In the morning, your driver and tour guide will pick you up from your hotel (within the second ring road of Kunming) and drive you to the Golden Temple. It’s not far from the city and here you can learn about the history of this century old Taoist temple, built in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). This temple is the largest pure copper temple in China and the most famous Taoist temple in Yunnan. The park around the temple is huge and the stone steps through Heavenly gates up to the temple are surrounded by beautiful scenery. You can relax in its big surrounding forest of pines and cypresses or sit down at one of the serene ponds and feel inner peace come over you.
After Lunch, we will go to the Green Lake Park, which is historically connected to the Golden Temple. The Green Lake is the bustling green center of Kunming city. Stroll through this beautiful park to see the daily life of modern Chinese people, where people practice Taiichi, local middle-aged ladies come to ‘square dance’ and grandpa’s jam together with their traditional Chinese instruments. In summer the whole park lake is covered with a carpet of fragrant lotus flowers, in the winter the lake is filled with thousands of seagulls that migrate here from Siberia. The Jingxing Flower and Bird Market reflects the Old Kunming way of life, with a lot of people selling flowers, birds, fish, insects, bamboo bongs and pipes. Sometime you can even see old people “Liu Niao” which means they take their bird cages out for a walk in the park.
