Yunnan Stories 云南故事

If you ask me what attracts me most in Yunnan, I will say without hesitation it is the climate.  November now. In Shanghai, it is already freezing cold and my families have bundled themselves tightly. But here in Yunnan, it seems that people haven’t changed their outfits much since mid summer. Now I am in a cybercafe,  wearing a suit and feeling warm enough while the girl sitting beside me is only in a T-shirt.

Before leaving for Yunnan in August, I was told that there was no need to prepare a large pile of clothes. So my heavy weapons for the coldest days are merely a jaket and a sweater. Seeing the sunny weather nearly everyday, I just have no idea when we will be in the deep of winter. Maybe they will come in handy only when we are on the way back to shanghai in the spring festival.

The scene when I first landed on Kunming was pretty much vivid just like yesterday. It was still a furnace in Shanghai three hours ago, but the instant we got off the plane  we felt Kunming was like a huge natural AC. I reported the significant discovery to my family in Shanghai, thrilled and joyful like a kid. Sure enough, Kunming is a spring city worthy of the name. In fact, not only Kunming but most parts of Yunnan enjoy the wonderful climate. The hottest of hot days won’t make you sweat. Similarly, the coldest days won’t make you grow frostbites. At least I haven’t exprienced the two extremes here so far. Meanwhile, it is impossible for me to forget the sweating hot and numbing cold in Shanghai. Unbearable.

Some climate-related things I happen to like include fresh air, blue skyes,starry evenings, clouds or mists and even UV（紫外线). When we were in Yunnan on the first day, the tourist guide said that Kunming enjoyed the 5-star UV. She was swarthy but pretty,sweet and warm-hearted, exuding a heathy vitality of youth all over. Therefore I had a strange feel that UV is associated with beauty besides its function of sterilization. The charm of Yunnan climate also lies in its blue skyes. The blue is almost a daily occurence, bright, cristal, immaculate and even holy. Each time I am outdoors especially when sitting on a bus, I will not forget to look up into the sky. You may well use the word "greedy" to describe my feeling about the Yunnan blue.

What are equally unfogetable aslo include the starry skys in the evenings, over which we Shanghai teachers often exclaimed. Sometimes, we gazed at the night fall , silent for a long time. It is just so comforting to be reminded of the long lost childhood memories, in which we lied on the bamboo bed on the summer evenings, looking at the stars while listening to stories told by the adults.

Oh, the sunlight. Yunnan has far more sunshine days than Shanghai, which can be judged just from the number of the solar-driven heaters installed on the roofs. Nearly every household has one! In this sense, Yunnan fully deserves the title of the greenest region. Really, I sometimes wonder why Yunnan is so favoured, with the enviable weather.

Climatewise, I know it would definately be a totally defferent story if I were in Shanghai now. The weather of Yunnan will surely something I will miss in my rest of life.