Happy New Year to all! Seems like this will be my final year in Kuala Lumpur studying. Hope everything goes well this year so that I can make a decision on whether to work or study abroad. Well, basically I had my term break for a month (the whole of december) and was back in Kuching relaxing. My parents planned for a trip to China (yes...again) and this time it's in Yunnan Province.

Yunnan (云南)as many of us know, is located on the south part of china which is surrounded by provinces like Szechuan, Tibet, Guizhou, Guangxi and also countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. According to my tour guide, Yunnan actually looks like a dinosaur, whereas coincidentally Yunnan also has this dinosaur museum(which i didn't get to visit). One amazing fact about Yunnan is that among the 56 ethnical groups in China, Yunnan alrady has a stagerring number of 52 there, whereby 25 are minorities. My trip starts off from the capital, Kunming. Just for your info, you gotta bring loads of clothes during this time of the year. The weather temperature here changes like a fast forwarded dvd player. The lowest temperature it went was around 4°C.

A very densely populated and busy city. Kunming (昆明) is also known as the "Spring City" and to my astonishment, it sure was. Although it was winter, I could still find flowers all around the city. They have the freshest and most juicest strawberries. Another would be their yellowish sweet potatoes. Despite the cold weather, these colourful snacks will always warm your heart out. Hmm... yummy! Don't miss out their fat and oily sausages too.

When you are in Kunming, you will not miss out this destination called Yincui Gorge (荫翠峡). Here you will be able to ride on a boat and enjoy the magnificent view and be dwarfed by the colossus surrounding mountains. Furthermore, you are able to visit the caves of those mountains, where a pair of waterfalls within a cave awaits you. Better get your pictures taken here. It's a once in a lifetime chance!

Another cool place you may visit is the Stone Forest (石林). According to the guide, these stones are actually from the sea whereas this area of Kunming was part of the sea where stones grew millions of years ago. As the water level decreased, we are able to see these unusual stones sticking out of the ground. There are thousands of these stones all around this area and some of them even have stories like Journey to the west, or Ethnical Legends. A truely amazing site and a very well preserved area with a 5-star toilet with built-in monitor screens too.

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