Kunming according to Lilly

## How does my partner describe Kunming

Kunming is also called "Spring City". This is because the weather there is very warm, the city has very warm temperatures. Kunming is also one of China's top ten most livable cities.

Seagulls are a certain kind of bird from Siberia, which fly to Kumning to spend the winter there. They hibernate in Kunming from december of one year to march of the following year.

Another word to describe Kunming is "Sakura". "Sakura" is a special kind of flower, which is also called orient cherry. There are many flowers of this kind in Kunming, which makes the city very romantic.

The food is another interesting aspect of Kunming. A local speciality in Kunming is a special kind of noodles: rice noodles. These are eaten with a special eating style: You eat them with hot soup in a restaurant. You put all the raw ingredients of the dish into the soup, wait three minutes, then you can eat the delicious meal.

The so-called "Eastern Bookstore" is another interesting thing about the city Kunming. Its chinese name is "昆明东方书店". It is a very old bookstore which has a very long history, and has been open for a long time. My partner Summer went there in vacation (during semester breaks). She brought her homework with her, and while being there and for example doing your homework you can order a drink. Tea for example. Being in this bookstore is like being in a different world. Outside it is very noisy and busy, but inside you escape the busy city and it is calm.

I would definitely like to visit Kunming, because it seems like a beautiful and relaxed city, with the warm weather and the many flowers, which I love. From my partner's description the city seems like it has a great atmosphere. Another reason why I want to visit Kunming, is that I would very much like to see the "Sakura" flowers because they sound truly beautiful. Then I would also like to taste Kunming's speciality, the rice noodles and the hot soup, because I think they would be truly delicious and I love asian food in general. Lastly, I would love to visit the "Eastern Bookstore" because I like books and reading so much, and I would like to experience myself how the bookstore feels like a different world. I think I would also really enjoy being in a place that has such a long history because that is very fascinating for me.

## School life

School life in Kunming has many different and very interesting aspects, as I have learned from my partner Summer.

#### *Classes*

As for the number of students in class in Kunming, the average number at Summer's school is 40-50 students in one class and her class even has 51 students, which is above average.

#### *Course subjects*

The course subjects that the students study are: Chinese, maths, English, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, politics, music, arts, p.E., social studies and computer studies.

#### *School day schedule and activities*

The school day schedule at Summer's school in Kunming contains 12 hours of classes per school-day. The students have five classes in the morning and four classes in the afternoon. The breaks are usually ten minutes inbetween classes, and after the third lesson there is a longer rest in the morning. In this longer break students can go to the playground for 30 minutes. After school they usually go home quite late because the classes end rather late in the day, but when school is over they don't have to go home right away, they can also play some sports on the playground if they want to and go home later (after that). They can only stay on the playground after school for 30 minutes though because other students still need to study. The students in 8th and 9th grade also have a self-study session every school day, which is at night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m..

#### *Homework*

About the homework at Summer's school in Kunming you can say that she gets a lot of homework and many tasks in all subjects. When the students go home after school they normally have to study for about two hours, but sometimes Summer needs three hours to finish all the homework. There's a special system for the homework, which is that different days have different tasks. Each task is for 60 minutes, and monday for example is for chinese tasks, tuesday for maths tasks, etc. At Summer's school in particular, the amount of homework the students have to do is larger than at other schools.

#### *Options after graduation*

The two main options that students have after graduating high school are going to work (learning and doing a job) and going to university or college to study. Summer points out that the system here is a bit problematic because lots of people do not have a good education and can therefore only work at small(-er) companies. Those people don't have a lot of options and not a real possibility to make a lot of money. So, if you don't have good grades you can't get into a good university, which means that your opportunities are quite limited and you can't get a really good job. Meanwhile, students who get good grades can go to very good universities, get a better education, get good jobs and are able to make a lot of money. In general they have good options because of their high-quality education. My partner Summer personally wants to go to a good university because a good education is so important in China. Summer also want to do volunteer work later in her spare time (next to her studies) because that is a great way to collect new experiences. This is also useful because many companies value experienced workers. This is because when they are for example confronted with a problem at work, they will be able to use their experience to find a solution, and will have more ways to approach the problem.

