Xishan Mountain on a Beautiful Day!

 John and Linda with 8 wonderful, energetic and smart students heading for a 5 mile hike up Xishan Mountain (West Mountain)

A view of downtown Kunming from part way up.  The lake is called Dianchi Lake, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the country.  This view is just a tiny piece of it.

Along the way we met this gentleman who was sitting alone playing this stringed instrument.  He is part an ethnic minority called the Yi people noted for their colorful costumes and rhythmic dancing.

It took about 3 1/2 hours to meander up the mountain.  Seems like a new adventure awaited us at every turn.  Meeting people, seeing natural springs, sights of the city,  We saw some local wildlife.  A caterpillar and a snake.  We saved both from being run over by a bus.

Near the top we had a clear view of the whole Kunming plateau.  This one picture does not do the panorama justice.

For perspective, I took this picture in the same direction as the one above but with my zoom at 24X. You can see the detail of hundreds of apartment complexes and businesses.  Many many apartment high rises.

 Here we are at the pagoda near the top.

This picture of Linda and I was also taken at the Pagoda near the top.  An excellent view of the city and crystal clear blue skies after months of rainy season.  Just beautiful.

One of the students brought his guitar and we sang at different places along the way.  At times we had on-lookers who politely smiled, took pictures and waved.