Living the sweet life in Kunming

I feel like writing an update of the last couple of weeks. Just a couple of sentences to each topic where I could easily fill a whole article with. But I don’t really get around to it. Why? You’ll see…

I really enjoyed the last rough bit with ferrys, trains and beach camping as I expected to settle down for a while when I get to Kunming. I settled down in high-speed mode as well as fell in love with this city.

My sweet warmshower-host, soon-to-be roommate, fellow solo-cyclist and first friend in Kunming,  Vera picks me up at the metro station after a long-and-relaxing trainride (me) / a long day of work (her). The late-evening walk to her apartment was wonderful, I was amazed by the quietness of Kunming as well as it’s fresh air.

Last time I saw all the stuff I sent off to Kunming

Most of my stuff was already at her place as my friend Huan helped me sent it there earlier. So I dreamt on the train of how I would take a shower to put on all-clean-clothes afterwards. This is the SWEETEST feeling!

So settling down in high-speed mode Vera offered me to stay in her guestroom while I’m here studying Chinese. Of course I jumped for it – not only no hassle to find a place but just – I don’t know how to phrase it – I didn’t even stumbled across it as for that, I would have had to at least put a foot out to search, I think. So with literally no-effort I got a nice place to stay and even co-hosted another female solo-cyclist for a couple of days. Sophie is on a big tour, going strong from Scotland towards the rest of the world; cycling, hitch-hiking, camping and woof-ing.

Couple of days after my arrival my Chinese one-on-one lessons started. I am making progress in speaking – but the listening is just killing me. I am still not able to HEAR the difference between “zh”, “ch”, “sh”, “q” and “z”. But I can PRODUCE these sounds correctly. This discrepancy totally puzzles my teacher. I know the words, I can recall them, use them and understand them when said on their own. But in a sentence? Nope.


Yeah – that’s me. Learning TaiChi on the road! (oh and on a smaller note  – BOTH of them tell me how to do it *gg*)

Since only learning Chinese isn’t filling my days (please note my dry-german-sarcastic-humor here!) I do yoga, go to the climbing gym (only got to real-rock twice so far), spent time with my room-mates, explore the market and – I am really excited about this one – started practicing Tai Chi! A small group that meets every night nearby and I summoned all my courage to walk up to them to ask if I can join. I am so proud and happy I did! After one month of diligent training I should be able to do the first part they said.

Oh and talking about the sweet life: This is a melon! Have you ever seen such a tiny melon?! I am eating loads of fruit here. And in all sizes. The other day on the train, I ate like the world smallest apples


… but I don’t need help!

how my evening stroll through my new neighbourhood in the City of Eternal Spring Kunming in Yunnan, China, alerted my neighbours

The man is carrying his one-year-old when he stretches out one hand towards me, assuring me, yelling „hold on, hold on!“ with a worried expression on his face before he flees the store for my rescue…

What happened before..

Two nights and days on the train brought me to beautiful Kunming and I can’t help falling in love with this city! It’s quiet (for a Chinese city anyways) and small but still big enough to feel like a city – there is a metro, climbing gyms, loads of small Chinese restaurants but if I want to I can resort to Western food as well or Thai or… and there are climbing gyms. Oh – and talking about climbing, it’s close to the mountains as well. As in climbing-areas in day-trip reach! One spot you can even reach by said metro. And on my first weekend I found two groups that were heading out so I got to go Saturday and Sunday.

It was just beautiful – it is a short drive and a really short and easy hike to „The Swallow“ where you get routes from really challenging, where I sit in awe and watch the other climb it, to really easy, where I can get a go. It’s set totally in the woods, surrounded by pine-trees and rock. No building to see, zero trash lying around. The only evidence of human impact where the bolts in the wall which we need to climb. Up on the wall I see into the distance. Terraced rice fields remind me of being in China and my heart fills with joy – for having successfully climbed this wall as well as for being here, in beautiful Yunnan for six weeks with loads of free, unplanned time that I can use for climbing, hiking, yoga and – finally – up-ing my Chinese level to a level where I can have a conversation.

