First Days in Yunnan, China

33 °C in the shade, tropical humidity and still dressed in jeans and sweatshirts we were picked up by a brave bus driver from Kunming Airport. After 200 meters we had the first accident: we bumped into a car in front of us with the incredible speed of 1 km/h – no exaggeration. During our 300 km road trip through the hinterlands of Yunnan to the university in Mengzi, we got the first impressions of the rural Southwest China.


The second accident followed immediately: the Chinese food. Although it was really delicious, thefood was too hot for our sensitive German taste buds. Finally, we arrived at our hotel on the campus of Honghe University. Well rested, we started into day 2.

John McAdams, an American living in China for 22 years, gave us a brief cultural introduction on Chinese peculiarities.


Since food seems to be one of the most important issues so far, we decided to go for lunch with a few members of the staff of the English department.


Almost as important as the food, seems to be shopping. Our campus visit led us through food markets and malls with shops of all kinds. The girls were happy to find bags, jewelry, cosmetics and sun umbrellas and Christian was happy to find a Chinese SIM card. Meanwhile, Prof. Schmied explored the Chinese organic medicine.

In the afternoon, we met with the English department staff and introduced ourselves, hopefully in the following days we will get to know the staff a little more.