Kunming's fall colors

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Kunming is best known for its flowering trees that begin blooming very early in spring, often defying light night frost to do so. But last week I found a fine blaze or two of fall color in another of Kunming's minor parks, this one called Lotus Pool Park 莲花池公园。It's easy to get to and free, virtually undiscovered by tourists, although enjoyed with great regularity by locals.

 

I entered by a back way, having ridden the number 29 Bus, and the first thing I saw inside the gate was an elderly man practicing water calligraphy 水书法 on the slate paving stones of the open courtyard.

 

 

 

I watched from a respectful distance and snapped a couple of discrete photos. The gentleman looked up and saw me, took off his hat and walked over. Was I going to be chewed out and reprimanded for invading his solitary space? Had I broken some unwritten rule?

 

Rather gruffly he asked, "Can you read it?" I smiled and took a stab at doing so. The writing was very clear and precise, not really difficult to follow. I stumbled over one or two words, and he gave me appropriate prompts. He moved very close now, face to face, took off his dark sunglasses and hit me with the crucial follow up question, "But can you understand it? Do you know what it means?" Well, I floundered for 10 or 15 seconds before confessing my ignorance.

 

"Do you remember when Liu Bei 刘备 met with Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 before the founding of Shu Han 蜀汉 and they swore to...." Well, he was off on a rapid reprise of the history of the Three Kingdoms that was well over my head, though I did catch a reference to the evil Cao Cao 曹操 from the north, to which I nodded vigorously. What he had inscribed on the ground with his wet pen, had to do with these matters. He walked me up and down the two columns of rapidly disappearing characters, pointing with emphasis to some of them, wanting me to repeat those key terms out loud, perhaps so I would remember them better.

 

Eventually, I told him I had to meet some other friends deeper inside. Thanked him, he wanted to shake hands, which I found a little unusual. Had I just become his disciple 徒弟? It's always a treat to meet a genuine enthusiast; someone who cares strongly about any given subject, and I had just unwittingly managed to do that. Good start to the day.

 

 

 

The park is not so densely forested as to prevent glimpses of tall building nearby, easily seen through the coloring foliage. Night-time temperatures so far have not been below freezing, so the color change of the leaves has been subtle in most species. Parts of the park are high on a hill, while other surround a quiet lake. It is dotted throughout with small and medium sized gazebos where people gather to chat, sing, play music, drink tea and just enjoy being outside with nature.

 

 

I was there on a weekday, so the park was not crowded. Games were available for kids. Here a stand sold plaster of Paris molds which children could paint wildly, expressing their creativity after first putting on a disposable artist's smock.

 

Some people did slow solo Tai Chi 太极拳, like this gentleman, which to me looked more like a moving meditation than an actual exercise workout. Soon I found a bridge that crossed a stream which fed into the lake. Small footbridges like this are always a feature of Chinese parks, embodying "crossing over" symbolism as well as simple functionality. Supposedly this stream, and others, were once fed by strong springs. Now they are just a trickle, but the runoff from the lake still goes into Panlong River 盘龙江, snaking through the downtown part of Kunming.

 

 

 

Volunteers, some with red arm-bands, netted debris out of the lake. One could rent paddle boats or slow-speed electric boats by the hour.

 

 

 

Families posed by the water, snapping memory-album photos against the backdrop of the pagoda, which rose across another arched footbridge.

 

 

 

I met 5 middle-aged ladies fashionably dressed and out for a walk, full of giggles and laughter, jockeying for flattering selfie positions on the low steps of the pagoda. I later briefly got roped into being their group photographer.

 

 

 

A few patient fishermen had their lines in the water, protected by large conical bamboo hats. I didn't see any "big catch" action, in fact, I didn't witness even a nibble. A concessionaire had tables set up which provided a pleasant view. He would provide cards, Chinese chess 象棋, or ma jiang tiles 麻将 for a small fee. I sat a while and sipped a tall glass of tea. One could have green tea or red for 10 Yuan with a tall thermos of hot water off to the side for free refills. Pu'er tea cost a little more, because it needed actual brewing. I sipped a very decent biluochun 碧螺春 while listening to a small group of musicians rehearsing nationalistic songs off to my right.

 

 

 

It was approaching lunchtime and I wanted to move on. Crossed a different bridge and exited at the main gate. No bus stops were handy for any of the lines that would take me where I wanted to go, so I rented one of the public bicycles for 1 Yuan and peddled away.

 

 

 

Another pleasant small-scale taste of Kunming beauty. Life can be good here if you let it.

 

[Shelley]

Anther wonderful glimpse into the wonderful place Kunming and indeed China is. Thanks for your efforts.

