This Memorial Day weekend in China took me to Yunnan Province - located in the very south and bordering several countries including Laos and Vietnam. We were joining a hospital outreach visit to a local hospital in the "small" town of Jianshui - a four hour drive south of the provincial capital Kunming. Early Saturday morning we flew three hours to Kunming and got in a bus for a four hour drive south. The lunch we had on the way was the best food I've had this trip to China which supports my theory that it's not that Chinese food has changed, but that I'm not very partial to the Shanghai style.
Jian Shui has a population of over 500,000 with 30% being minority populations. After a meeting with the hospital administration and quick tour of the pediatric wing, we piled back in our mini-bus and headed to the old part of town to a restaurant located on the grounds of a 700 year old temple. This the Jianshui hospital's opportunity to show their hospitality which translated into a very large dinner with a never ending variety of dishes accompanied by never ending toasts of wine and "corn wine" (I suspect sorghum) which invariably led to people breaking out into both drinking songs and traditional ballads, which led to more drinking. It would have greatly helped to have been able to have understood the narrative that went with the festivities.
This Memorial Day weekend in China took me to Yunnan Province - located in the very south and bordering several countries including Laos and Vietnam. We were joining a hospital outreach visit to a local hospital in the "small" town of Jianshui - a four hour drive south of the provincial capital Kunming. Early Saturday morning we flew three hours to Kunming and got in a bus for a four hour drive south. The lunch we had on the way was the best food I've had this trip to China which supports my theory that it's not that Chinese food has changed, but that I'm not very partial to the Shanghai style. 
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