Having completed my first round of exams I treated myself to a few days out of town. First stop, lovely Jianshui, a small, peaceful town 3 hours bus ride south of Kunming towards the Vietnamese border. In the busier season Jianshui attracts a decent (but not scandalous) number of tourists to see its pretty treelined streets, relatively untouched old town and very interesting local architecture, the Zhu family ancient home and gardens, and one of China's oldest / largest (I can't remember which) Confucian temples and centre of Confucian studies. It is a town that is also known for some great regional food treats especially their barbecued tofu and some incredibly simple but superb tasting noodle dishes. I spent a couple of days riding the town's buses, the hostel's (very scary) push-bike, moseying about watching the town's squadrons of hairdressers playing pool on outdoor tables set up in a shopping arcade (jammed with hairdressing salons funnily enough), exploring the back streets and food markets, temples and dilapidated ancient homes and waiting for my next excuse to eat more of their fantastic noodles. It is said that there is a magnificent 16 span ancient bridge a few kilometres (some say 3, others say 9 and Google Maps says 15 kilometres) out of town which I planned to visit on the not so trusty rusty steed belonging to my hostel. Alas, the road at the edge of town descended rapidly (the road, not I) and for a considerable distance out to a vast open plain which I quickly decided may well have been a tasty downhill spin but was definitely beyond the talents of my ancient and (already) screeching, undersized bike. My recently operated meniscus also had a say in the matter and called a halt to the trip and I am yet to visit the lovely old bridge. That's what I didn't see. Here's a little of that which I did see.... Click here to view the Jianshui album
|
Articles
All
Archives
August 2015
|