 

8 hours ago, abcdefg said:

I didn't see any "big catch" action, in fact, I didn't witness even a nibble

 

I am not an angler but those that are that I know tell me its not just catching the fish, its sitting in lovely surroundings listening to the sounds of the wildlife and looking at the wonderful natural things around you. In fact any fish my friends catch go back and for them it seems like just a good excuse to escape the "wife and kids" or those DIY jobs that are waiting.

[somethingfunny]

I used to do a bit of water calligraphy myself (I'll have to see if I can find some pictures of my 'work') and the understanding part you describe was always stressful.  I wish I could do some now with my increased knowledge of Classical Chinese.  To my shame, I even remember someone having to explain the meaning of 君 to me.

 

I once had a conversation with someone doing some water calligraphy and his advice was that it didn't matter if you didn't understand it, you just find a style you like, buy a 字帖 and then write it out fifty times.  By the end, you would have amazing calligraphy skills and you would have absorbed the meaning.  I thought this was actually quite a good illustration of the foundations of Chinese educational philosophy.  It's more of an ability precedes understanding system, rather than the typical Western understanding precedes ability. 

 

But that's a conversation for another day.

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Interesting! I've always been fascinated by these exercises and their very temporary nature. Never tried doing it. Looks like it might be fun.

[Luxi]

How lovely! Thanks for inviting us to share your walk, I really enjoyed it. Beam me up, abcdefg!

 

10 hours ago, abcdefg said:

"Do you remember when Liu Bei 刘备 met with Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 ...

 

I would have remembered, you'll have to watch the TV series (with subtitles by Jiang Hu), you'll come to love the whole story.

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Will do! I've watched the full movie two or three times.

[somethingfunny]

Just had a quick look for some photos of my previous experience with "floor-water-calligraphy" and found these:

 

So, I used to go to the main square in the evening and there was this old guy (everyone called him 马老师) and, if you had a pen, you could stand next to him and copy what he was writing.

 

 

Here you can see my efforts.  Sometimes at the end of a section he would walk back through and point out which characters were written particularly well.

 

 

As a place for middle-aged (and upwards) people to gather in the evening, it would become quite busy and the calligraphy writing would attract a bit of a crowd.  Luckily, as people's attention was focused mainly on the writing rather than those doing it, I would go unnoticed.  Although we would occasionally have cause to have a bit of a debate about something or other.

 

 

The whole square was busy with every conceivable activity, from calligraphy to dancing, to skipping, to spinning tops etc.

 

I once went through at 7am on a Sunday morning and found this...

 

 

(I don't have much experience posting photos.  Is there a way to stop it rotating the second one when you enlarge it?)

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22 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

So, I used to go to the main square in the evening and there was this old guy (everyone called him 马老师) and, if you had a pen, you could stand next to him and copy what he was writing.

 

Was that Beijing?

 

Looks like fun! I was worried that it might be very intimidating, only suitable for accomplished calligraphers and that my childlike scribbling would painfully embarrass me. But maybe not so bad; I'll try it next time. Might provide a stimulus for investing the effort to learn to write better. 

 

Thanks for posting these! I saw lots of water calligraphy when I lived in Harbin one summer. Teams with matching jackets would compete on the weekend. It would turn into a jolly affair, 很热闹。

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23 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

I don't have much experience posting photos.  Is there a way to stop it rotating the second one when you enlarge it?)

 

Posting photos is not intuitive with the current software. Here's how I do it.

 

After you attach the first photo to your post, double click it and select size and location. If you plan to have two photos side by side, to keep the page from becoming too narrow and vertical, size it 300, assign it to the left side of the page, keeping the original "aspect ratio." Place the second photo beside it, to the right, same size, but click its location/alignment as "none." This lets it stay beside the first one without jockeying for position.

 

I try to edit the images I wish to upload such that they are smaller than 100 kb. Otherwise they are too large to load smoothly and reasonably fast; they bog the page down for members using a slow internet connection.

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Examples:

 

 

 

(I'm in Taiwan again, enjoying those fine night market 夜市 specialty snacks.)

[somethingfunny]

It was in Shenyang, so in the direction of Harbin.  I'd like to have seen the teams with jackets - sounds like a lot of fun.  Occasionally some people would turn up and they'd do mental calligraphy stuff, like writing a really complicated character in 'bubble' writing without taking the pen off the ground.  One of them had a special pen he'd made from a Coca-Cola bottle which would release water to the 'nib', rather than having to dip it in a bucket like us mortals.

 

I went pretty much every evening for an entire summer so I got quite handy by the end.  Importantly though, it exposed me to some Classical Chinese and lots of traditional form characters.  In fact, I found that without really realizing it, I could easily recognise most common traditional characters.

 

(p.s. Taiwan again?  You are a lucky man.) 

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2 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

(p.s. Taiwan again?  You are a lucky man.) 

 

This time exploring the south part of the island a little bit: Tainan 台南 and Gaoxiong 高雄。Sunny and warm.