08-Sep-2025
Yunnan was the site of the Nanzhao kingdom (formed from the unification of six Tai kingdoms in 729). It did all the things thrusting states do, like control trade routes, wage war, and promote culture and industry. Eventually, it declined, meeting its end in 902.
And we need to know this why? Because this was the era when the earliest religious monuments were established in Kunming (which was then the second most important city in the empire).
First, we have the East and West Pagodas, which are just a stone's throw from our hotel. They were built in the mid-ninth-century in what is known as the "close-eaves style", and they were originally part of the Chengle and Huigang Temples (long gone).
The East Pagoda, 10 storeys high, was toppled by earthquakes, so this version dates back to the late 19th century
This whole area is very picturesque
Extraordinarily, the West Pagoda, 13 storeys high, has survived with only minor renovations. There's a park in front, where people gather in the evenings to talk and play. Incredible to think this granddaddy has been surveying the world for well over a millennium...
The pagodas were actually an evening visit, but they give some context to the temple that was our main objective this morning. The Buddhist Yuantong Temple dates back even further in the Nanzhao era. Nothing of the original structure survives, but the temple was rebuilt at the command of the province's first Muslim governor after the Mongol invasion incorporated Yunnan into the empire of the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century.
Dynasties come and go, and the Ming eventually replaced the Yuan. Ming officials built a fortified wall around the city, and the first Ming governor's palace was built on an island in Green Lake.
In its day, Yuantong Temple was the largest monastery within the city's walls.
In our day, it's an amazingly place to spend an hour or so:
Once you're gawped out at the temple, you can swing round the north of Green Park to Wenlin Street, a tree-lined and elegant thoroughfare that's running in coffee shops. We picked Coffee Break, and thought it was pretty good.
Looking out onto Wenlin Street
Two discoveries to close on:
1. The American Volunteer Group, aka the Flying Tigers (the US-Chinese anti-Japanese collaboration that started even before the US were officially fighting), had its base in Kunming. We first came across these guys in a museum in Chongqing. And the reason we were reminded of them here was the presence of the Hump Hostel right next door to our own accommodation ("hump" refers to the treacherous air route they flew over the Himalayas):
Earlier in the day we'd come across this:
At that point, we didn't realize the significance, but the Tigers did indeed used to paint their planes with teeth... There's lots more on this extraordinary chapter of history here.
2. When we got back to our hotel today we found a spiky bucket and what looked like a big teabag:
A quick scurry on the internet suggested that we'd been given the means to make a herbal-infusion footbath. Clues were also offered by the book I'm currently listening to. In Aube Rey Lescure's River East River West, set in China, the husband of a pregnant woman runs back and forth topping up her footbath with kettles of hot water. Foot-soaking is regarded as highly beneficial in Chinese medicine, and after this first go, I think I could definitely become a convert.
The hotel also provides really pukka tea, reflecting the significance of the beverage in Yunnan Province. I'm totally not an expert on tea. What I do know is that this stuff is very, very nice...
Definitely an interesting day.