kids, and being spoken to entirely in
Mandarin as they endeavoured to
teach the children English. Each day
we would drop them off by bicycle,
well wrapped up against the fresh,
but chilly, mountain air, and every
evening collect a very happy trio
bursting with their new discoveries.
The head teacher was the only English
speaker and she was delightful, and
clearly thrilled with the three new
attractions.
Another favourite – especially
for our horse-mad three-year-old
Ollie – were the local horses, available
for rent for HK$20 per hour. The
children rode horses way up into the
mountains as we followed on foot
through a landscape where I totally
expected civilisation would run out,
less than an hour down the mountain,
the construction continues to boom.
Old and new ways of life rub so closely
together here that it’s almost shocking
to witness. But that’s what makes
Yunnan such a compelling place in
which to travel. Up on the plateau
with the snow peaks and lush green
plains, where the yaks travel by road
and the laundry is washed in streams,
China’s forward propulsion feels very
far away indeed.
where timeless and wind-blasted views
abounded. Each evening the children
would delight in playing “Pooh
sticks” in the streams, watching the
indigenous people dressed up in their
bright colours dancing to the local
music. The fresh mountain air and
constant exercise meant the bedtime
routine was perfectly brief.
It is an extraordinary setting, as
remote and wild as any I’ve been to.
And yet it’s difficult to fathom that
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