07/22/2025 - 07/22/2025
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One of the highlights of our visit to Kunming was the Daguan Zhuanxin wet market, renowned as possibly the best market in Yunnan. We opted to try the metro for the first time, and it proved to be quite efficient, dropping us just a couple of blocks from the market's entrance. The area felt familiar, and we realized this was the same location where we had eventually discovered a night market after wandering for an hour the previous day. Outside the metro station, a woman was selling vegetables from the back of a cart, and a man was holding a pole with live turtles dangling from it. Between the metro station and the market, there was a park featuring a large pond that could be crossed via a footpath. Within the park, a couple of elderly men were receiving pedicures while a group of women engaged in exercise dancing, portraying a typical scene of contemporary life in a Chinese city. The park's pond was linked to a large lake called Dianchi by a narrow canal beside the road. A bridge spanning the canal led to the market entrance, identifiable by a massive modern archway with LED billboards. At nine thirty in the morning, the scene was bustling, with shoppers moving in both directions along the main thoroughfare of the market. Some people were slurping noodles at a communal table, completely disregarding their neighbors.
It was immediately apparent that we were in a market operating at a high level, as vendors had permanent stalls set up in an area solely dedicated to food sales. Multiple large buildings were arranged in a grid, with stalls lining the sides and customers browsing the alleys in between. Pipes, ducts, and bridges were scattered overhead connecting different upper floors. Some alleys were covered with tarps for protection from the elements, but in other areas, vendors and customers would need to move quickly if it started to rain. The atmosphere felt quite different from the chaotic street markets of Lijiang and Dali—more urban and professional, yet still unpredictable in terms of the food items available. One popular sight was the display of emblems such as goat skulls and cow tails at butcher stalls to indicate the type of meat for sale.
There was very little in the market that wasn't food, though one woman displayed beautiful golden-brown wood carvings on a table. Had I not been weighed down by our luggage, I might have purchased a couple of these as souvenirs. A drum was overflowing with vibrant ears of corn. In the center of one corridor, a man used forceps to extract bee larvae from their hexagonal cells within circular combs. This is a delicacy in southern China, Cambodia, and Japan, but it was the first time I had encountered it. Naturally, our main focus was to find the most delicious or at least the most unique food in the market to satisfy our hunger. The choices were plentiful, with steaming soups, deep-fried Yunnan bacon, and delectable dumplings on display. I sampled a few items, but from my initial walk around the market, I knew my main dish would be from the vendor preparing salads with a mix of fried crickets and larvae. It was quite tasty and enjoyable, but so spicy that I couldn't finish it. While we were eating, Mei Ling received a call from the airline regarding our flight from Kunming to Hanoi the following day. Due to a recent typhoon, all flights to Hanoi were postponed for a day. We were aware of the typhoon but thought it had already passed. Apparently, there were still some residual effects making flying unsafe. This news was disappointing because I would now have to alter our hotel reservations in Hanoi, and we would lose a day in Vietnam later on. Mei Ling began working on securing another night of accommodation in Kunming while I emailed the hotel in Hanoi and made plans for the afternoon and evening. All the remaining activities in Kunming required travel outside the city, so I chose the easiest one to reach—a mountainous region known as Xishan on the far side of Dianchi Lake. However, we first needed to return to our apartment and move all our belongings to the new hotel Mei Ling had found a couple of blocks away. Changing plans on short notice is quite frustrating.
The simplest way to reach Xishan was via the cable car departing from the eastern side of the lake. Dianchi is the largest lake in Yunnan, and its shores are home to numerous protected wetland parks. Caohai is the northern arm of the lake that stretches into the suburbs of Kunming, separated from the rest of Dianchi by a dike known as the Haigeng Dam. The first cable car took us over the lake right next to the narrow dike, just wide enough for a road and a single line of evergreens. A second cable car
07/22/2025 - 07/22/2025 View Asia 2025 on zzlangerhans's travel map.