#### *Here are 3 useful tips for Göttingen students exchanging in Kunming:*

1. One important tip is to always pay attention in classes and do all the tasks you are assigned because a good education is very important in China.

2. Remember on what days you have which tasks because there are different tasks for different subjects each day.

3. Join volunteer groups to make new experiences because companies in China value people who are very experienced and good at solving problems.

## A one-day excursion

#### *morning*

   The students from Göttingen do not have to get up too early for their one-day excursion in Kunming; they have to get up at 8:30 a.m.. After they've had breakfast and strengthened themselves for the day they will either take the bus line 61 or the subway line 2 to the station "Green Lake Park". When they spend time at the park they can enjoy the beauiful Sakura flowers that you can find there in big masses. Then they can also go boating on the "Green Lake", which glitters and sparkles when it's bathed in sunlight.

#### *noon*

After spending time outside at the lake the students will walk from there to a restaurant in Kunming called "Jian Xing Yuang". At the restaurant they can enjoy Kunming's local speciality for lunch, the special rice noodles. After the visit to the restuarant the students can have a 30 minute-long rest in the afternoon because the weather is very hot in Kunming at noon, which gets quite exhausting, but it's nice and cool in the afternoon.

#### *afternoon*

Then the students will go to "Yunnan University" by bike. The bike ride takes only takes approximately 10 minutes. At the university they can look at another kind of flower. This kind of flower is called the "chinese flowering crab apple", it's pinkish with white, smells very good, and you can smell it more easily than the Sakura flower because it has a stronger scent.

    I personally think it is a great idea to show the stundents fom Göttingen a university in Kunming because I find it very interesting to see a university in another country, to get an idea of what a Chinese university could look like, how it maybe differs from German universities I know, and to see the students in their daily life.

#### *evening*

At about 5.30 p.m., before sunset, the students will take the subway line 3 to the "Western Mountain Park" station. At the "Western Mountain Park" they can watch the sunset. Then the group will take the subway line 2 to a shopping centre in Kunming called "Kunming Square". At this shopping centre we can get good food and enjoy delicious home-town dishes from Kunming before returning to the hotel afterwards. So then the group makes their way back to the hotel after this dinner at the "Kunming Square" to rest after this beautiful day in Kunming.

#### *suggestions/ways to make the excursion greener*

The most used form of transportation in the excursion is taking the subway (or sometimes the bus as an alternative), and one time the group goes by bike. This is already environmentally friendly, but to make it even "greener" you could use the bike more often to get from one point to another.

The students will probably have a snack outisde of mealtimes during this excursion, on the way to somewhere, when they are resting maybe, or at the park. For this it would be good to bring a homemade snack and carry it in your own reusable container, so you don't have to buy a snack that's packaged with one-way-plastic. This way you are not using the single-use-plastic and throwing it away immediately after using it only one time, which is more environmentally friendly.

Throughout the day the students will have to (and want to) drink water to stay hydrated. For example also because the weather gets very hot at noon in Kunming. To make it "greener", everyone should bring a reusable bottle (can be "hard" plastic or another material) instead of buying a plastic water bottle that you throw away after using it this one time only.

## Food

The dish is called "Tofu Puding Rice Noodles (豆花米线)" and it is Summer's favourite food. She eats and prepares it once a week.

#### *ingredients*

tofu (important, it's the main part of the dish); chinese chives; pickles (also very important); soy (makes the food salty); vinegar (smells sourly, Summer doesn't really like it) -> because of that, Summer uses lemon juice instead; meat (delicious, a highly important element of the dish for Summer because she loves meat and only wants to eat dishes with meat); peanuts (makes the dish very tasty, gives it a lot of flavour); rice noddles (essential)

#### *step-by-step recipe*

The first step is to cook the rice noddles in boiling water and then leave them for later use. It's important that you let them get cold.

Secondly, you cut up chinese chives and place them into a bowl. Here you should choose a big bowl because the dish contains many ingredients.

Now - as the third step - you put all of the ingredients mentioned above into this bowl except for the rice noodles. Once they are all in the bowl, you mix everything with chopsticks.

The fourth step is to put the rice noddles into the bowl. Now the dish is complete, and you can eat it. When eating, you can put some chili peper on it if you want to finish it off and add some more spiciness. Summer does this because she likes eating spicy food, she likes the feeling it gives her.

