For my graduation trip, I spent 16 days in China (Yunnan & Beijing) with my girlfriend. I’ll try to post the full trip report progressively.

Day 1
We had an early morning flight on Tiger Airways to Guangzhou, arriving at about 1030hrs. The Guangzhou Baiyun Airport is probably one of the best airports in the region in terms of design, facilities and speed of immigration and customs clearance. Due to the H1N1 problem, we first had to fill out a health declaration before going through immigration. The quarantine officer who processed me asked me “Are you feeling unwell? You seem to be perspiring.” although I already filled out the form declaring that I was in good health. Uh. I think it was because I had oily skin. I told him so and was waved on.

The day before we were notified that our connecting flight on China Southern to Kunming was cancelled. We were instructed to get our flight rearranged upon arrival in Guangzhou, so we hurried to the domestic check-in counter once we collected our luggage. After 15 minutes of running around, we finally got our boarding passes for a Shenzhen Airlines flight. Whew. We then went to look for somewhere to have lunch. The good thing about Baiyun Airport is that food prices are quite reasonable (15 CNY for a rice meal with veggies and meat – barely edible for a Singaporean palate but still is food), and there are plenty of food choices… ranging from rice meals to McDonald’s. So much better than the airports in Shanghai and Beijing.

After a flight delay and approximately 90 minutes in the air, we arrived at Kunming Wujiaba Airport. It was in pretty bad conditions for an international airport – the washrooms were in an appalling state and the whole place, including the taxi queue, was quite chaotic.

We checked into the Economic Trade Hotel after a short taxi ride, and by the time we settled down it was already dinner time. After a short walk in the hotel’s neighborhood we took a taxi to a street which is famous for a whole row of wild mushrooms hotpot restaurants. The taxi driver tried to take us to a place she recommended which was not on my list of to-eat places – I presume she would get a kickback for bringing us there. At her insistence we got off the taxi in front of the place she recommended but we just walked off towards the direction of the restaurant we intended to dine at.

Yunnan is famous for its huge variety of wild mushrooms due to its climate and altitude (some prized varietals grow only in high altitude areas). Songrong (the highly prized Matsutake), Jizong (chicken palm mushroom), Niugan (porcino aka “cow liver” mushroom), and Ganba are the four varietals Yunnan is most famous for. We tried all four of them. In the restaurant one can order either fresh mushrooms or frozen ones. Fresh ones were really expensive, with Matsutake going for 150 CNY (~US$20) per serving. We only had the frozen ones as they were much cheaper and we only wanted to have a taste of them so we were not too particular about having the best. Dinner cost us 150 CNY for a goose meat hot pot with four types of mushrooms and some veggies. Quite pricey for this part of China where a bowl of noodles can be had for 3 CNY.

After dinner we took a taxi to the Jinmabiji Archway where we took photos and shopped around a little in the nearby malls. We walked around till all the shops started closing (at about 9pm) and then had a KFC meal for supper, then took a taxi back to our hotel. Oh, KFC prices in China are steeper than in Singapore, at 28 CNY (~ US$4) for a meal with 4 drumlets/winglets, a cup of salad and a drink. But Chinese people simply love KFC – more so than McDonald’s.

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