Kunming, the City of Eternal Spring

We recently visited Kunming, which is the capital of the Yunnan province, in southwest China. The area is known for its dozens of minorities, who dress in colorful garb, and for its fabulous food, which doesn't taste anything like traditional Chinese -- think fresh mint leaf salads, dried beef with chilies and a lightly fried goat milk cheese called rubing.

Outside of Kunming, Shilin (Stone Forest)

Scott and I spent part of a day touring Shilin, or "Stone Forest," where hundreds of stones twist and contort in beautiful formations. The area has been around since the Ming Dynasty and parts of it were deemed a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.

Rocks of ages. 

Being a Saturday, the Chinese tourists were out in style and we often found ourselves waiting as they ambled along the path and took 10 photos for every one we snapped. We could tell tourism is still a bit of a new thing here in China, as many women donned heels and dresses, which aren't the best outfits for clambering around rocks.

A Chinese tourist strikes his pose. 

Later that day, we found a bakery to buy fresh xiang hua bing, or flower cakes, which are a local delicacy made out of rose petals. One local told Scott, "Instead of giving our girlfriends flowers we eat them." The cakes are flaky, like a croissant on the outside and have a rose-petal jam on the inside that's not too sweet. The pastries-as-souvenirs are a recent development in Yunnan, as most people just ate them as snacks and desserts. Only now have they decided to capitalize on them.

Ads for Yunnan's flower pastries.

Dried beef, spicy lotus root, Yunnanese ham and rubing. YUM.

We ended our weekend jaunt with a walk around Cuihu Park one of the best parks in Kunming, where the public really gives a whole new meaning to public park. Amid paddle boats, large lotus flowers and snack stalls, multiple dance groups competed for onlookers' attention. There were two groups demonstrating traditional Yunnanese dancing (which looked like a cross between the Hora and River Dance), another group busting moves to Michael Jackson, another group dancing like robots and more. There were musicians strumming guitars and playing violins and even dwarfs from the local Kingdom for the Little People out for a jam. (You can read more about this controversial "theme" park here; we opted not to go, as it didn't seem right.)

Part of a giant circle of Yunnanese dancing in the park. 

The only wrinkle in our weekend was getting back: torrential rains delayed our flight and we ended up having to spend another night and fly back to Beijing early the next morning. All in all, not too bad. 

Amid the lotus-covered pools in Cuihu Park.