I’ve tried to learn Chinese for a while. I had Chinese friends teaching me expressions, words and sentences. I’ve used apps, podcasts, YouTube Videos and just recently started learning with an Audio-course while cycling. The Audio-course was starting to get me somewhere but I just started it and was on my 15th 30-minute-lesson when I got to Kunming. I really enjoy the fact, that I can do it, while I am doing something else where I don’t need to be focused. Like doing the dishes or cycling. Every lesson they teach just a few new words or expressions so there is loads of spaced repetition and I have to talk out loud. Sometimes I would already know everything that’s new in a lesson, sometimes none. These are the ones where I realize I am getting tired in the middle of it.
The biggest advantage of this course is that it is building up, the stuff I learned in the lessons before, is getting picked up in the following ones using some spaced-repetition pattern. This way I don’t lose it but it sticks in my head. The other big advantage of it is, that it gets me talking. I repeat or answer what the course is asking, try grammatical structures and practice pronunciation.
Since it started with useful sentences, I can now say – pretty close to perfect – that my Chinese speaking skills are very badly and that I don’t have a clue, what the other person just said.

But who really get’s me to speaking is my Chinese teacher. We have daily lessons, Monday to Friday. Two hours, one-on-one. We don’t do the tone-practicing-thing – thank God! – but words, grammar and pronunciation.
In case you are wondering what the tone-practicing-thing is? Chinese has tones as in it’s not only important that you pronounce it the right way, but you have to use your voice in a certain way, go up or down, stay or go up and down. And when I first learned Chinese, I would spend ages saying the syllable „ma“ in different ways. It’s fun at the start and gets frustrating quickly. Like, you get to a point where, if you choose to learn Spanish, you would be able to have a small conversation. But you didn’t pick Spanish, or any other sensible language, so your teacher is still trying to get you to do the tones right without teaching you new words.
So, we are working on the language. Of course we are working on the tones, but we do it „on the job“, with the different words. Same with all these sounds that German or English don’t have but are really important in Chinese. I actually started drawing little pictures to remind myself where my tounge has to be to do „zh“ as supposed to how I pull my mouth for „j“. My minor difficulties in distinguishing the English „ch“ and „sh“ are much more of an issue now. But – despite all this – I AM MAKING PROGRESS! (Capitals intended. I didn’t think it would be possible).
I learned about 200 new words so far – well almost, the last 40 don’t stick yet – and am able to make up small stories, tell about my day or ask questions. Sometimes I even understand the answers! But my listening skills are way beyond my understanding skills. If you are wondering how that is possible – so much stuff sounds the same to me. Plus, sometimes words DO sound the same. Like the word for „house“ or „home“ sounds like the word that means „plus“. Of course, different characters, but same syllable, same tone. It’s „jia“ with the first tone if you are interested.
So it’s only context that allows me to know, if someone says „coffee, house, milk“ or „coffee with milk“.
Don’t think it’s easy. That is only ONE example! Of like many I came across with the meager amount of words I learned so far.

I can now manage situations where I walk up to a Tai-Chi-group and find out, if I can join, express to the worried people in that group, that I am aware that it is Tai Chi that they are doing and yes, I do want to study Tai Chi. They are meeting again tomorrow, at 7.30 and I am very welcomed to join. I am so exited!

Oh – how come I can just walk up to a Tai Chi group? As in, why is it there and where am I? It’s such an awesome Chinese thing that all over the country, pretty much every place would have groups of people doing sports together in the evenings and mornings.
It might be everything, from dancing – from very casual to rather serious and it looks like they are preparing for a performance – aerobic, Buddhist praying, marching around a temple with patriotic music from speakers following a Chinese flag or – like in this case – Tai Chi. You just walk around until you find one you like.

My dear friend Huan gave me the courage to walk up to a group for the first time when I was visiting her in her hometown a couple of month ago. And here I was now, walking down the street with my room-mate Vera. We just came back from a lovely dinner at one of the Western food places in our neighbourhood when she pointed the group out to me. So I decided not to think about it – in that case, I might have felt to shy to walk up to them – but to go for it, smile, walk towards the group, indicating I want to take part. So now, tomorrow, half past seven – I will practise Tai Chi. With a Chinese Tai Chi teacher. In a small, Chinese city, in the middle of the side-walk.

