Kunming according to Adam

## **How does my partner describe Kunming**

1. *pleasant* Kunming, Capital of Yunnan province (Southwest China). It is known as "spring city" and the climate there is very stable. In contrast to Hamburg, the seasonal change is barely noticeable. The average temperature in Kunming is 15,1 C° and the precipitation sums up to 1534mm.
2. *diverse* Kunming's population contains 25% ethnic minorities. A cause for the diversity of ethnicities, are the many students attending universities at Kunming. They make up a big part of the population in Kunming. Nevertheless, these different people and the different cultures live together in peace.
3. *Biological* Kunming is as much of a modern city as it is a green one. The Nature there is treated well and the diversity of species is fascinating. A good example for that are the seagulls coming from the Russian side, which pass the winter in there.
4. *attractive* It is a very attractive city. Especially for tourists, Kunming can be an adventure of a Lifetime. One aspect of it are the sightseeing options. The Landmarks, Museums, Temples and the nature. Things such as the dian Lake and westhill (a.k.a. the sleeping beauty)
5. *distinctive* Kunming is a unique city. It has its own culture, and its own local products, such as flower cakes and special mushrooms

## School life in Kunming

#### Students in one class

There are between 40-50 students on average in one class. In my partner's case, the class is above average. She is part of a class made up of 56 students

#### School subjects

In Kunming the school Subjects are Chinese, English, math, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, music/art each week and PE

#### School day schedule

School day starts at 7:30 am and ends at 6pm. Some students will stay till 10pm studying in school. The day starts with the morning reading, which goes on till 8am. Then from 8am till 12:20pm will attend five different classes. These five lessons are separated by a 10min after each lesson. Also, there is a 30min break after the third lesson. From 12:20 till 14:30 the students go to the dinning hall or go home to eat something (lunch break). After having the lunch break, the students have another 4 classes to attend. Again, between each of those classes, there is a 10min break. At 17:00 pm the classes are done, and the students are going in to write a test every day which expands over an hour.

This means that a typical school day expands over ten and a half hours, with a total break time of 3.6 hours.

#### Homework

Homework is given in big amounts, but is mostly done in school. Also, the students in Kunming do much extracurricular work/studying and because of the high competitiveness in Chinese schools, the extracurricular work is important to be able to keep up with the high standards.

#### Options after graduation

Basically there are three options. Attending universities and look for jobs afterward with the degree. Attend a professional teaching school, and learn a useful skill which is demanded. Skills such as cooking, chauffeuring etc. Or you decide to take a simple but safe way, and you join the army.

### Tips for Hamburg students exchanging in Kunming

Tip 1: Be prepared for high pressure and stress (Hard studying).

Tip 2: Be open to new people. In Kunming, they work a lot in groups, and you will need to be accepting, respectful and able to work in a team.

Tip 3: After-school-activities will mostly be done in groups. So be prepared to be around a lot of people nearly all day long.

## A one-day excursion

For your one-day-excursion, you will have to wake up at around 8:15-8:30 am

9:00-10:00 Breakfast.

10:00-11:00 *Dian Lake* First place worth visiting is the Dian Lake. You can get there most comfortably by cab. As soon as you are there, you will have a chill and relaxing start for the day. You may rent a bike, go jogging or just go for a walk. You can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Kunming's Landmark while feeding the seagulls who rest there during the winter.

11:00-12:00 *Westhill* Your journey then continues on to Westhill, which you will reach by foot. This Landmark is also known as "The Sleeping Beauty" it is definitely worth visiting. The air is fresh, and the green nature is wonderful. Also, you can climb the mountain next to the Lake. When you reach the top, you will be able to visit a Chinese temple.

12:00-13:00 *Lunch time!!!* It is recommended to try out new things while traveling, such as new dishes. A very typical and popular dish in Kunming is "steam pot chicken".

13:00-15:00 *Yunnan ethnic minorities village* You will take the subway to reach the "Yunnan ethnic minorities village". As already mentioned in categories "How does my partner describe Kunming" under the point "diverse", Kunming's population contains 25% ethnic minorities. Thus meaning that you can visit certain places where these people live and find out about their culture, art, food and architecture etc. This is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting experiences of this excursion because you get to see how people from different origins and backgrounds come together and share their cultures.

15:00-18:00 *Nanping street* Nanping street is the center of Kunming and also our lost stop for the day. You will reach this location by subway. Here will you find various restaurants and taste Local snacks and discover Kunming's food culture. Also, you might notice the many flowers, which is quite unusual in the western world. In my opinion these flowers create beauty and a special atmosphere.

## Food in Kunming

This dish is called "Wunton". Alina and her family enjoy this dish and have it on the regular and to be honest, the description made really want to try it. It is a well-rounded dish, which contains...

*The ingredients*

... Wunton skin, which is made with flour (basically the rap for the filling); lettuce and Chinese chives for some vegetable taste; soy sauce for a salty touch; peppers and red chilies to add some spiciness; salt and **oil** and of course some meat (preferably pork meat).

*Step-by-step recipe*

Preparation...

- First, you have to prepare everything. So you get some bowls, some knives and all the other equipment you need. You will then wash the meat and the vegetables and cut everything. That means you cut the vegetable in pieces and slice the meat into rather thin slices.

Getting started...

- Now you will put the meat into a bowl, in which it will be seasoned with salt pepper and soy sauce. Now you have to get your wunton skin, which you can buy in your local Chinese/Asian store or make yourself. You will then proceed to fill the wunton skin with the meat with a traditional technique. It's rather hard to do this technique, but with a bit of practice and commitment, I am sure you will be able to make a some decent wunton. Now that you have made a bunch of Wuntons, take them all and put them in the bowl with the lettuce and the oil and boil everything for 6-7min. Now you take everything back to the bowl from before, and again to the seasoning step (Add soy sauce, peppers and salt). At the end, it should look something like this.

And now enjoy your delicious dish!!!

*Would "Fischbrötchen" be a popular dish in Kunming?*

The thing is, "Fischbrötchen" is a cold dish. It is fresh, and it's nothing that takes effort to make, and I personally see it as "Hamburg Street food" Because of the nature of the whole dish. The history of this dish also shows that it is the perfect for people who don't have the luxury to have homemade food every day. In Kunming is active city and many workers use their lunchtime to go and eat fast food or in a restaurant. The history of this dish is about the seaman who were on boats and for long periods of time couldn't really storage food, so they would eat the fish which they fished and use ingredients which didn't need any complicated storage material or techniques. I also believe that the young people especially would enjoy this because of its freshness. In Kunming, it is often very hot, and young people are active throughout the day. It would be a nice way to refresh the body.

Now, the reason why it may not be successful...

In China especially, spicy and sweet food are popular in common. Now, "Fischbrötchen" aren't spicy or sweet in any way. It is cold and mild food. So the only way for this dish to seem delicious to Chinese folks, is to use the eyecatcher-effect at the beginning when people see the new dish. Another thing is that in Kunming, the typical menu isn't really based on seafood.

Overall I would say that "Fischbrötchen" might be might gain popularity at the beginning, but it wouldn't stay long enough to become a regular and common food.