China has always felt like the big unknown even from the planning stages. It's so big, even what we thought were large towns are actually populated by 10 million people!! Asia has been so easy so far, communication and transport have been far less stressful than we thought. China changes all that!

Luckily for us airport signage is dual language so at least we could find the exit but that's where it stops. We had the hostel address written in mandarin and thank god we did as the taxi driver spoke no English. She didn't mind as she continued talking mandarin to us on the journey trying to explain extra fees. Sy & I looked at each other as it dawned on us we'd better get learning mandarin. Even the basics to not be so overwhelmed. The driver seat in the taxis here are surrounded by a cage, bit worrying!!

We arrived at the hostel and felt a bit better as they speak good English and were able to help point out the city's highlights. They also have a restaurant so we were able to eat well. Even the restaurants are all in mandarin here, so far we haven't even seen a picture menu. I've downloaded an app to help me get cracking & put my language learning ability to the true test!

The next morning was beautiful blue skies so we went for a bimble around the city. Walking via the theatre to pick up tickets for tonight's show we stopped at an art exhibition. It wasnt long before someone was filming us with a video camera! We figured they were just happy they had some international interest in us looking at their work! So we played up to it, admiring, pointing and rubbing chins at the art in display!!

We walked through the flower & bird market. No so many flowers as New Year's Eve stalls preparing for their big holiday. Found the pet aisle with snakes, scorpions, spiders, turtles, tortoises, hamsters, rabbits etc.

Walking to the hill to Yuantong temple at the base of the mountain we were so happy to be walking on wide, clean pavements again. If there were mopeds on them they left a gap for people to walk. The roads were also easy to cross, bliss after the chaos of Hanoi. At one point the locals use our lead to help them cross the road rather than the other way around. The temple was very pretty even though it appeared the water pool had been emptied. It was an active temple with monks praying in the main hall and the woman singing their chants in another room. We enjoyed taking it all on before we headed to the green lake. It's a big lake in the city centre with bridges, walkways & resting places in the islands in the middle. It was great to watch the people persue their hobbies here. Some had joined in a large impromptu choir singalong that had started, others were line dancing or ballroom dancing while others did aerobics. We struggled to order our drinks at a cafe there as also they had a written english menu they were asking us questions in mandarin. I think our blank faces gave away that we had no idea what they were saying!!!
Siberian seagulls migrate here so there were many locals feeding them! The flower displays were colourful & really pretty! We walked back to freshen up before our night at the theatre.

We'd booked to see a show about the minorities of the yunnan province. It turned out to be a frantic, colourful, tribal version of Stomp! They sang songs from the tribes & danced to the rhythms in glorious costumes. Some slow, some fast, some just beautiful. The theatre was mainly filled with locals and we have a good time. Sy even got some sneaky pictures! Rest day now before our sleeper train up to Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge.