Arrived in Kunming – stepping off the plane onto the tarmac feeling the warmer weather, immediately you see more foliage: bushes, trees, vines growing on buildings, and flowers too (it is Spring). Clean[er], fresh[er] air. The airport terminal is the old-style and smallish for this size city ( 5.8 million people). But I don’t mind, I want to see as much of the old China as possible [They’ve torn down and re-built new so rapidly, it ‘s becoming hard to discover even the recent past.

I’m surprised that I’m understanding so many of the bus driver’s words. But Jessica [our Chinese Teaching Assistant] told me that she also hears the driver speak a completely different language to other locals. I’m also noticing that these Kunming people look different from the people in my city Tianjin. (Sure they are distinctly Asian, but I guess I’ve lived here long enough to notice variations among Asians.) That is because this province Yunnan has 50% minorities representing about 25 distinct people groups.

Note: the “majority group” in China is called Han. The Han comprise roughly 80% of the total population of China. (However the country boasts more than 60 distinct indigenous people groups.)