Excursions

To escape the noise, traffic and congestion of Kunming one has a choice among several attractive alternatives in the nearby hills and along the lake. All of them are easily accessible from the city by regular public transportation. The sites in the hills are old temple compounds, occasionally with good views, but mainly notable for their seclusion, closeness to nature, ancient trees, architectural embellishments and sculptural achievements. And while crowds may throng the compounds occasionally, like weekends and holidays, the neighbouring forests offer a clean and tranquil refuge, if needed.

The nearest of these compounds is the Golden Temple (Jindian), 7 km east of the city centre, comprising several buildings on Mingfengshan-the Hill of Singing Phoenixes. In between the buildings walkways lead past the pines and cypresses to gardens of camellias or azaleas and to the Bell Tower, from the top of which one can view the distant hills behind the skyscrapers of Kunming. The three entry gates at successive points on the hill are notable for their decorative carved and painted brackets supporting the roofs.

The Golden Temple is actually a building embellished with high-quality Yunnan bronze, used on
the pillars, window screens, brackets and sculptures. Originally constructed by order of the Ming Dynasty Daoist Governor Chen Yongbing in 1602, following a dream he had of the Daoist Immortal Lu Dongbin, the original was removed to Jizushan in the west in 1637. The present temple was built under the stewardship of Wu Sangui in 1671, when he ruled Yunnan for the Qing Dynasty. He is supposed to have left his own, 12 kg-heavy sword here. It is housed inside the temple along with an even bigger, 20 kg, double-edged sword said to have been used by the Daoist saint Zhen Wu to defend the temple.

Yuantong Temple

On Wulaoshan, 11 km north of Kunming, lies the early Ming era Black Dragon Palace. First erected in 1394 and redone in 1454, it stands beside Black Dragon Pool (Heilongtan) and was formerly the site of temples in the Han, Tang and Yuan Dynasties. These were all destroyed by war, but a Tang era plum tree, a Song Dynasty cypress and a Ming camellia tree still stand in the compound, still blossoming every Lunar New Year. A statue of the black dragon also stands in the courtyard. A companion compound in the adjacent woods, the Dragon Fountain Palace, comprises several halls dedicated to the Jade Emperor and other Daoist deities.

Daoist legend states that Black Dragon Pool is the home of a small black dragon, confined there by the Immortal Lu Dongbin after he subdued nine bigger dragons that were causing floods. The last one he commanded to do good for humans and supposedly, once the ancient inhabitants started drawing its water to irrigate their fields, the little black dragon made sure the pool never ran dry, even in years of drought. About 600 square metres in area and 11 metres deep, it is divided by a bridge from a very shallow pool, a half metre deep, that is five times its size. Pavilions on the edge are for watching fish. And the odd thing about them is that, though the water of the two ponds is connected, the fish that swim in one pool never pay a visit to the other.

Northwest of the city, about 13 km from the centre, the Bamboo Temple (Qiongzhusi) lies on a wooded slope of Yu'anshan (Jade Table Mountain). This Buddhist monastery was originally founded by a monk from Kunming who studied the Chan sect (otherwise known as Zen) in central China for 25 years around the end of the Song Dynasty. Within the main hall one of the many inscribed tablets dates from the Yuan Dynasty and is bilingual-Mongolian and vernacular Chinese. Standing in the courtyard are two 600 year-old cedar trees.

The outstanding feature of this temple is its collection of 500 painted clay sculptures of Buddhist arhats (holy men). The work of a mid-Qing sculptor from Sichuan, Li Guangxiu, and his apprentices, the statues are all different from each other, every one modelled on real and unique contemporary originals. Faces display the whole gamut of possible expressions. Some are kindly and some are fierce. Some are sedate or contemplative and others are active, even chatting or laughing. No two are the same and the dress, hair style and props are also unique to each statue. According to local legend, if a visitor begins counting the statues, starting from the beginning of any row, and comes to the number matching his or her age, that statue will symbolically represent the visitor's dominant inner character.