So it really pays to be brave! And to learn Chinese – as I managed to do all this, mainly talking, no smartphones and very little pointing involved. Way to exited to go sleep now, so I tell you the story of the man who came to my rescue when I didn’t even was in trouble.

Having just learned the way for pharmacy I felt brave enough to walk into one to have a look around. They are bigger than the ones in Germany so there are some products to be looked at. With most things I can figure out what they are for – not because of my Chinese reading skills, but they have some English-information on there as well. So I stroll around when a helpful employee comes my way. I explain, that I just want to have a look – and that my Chinese is very poor but I am feeling perfectly fine. Confused, she turns around and chats with her colleague while I continue browsing the store. They give it another attempt, other customers come in. And that is when my situation becomes obvious to the man with the baby:

I am a foreigner. I can’t speak Chinese. I need help.

So he stretches out one hand towards me, assuring me, yelling „hold on, hold on!“ before he flees the store to fetch his wife – an English teacher. We are actually neighbours and she is happy to explain me the way to the next stationery store where I get some pens and notebooks to motivate me for my studies. And maybe… maybe next time I can convince people who I really don’t need help. At least, at this particular moment.

How can I not fall in love with a place, where people are so helpful that they even try to help where there is no help needed? (Just in case – my teacher taught me how say that I don’t need help in a more eloquent way)

Where I spent the last seven nights…

1. In Seoul, my first sleep-over in a Jjimjilbang. A sauna place that’s open 24/7 and offers places to sleep. A kind of stressful place that’s a bit too big but an adventure.
2. In Incheon, my second sleep-over in a Jjimjilbang. A great experience that you will be able to read about later.
3. On the ferry – finally. Even though it went to Weihai instead of Lianyungang (check it out on a map. It’s quite a distance between the two). Another adventure you sure can read about soon.
4. and 5. At Weihai-beach in my tent.
6. and 7. Number 6 had just happened at time of writing, 7 is to come. On the train from Yantai to Kunming, after transfering 30 minutes from Weihai to Yantai-South-Station and an hour on the bus to go from Yantai-South to Yantain-Mainstation.

And all this being out and about is the reason I can’t post pics here at the moment. But they are on my instagram (naiveorbrave) and will be here eventually as well.

VISA! – and a ferry that leaves earlier than expected. Like, a day earlier…

And again – it’s not about what happens to you, it’s about the way you look at it. That’s how this days events changed from “meh” to “yeah”! Oh and this blog post is also about the stubbornness you develop when cycling. Or maybe I have always been stubborn but now it really shows?

But read yourself:

Smiling I enter the elevator after leaving the Chinese Visa Application Centre (CVAC). I got my student visa – 150 days, single entry without any hassle here in Seoul, will slowly make my way to Incheon, stop by one of Seoul’s Goodwill to ease my clothes situation a bit without having to buy newly made things and get to Incheon where my ferry to Lianyunguang leaves on Thursday.
But first, I’m off to get some Seoul streetfood – uhm, just that it started to rain. No, that’s wrong. It started to rain slightly on my last meters to the CVAC which made riding very pleasant. But now it turned into a down-pour. Instead of street-food I opt for the convenience store which is conveniently located inside this building and offers convenient food options.
Checking the route and the details while eating I’m in no rush. Until… I realize the ferry time-table has changed. My ferry leaves today. Approximately 60km of city cycling away from me. And it’s past lunch by now as I slowly took my time with everything – since I thought I had loads of it.
Shoot… I check the route, try to memorize it – at least I know the start anyway – but still. Loads of turns, not very detailed online map unless I zoom in… Needless to say I will have to stop to check. But hey – I am in Korea. The country with the longest waiting times at traffic lights. So many options to check.

If it’s not raining to bad. I am sure it will get better soon. It was so lovely when I started this morning. And yes, it will change eventually. From bad to worse. From rain to thunderstorm. But I have set my mind. I am getting to the port today. I will just keep going until I am there (and to be honest – once you are wet, it sucks to stop. You just get cold and uncomfortable).

