Quiet First Impressions in Kunming
After 30 hours of travel, minimal sleep (somewhat intentional, to force adjustment to the time change), and a pretty violent (but quick!) stomach bug in the Beijing airport, I’ve made it to Kunming! Overall, the trip was very smooth. I decided to travel in a few days early; with a time difference of 12 hours from home (Charlotte, North Carolina, USA), I knew it would be a struggle to adjust. After 2 full days here, I’m thankful for that decision. I’ve been able to wrap up some final work items and go about the day at my own pace, while mentally preparing for the intensity of the upcoming 4 weeks as we begin our Social Sabbatical here in Kunming.
Our team mentor, Lori, arrived today. Lori did a Social Sabbatical in Sri Lanka last year, and is here to support our team during first the week. She’s one of those people who, when you first meet her, you feel like you’ve known forever. We connected instantly, and set out for a walk this afternoon to find one of the biggest parks in the city.
One of our first observations upon navigating around Kunming on foot was how amazingly quiet it is! I have a few thoughts around this.
First thought: DUH. I was operating on my own preconceived assumptions. With Kunming’s population of approximately 6 million, I expected a hustle and bustle similar to New York City or LA. Key word there = expected. Don’t get me wrong, there are a LOT of people out and about, and tons of cars, buses, and scooters zipping around. But, when walking around outside, it feels like you could hear a pin drop. All vehicles are almost completely silent (they have to be electric — I’ll be investigating this further… and also further investigating another assumption I had — that there would be lots of pollution from said super loud, eco-damaging cars. Wrong again!). Also, the people here just seem to speak and move about so quietly, and they don’t seem to be in a hurry. Definitely not what I had in mind, despite telling myself to *try* to not have any expectations going into this adventure.
Second thought: With the exception of 2–3 hotel staff, no one I’ve encountered so far speaks any English. This was not totally unexpected, but still requires some getting used to with verbal communication being very minimal. This has undoubtedly heightened my sensitivity to the quietness, but I’ve also observed when out in public or in a restaurant, you never overhear anyone speaking. People are just… quiet.
Lori and I ventured out for dinner tonight. After walking around for bit, we noticed this adorable little restaurant with just a few tables. Three men were sitting at a table outside and they waved us over. There was no sign, and we could tell the owner lived upstairs with his little cat.
There was no English menu or picture menu (as we’ve seen in quite a few restaurants), but the owner pointed to the Chinese menu very knowingly at one line — as if he knew exactly what we were looking for. He gestured for us to sit down, and we could see 3 women in the back who began to prepare our meal. They brought us a simple dish with noodles, spices, and ground meat. Thankfully I’m adventurous eater, because we have no idea what kind of meat it was. But, it was delicious! And somehow exactly what we were looking for. The three men came over to our table and offered us tea, and later again to offer us what we think was a homemade liquor with ginger in it, which we politely declined. The whole experience was so warm and unexpected. I will definitely be going back there during my stay here.
Lori and I plan to visit the Stone Forest tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll enjoy the last day of calmly moving at my own pace. While certainly the city of Kunming will remain quiet, I have a feeling my experience here is about to get louder as the rest of the team arrives on Saturday. Bring on the noise!
