all there was to see in the park area, so we decided to take a flatboat ride onto Dian Chi lake, the large lake to the south of Kunming, whose northern tip was broken into the ponds for the Grand View Park.
We bought some loaves of bread to feed the gulls. Quickly, the white gulls approached the boat, well trained to accept the gifts tossed out by rowdy Chinese. They squawked approval to us and competitive slurs to the others as we tossed them bits of bread. They got so close that I could see the gray gradient of their feathers and the black dots at their temples.
The birds followed us for the entirety of the 50 minute boat ride. We bought more loaves of bread to feed them, and gave them quite a good meal. My cheeks hurt from all the smiling and laughing, and afterward we strolled pondside to have some sweetened lotus starch and relax.
After this we went to another park, Cui Hu Park, which also had lakes and birds. Because this park has no admission fee, more people filled it. Elderly folk played instruments and sang in groups, the better performers gathering larger crowds. A group of minority folk danced and sang in their native style. Students and amateur photographers crowded the walkways to take pictures of gulls and geese. We went shopping along the side street looking at minority embroidered purses and clothing--beautiful stuff even if fake, which I couldn't tell.
Our last stop was Carrefour, a French supermarket and store chain, where we picked up foodstuffs for dinner.