Junping: April 3and 4

We caught the bus at 07:00 in Hekou and headed for Jinping. Jinping was not mentioned in any travel books, but it was on the map as a centre of minorities and only 150km from the Vietnam border. The bus was empty when we started (there were 5 of us) but business picked up along the way. After 50 Km we were full. The good part was – the new passengers were visible minorities and the women were in full dress. The bad part was they were going to market and they had bags and bags of produce to sell. The aisle was higher than my seat with Pineapples and other bags of stuff. The conductor and one passenger were sitting on the exit stairs. I guess this isn’t allowed in China since they both hit the ground when we passed a police checkpoint.
Twice we were stopped at police checkpoints. The first time the police ignored the other passengers and took our 2 passports for verification. The bus was held for 10 minutes while the police “processed” our passports. Then they politely gave them back and we were on our way. At the second checkpoint all the ID cards were taken (our passports too) and we waited 10 minutes for them to be returned. Both times the conductor disappeared and we would restart without him. Both times he was a hundred meters down the road with more passengers in tow.
The first 100 km were along a large river, but the last 70 were in the mountains. We seemed to go uphill forever with continuous switchbacks all the way. We finally crossed the mountain pass and 20 minutes later we were in Jinping. Only 2 people threw up.
We are now really in China. There are no signs in English and nobody seems to speak English. I carry a notebook so I can write numbers and pictures. We pick our food by pointing at what we want. We have learned the words for coffee and beer. I tried to buy a cell phone so I could talk to Vietnam and Canada. When I told the boy I wanted to talk to Canada he couldn’t understand and he bought up a translator on his computer and we typed messages to each other. That’s when I learned you can’t dial out of China with a cell phone.


On Sunday we explored Jinping and the terraces around the city. We took a cab halfway up a hill across from the city and then walked down. The hillside was terraced all the way down except for the houses and construction sites. China has construction sites everywhere. Buildings and roads are under construction and there are mines and quarries near every midsize city.