Light Dive in Kunming

Kunming was the last stop of my trip in Yunnan. I didn’t have high expectations at first; I just wanted to rest well before heading back to Beijing the next day, treating it merely as a transfer point.

It was my first time staying in a youth hostel, located near the train station. There, I met Xiaoyueyue from Foshan and Shanshan from Taipei. We chatted all night—about movies, music, Minnan dialect, slang, and Cantonese songs. Once again, I truly realized that young people from Taiwan are really talkative and articulate.

I remember Shanshan was absolutely amused by my imitation of Taiwanese men provoking each other, while Xiaoyueyue taught us to sing Cantonese songs. I gave Xiaoyueyue a comb, and she gave me her “bestie” (a small gift). The next morning, when I left, I looked up at her sleeping soundly in the upper bunk before quietly leaving.

There was another girl in the same room who had traveled most of China. She was a bit odd, with a strange way of speaking. Even she herself said she was “hard to handle.”

I really liked Dianchi Lake in Kunming. I didn’t expect it to be so vast, with so many seagulls, and the sunshine was amazing. You’d think the green water was seawater rather than lake water. Taking the cable car up to Xishan Mountain and overlooking the entire Kunming, I found the city huge, filled with sunshine and vitality. Walking several kilometers on the mountain road around Xishan was thrilling. Many people couldn’t manage it, but the temperature was perfect, with beautiful mountains and trees, and many young cyclists. It suddenly made me think about Beijing’s road conditions and my mountain bike parked in my room.

For a fleeting moment, it felt like I was back to a certain moment in the past. I was buying grilled fish at a roadside stall, and the taste, the street vibe, and the surrounding buildings—they stirred something deep in my memory. But when was that moment? Why was the impression so vivid? I couldn’t recall. From that instant, I started to fall in love with this city. I enjoyed walking through the bustling streets, strolling around, looking around, and popping into a local restaurant when hungry. Isn’t this what life is supposed to be—simple and genuine?

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