The Amazing Race in Kunming

Last night The Amazing Race was in Kunming. After four days straight watching basketball, it was great to watch one of our favorite shows in "our" city in China.

A quick side note about the show, especially for those who watched it only because it was in Kunming (and I told you to). While we were thrilled to see Kunming, this was a pretty lame episode of the show. That's somewhat important to know. Give it another chance - it really is one of our favorites.

The leg started at one of the many flower markets in Kunming. Kunming is known for its flowers - we were told before we went that some ridiculously high percentage of the flowers sold in China are grown in Kunming. (and a lot of them get sent to neighboring countries) This is not the flower market we visited, but we did get to go to the Bird and Flower market where we wished we could bring the beautiful plants home. Next they went to the Golden Horse and Jade Rooster arch. This is when Chris and I started to get excited. The arch is in a really beautiful area of the city - walking distance from our hotel. There were lots of arches surrounding this one, and the whole area was beautiful. Definitely a place we had hoped to go back and explore some more. Here is the gate that they visited, as well as a smaller arch that was next to it (and had some sort of meaning that was explained to us and promptly forgotten...) We had hoped that they would go to the Bird and Flower market for a task, especially since it's only a few blocks down the road from the arches, but I guess since they were already at a flower market, that was enough. And, as an aside...the McDonald's that several teams ended up at? We ate lunch there. Once. It was the only time we ate "American" food during our trip. It was delicious. :)
The next few stops on the Race were not places we had been to. They had to assemble solar water heaters, which Chris was excited about, since we saw them on every building in Kunming. They were EVERYWHERE. And while we heard how amazing the Stone Forest was, we didn't make the trip out there. Of course, it was pretty great to watch the teams drive around Kunming. We recognized the skyline immediately, and the streets just looked familiar. And, of course, there were the taxis. Oh the taxis. Chris spent more time in them than I did, as every time Xiulan took us anywhere, DeeDee, Henry, Jonathan, Hannah, and I would pile in the back of her car, and George and Chris would get sent behind us in the taxi. Apparently Kunming taxis are no place for women and children (because, yes, Xiulan really did say to us "women and children with me").Finally, this leg of the race ended in Green Lake Park. What a beautiful place. We spent several beautiful hours walking around the park on our last full day in Kunming, and we wished that we had spent more time there. We knew exactly where Phil was standing at the pit stop, and hopefully they will show more footage of the park at the start of next week's episode (and maybe they found the monkey sock that we lost in the park??).