The beginning of my Yunnan Dream
The park occupies a beautiful setting with incredible lakes and canals forming foregrounds to the Three Pagodas of Dali or the magnificent White Stupas of Xishuangbanna's Manfeilong. Close by are the waters of the 300-squar-kilometre Dianchi Lake. Crescent shaped and roughly 39 kilometers long by 13 kilometers wide, it is the largest freshwater lake in Yunnan and sixth largest in China. Mountains rising, particularly to the west, enhance its scenic appeal. During my first visit, fishing and agricultural villages still spread along the shores close to Kunming but today such areas are absorbed by the city's urban growth. Indeed close to modern downtown, wetland parks have helped transform the scene. However in the 1990s traditional life was evident. Single deck metal boats ferried local people between shoreline villages or longer cross-lake journeys. Fishermen punted long wooden boats through plant-covered creeks. I could easily spend hours there watching traditions that were increasingly disappearing into the modern city.
Rising above the lake stands the Western Hills or Xishan. A popular local saying suggests, "If you do not visit the Western Hills, you have not visited Kunming. If you do not come to the Dragon Gate you have not been to the Western Hills." Today the area is a park easily reached from downtown by metro. In 1995 I had to transfer onto several buses followed by a shuttle carrier up to a small tourist village that had developed at the entrance to the Dragon Gate trail.
