Day 2 in Kunming

Buffet breakfast at the Camellia Hotel.
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Early in the morning, we trotted over to the Camellia Hotel for buffet breakfast at 20Y each.  There were  sausages, ham, eggs (boiled, fried, scrambled, salted), baked beans, oats, toast, french toast, porridge, noodles (soup/fried), fried rice, potatoes (fried/french fried), vegetable selections, dumplings, fresh fruit, buns, cakes, juices, tea/coffee.  This morning the boys started classes.

In the afternoon, Zier brought us out to town.  The walk was very pleasant.  There were flowers everywhere, and there were also cleaners every few hundred metres industriously keeping the place clean with wide brooms made of dried leaves.  Every so often, we'd hear the "Happy Birthday" tune, coming from trucks spraying water on the road to keep dust down.  Kunming ladies are a fashionable lot - turtlenecks and high boots are very popular here.

Carrefour, downtown.
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It took 20 minutes of walking to get to the main shopping area, which is closed to traffic by large troughs of flowers.  Here are large shopping centres, lots of shops, eateries and also Carrefour.  This large hypermarket was opened just last August, and is very similar to the one back home.

In the evening, we walked with some other students to the Heilongjiang jiaozi (dumpling) shop, located in a small lane behind the Youyu Hotel (Renmin Dong Lu) close to Walmart.  20 pieces of boiled jiaozi cost 7Y, 10 pieces of guotie cost 4Y, a bowl of cucumber egg-drop soup cost 1Y.  A dinner that doesn't break the bank!

Jinguan Cake Shop.
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On the way back we passed the Jinguan Cake Shop where I bought some swiss roll slices, egg tart and biscuits.  I had come to China with hopes of shedding some weight (having once lost 10kg after a trip to India), but I hadn't reckoned on so much good food available here!