More Of Kunming

It was a long cable car ride over the lake, the big lake next to Kunming whose name escapes me, and as we approached the other side I thought; "A tourist and his money is soon parted." A road across the lake was about 100 yards to the side. Then the cable car began to climb the steep hill and I had second thoughts. Toward the top of the hill I dismounted walked up some steps rounded a corner so see a lineup of tour buses. My taxi people could have delivered me to that spot. Ah, yes, A tourist and his money.......
But that's part of the fun...so in good humor I joined the procession climbing, climbing, climbing (no funicular this time) all to discover the "Dragon's Gate" grotto hewed out of solid rock by some inspired monk centuries ago. Frankly I was more impressed by the young man packing a load of sand up those steps to mix with concrete for some repair being done....or the woman who is cleaning the lobby of my hotel bldg every morning when I leave and is still doing when I return.
It was a hazy day so the spectacular views of Kunming were obscured........
There are 26 minority peoples in the province, Yunnan. A huge park has been built with a sample village from each of the tribes. This was my next stop. While it was very interesting it was obviously built with the Chinese in mind. It has a bit of the feeling of a zoo mixed with a theme park. I do hope that it signals some respect for the minorities some of which have as few as 120,000 people. A real trip would be to visit the actual villages.
Observed along the road....a Lexus dealership.
Every Asian city has it's own distinctive traffic patterns. No left turns on major streets in Kunming but there are special u-turn lanes. So the drives passes the street on which he'd like to turn left, make a u-turn and then a right turn.
Tune in tomorrow for a bit of a surprise.