Towering over 2500 metres above the northwest shore of Dianchi, 16 km west of the city, is a group of five mountains known as the Western Hills (Xishan). Three famous temples and a climb up to a viewpoint draw the visitors. Buses take them all the way to the top-lying temple and from here to the lookout point at Dragon Gate it can get pretty crowded. But like the other ex-urban temples one can easily walk away from the masses, out onto innumerable paths high in the hills, and search out a view of one's own.

Dragon Gate

Most visitors these days are tourists in vehicles and they head straight for Dragon Gate. Proper pilgrims were supposed to walk up the mountain, which only takes a couple of hours, stopping at the temples enroute. The first, just over 2 km from the turnoff from the Kunming road, is Huating Temple. This Buddhist temple was first built in 1320, renovated in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and last rebuilt in 1920. Besides the imposing guardian statues and images of the Buddha in various guises, the 500 arhat sculptures of the Bamboo Temple are replicated here. They are largely in high relief on the walls of the main worship hall and exhibit the same realism and individuality as their counterparts at the Bamboo Temple.

Predating Huating is the next temple up the hill-2 km by road, slightly shorter by footpath through the forest. This Chan Buddhist temple was built in 1302 by the monk Xuan Jian and is called Taihuasi. A 600 year-old gingko tree rises above the gate. The complex includes pavilions beside the 1000 square-metre Blue Pond, itself embellished with rockeries, islets and walkways. Another pavilion, the Sea Viewing Pavilion, offers a long view of Dian Lake.

Even grander views are possible from the next temple up-the Sanqingge Daoist Temple. Though one can drive up the mountain road to the entrance, the true pilgrim prefers the winding stone staircase of over 1000 steps that begins at the base of the hill. The buildings belonging to this complex are stacked above each other on the steep side of the mountain. Even higher, in an eyrie perching on a sheer, perpendicular cliff, is Dragon Gate, the goal of every visitor, the greatest viewpoint in the Kunming area. The view is all the more appreciated because of the arduous task of getting there, which is by squeezing in and out of small grottoes chiseled out of the rock by Qing Dynasty monks. The slow and dangerous work took 72 years and the final passageway was completed in 1853. It replaced a hazardous, rickety plank road attached to the cliff face.

At the other end of Dian Lake are two sights popular with Chinese, one a temple, the other a kind of museum. The temple is Panlongsi, a restored complex with a towering pagoda in the close-eaves style (like the East and West Pagodas in Kunming). It stands on a hill behind Jincheng, 45 km south of Kunming. The buildings have been recently redone and the location lacks the thick pine forests and bamboo groves of the temples nearer to Kunming.

More interesting is the Zheng He Memorial Park in Jinning, also known as Kunyang, off the south shore of the lake, 64 km from Kunming. A native Muslim of Jinning, Zheng He was the admiral who commanded the seven naval expeditions in the early 15th century ordered by the Ming Emperor Yong Le to extend the dynasty's prestige. It was the only time in history when China employed a navy for diplomatic purposes. Zheng He guided the expeditions as far as India and Africa.

The park is on a hill above the town. Among its attractions are the main exhibition hall, with maps, a scale model of the type of ship used in those days and other items relevant to the expeditions. Outside are low-relief sculptures of scenes from the journeys, depicting the countries where the ships visited. In another part of the park is an area with sculptures of some of the strange (to Ming sailors) animals found in and brought back from those faraway lands.

North of Jinning, about halfway up the western shore of the lake, stands the Guanyin Temple, on a small hill not far from the lakeside.The villagers are Bai from the west, though they look and live like Han no-wadays. The temple is pleasant, but not very grand, the view nice,but not spect acular.Further south is the resort of Baiyukou,

which affords better scenery and a chance to observe various boats and fishing activities. In fact, the place is named after the white fish (baiyu) that abound in the bay here. Baiyukou is a narrow peninsula that juts out into the lake. Weirdly shaped cliffs rise on three sides. A Nationalist era villa, gardens and pools separated from the lake by stone embankments, nearby arbours and pavilions augment the setting.

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