I make it to the port by 6pm, I am soaking and getting cold while looking around for the ticket counter to Lianyunguang.. But… it’s the wrong terminal. So I cycle back to the right one. It’s like 6k past trucks in the thunderstorm with a lot of waiting at traffic lights.

I am soaking even more as I get there, getting cold while looking around for the ticket-counter to Lianyunguang. Immigration is still open, everyone is lining up, pushing parcels and suitcases. But… Immigration and the small store is the only thing that’s still open. The information is closed as well as all the ticket counters I see.

Frustrated, I sit around. Not wanting to go back to the thunderstorm and checking the hotel prices is just shocking and the pictures of the rooms are not very encouraging either. Maybe I can camp on the site? I just sit, listening to rain and thunder. It’s back to full force. The hall slowly but continuously empties. Eventually, the cleaning crew appears, grasps my situation and considers I shouldn’t be riding in the thunderstorm. Good, I agree. But what else can I do? Eventually they inform the head of the port who supplies me with coffee („Korean-style, extra sugar“) and a place where I can wait-out the rain. The coffee and the kindness do the trick. After being frustrated and exhausted, my mood lifts. I start to feel a bit less cold, more energy and the rain subsides. I start to change my point of view – away from „failure“ to „another adventure“ and remember just in time, that I don’t have to go to a hotel but could also go to a Jjimjilbang – a sauna, where you can stay the night.
After asking a few people for directions to the next one, I am close enough that one man pities me, gets his umbrella and makes sure I find the entrance. It’s not so easy if you are totally illiterate in the writing system a country uses…
Feeling warm again, I realize I haven’t had dinner yet – only the convenience store lunch. But that’s actually another story – how the lovely staff took care of me, fed me and helped my dry my stuff.

Climbing in Busan!

I stayed a week in Busan – I found climbers! I wasn’t carrying all this stuff for no reason around Korea! I sent everything that wasn’t a necessity to Kunming, China before I went to Korea. No jumper left, no sleeping back, less socks, less pants (remember the pants part…) undies and painkillers. BUT shoes, harness, helmet and quickdraws for climbing and my backpack to get to the climbing spot with my gear. About half of mz stuff in my two panniers was climbing related and apart from the shoes I haven’t used anything yet as I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go climbing when it’s 37°C out.

But – now! In Busan! A group of guys is going to two different spots on the weekend – I am excited. We meet at a bouldering gym a few days before and it becomes obvious that I will bring a book to the climbing site since I will only be able to do the easy ones. But who cares? I don’t. Well, not too much. I wanna go anyway and they are still happy to take me.

The weather changed since the taifun – it’s actually raining in the morning but will stop at 11:30, long before we finish the almost two-hours-drive and the following 40-minute-hike. So, Remi, Matthias and I are in good faith when we meet. I wear the less-good-pair-of-pants of my two pairs. The other one doesn’t have holes and I don’t want to spoil it climbing.

It’s 11:30 and the rain continues. And continues. We park the car, debate, grab some snacks and start hiking. Even if it stopped now – the rock will be wet so we leave the gear behind. The hike actually involves some bouldering, rope support and I – as the least hiking experienced in our group – need a hand a couple of times.

It’s a beautiful spot, right at the sea, but not a place where I want to fall from a low height. The floor consists of boulders of different shape and size which would make any grounder uncomfortable. The rock looks good, but for me, for sure hard. Remi and Matthias are more devastated by not being able to climb.

Back in the city we stop by at Remi’s place and he hands me one of his shorts before we go to dinner. Remember the hints about my pants? Well… they had a couple of holes on the outer legs before. By now, after going along the rocks, they have completely fallen apart and I was in no shape to go even for a street-food-dinner.

The day ended with Matthias fulfilling his dream of eating eel – once the waiter fried them on our table Matthias didn’t look to sure anymore and I was happy I opted for sweet pancakes from a stall outside anyways and a change in plans for the next day. Giving up on the weather, we would meet at the climbing gym.