#### *Would "potatoes with sour cream" be successful in Kunming?*

I think "potatoes with sour cream" have the chance to be a success in Kunming, because the dish is mainly a cold dish. The sour cream is cold, and the potatoes you can either choose to eat warm (but then the cold sauce makes the dish colder nonetheless), or let them cool down - which doesn't take long - and eat all of it cold. That it's a cold and very refreshing dish is the reason why my family and I often eat it in the summer and on hot days because then it's a welcome refreshment to a dish that is cold and very fresh like this one. Like my partner Summer has told me, the people in Kunming also like to eat cold food because it's often very hot in Kunming and it let's their body temperature go down. This is why I think "potatoes with sour cream", which is mainly a cold dish, could be succesful in Kunming.

A reason why the dish might not be successful in Kunming on the other hand is that the people there like to eat very sweet and very spicy foods. "Potatoes with sour cream" are neither sweet, nor particularly spicy. You can however add a lot of spiciness by using spicy herbs and greens and just in general spices of your choice for the sour cream. Generally, this is one of the very good and practical things about this dish. It's very "adjustable", meaning that you can very easily adjust it to your liking and change the essential flavour of it by using different spices for the sour cream. So I think to make the dish more of a success in Kunming you could very easily just make it spicier.

## Festivals

#### *spring festival*

The biggest festival in China (and the one that's the most important to Summer) is the "Spring Festival". It is know to be the most important traditional holiday in China. The festival starts on the first day of Lunar Calendar every year, and lasts almost one month. So, this festival celebrates both the start of a new lunar year (according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar) and the beginning of spring.

The day before, people from all parts of the country travel a long distance tot their homes and their families. My partner Summer's family has also travelled to other places to enjoy the time before the spring festival, and Summer thinks travelling at that time is a good idea because even though many people are on their way at this time, it is great to take some time to enjoy and relax together before the festival.

The festival itself includes a family dinner and very big meals. For the meals it is important to have fish, dumplings and duck. Throughout the whole festival - and this is also one of the purposes of the festival - it's important to show each other joy. On the day of the festival you also watch the CCTV new year show until midnight, and count down together to greet the new year.

Summer's opinion on the festival is that it's a very long and important festival, and that it's good to enjoy this time together with your family. She thinks that it is important to have a good mindset to face the new year and welcome whatever lies ahead. This is something I very much agree with because I think it is important to remember yourself that you can't choose what lies ahead of you, but you can welcome it and receive it with a good mindset. That does not mean that you have to be happy about everything you get, definitely not, but since you don't know about it beforehand it would only be a burden to meet the things that lie ahead of you with a negative mindset from the start in my opinion.

After the spring festival you go out and visit your family. Summer has a very big family, and she first visits some families in another city and then her grandparents in another city as well. When visiting her family members and extended family she can also see how they celebrated the spring festival in their city. Summer's most unforgettable memory of the spring festival is the fireworks. There are fireworks in the evening and they "bloom" in the sky in a very beautiful way.

#### *celebrating foreign festivals*

Summer and I lastly discussed what we think about celebrating foreign festivals in our country and about having other people celebrate our festivals in their country. We both think that it is very important to celebrate foreign festivals and be open to them because they are such an amazing opportunity to learn new things from another country and connect with people all over the world. They are a kind of globalization (which we both think is great and very important) and a wonderful opening for cultural exchange. Of course you shouldn't blindly accept foreign festivals (some might for example go against your beliefs), but we think you should meet them with an open mind. You can connect with other countries and the people living there through their festivals and culture and by being open to them. Both Summer and I think this is not only an enrichment for yourself, an opportunity to gain something and learn new things about different people and countries, but also a way to connect with other countries and their people, which is a great opportunity that we think would be wasted if we just shut ourselves off to foreign cultures. Then, Summer and I also agreed that - if you agree with and want to support them - it's of course also important to remember your own traditions. We both think a balance of celebrating your own festivals but welcoming others would be ideal. Because some people think that if you embrace foreign cultures, you're bound to forget and abandon your own. But you in no way have to abandon your own festivals to celebrate others, both are possible at the same time, which we think is important to know and remember.