Kunming according to Emma

How does my partner describe Kunming?
Kunming is also called "Spring City" because every season there feels like spring. In summer, the temperature never rises above 25°C and in winter it's never below 0°C, which for example causes snowfall to be very rare in the region. Because of the mild temperatures, it has a very good natural environment with an uneven and lumpy landform, and the different latitudes cause many different kinds of flowers to grow there.

While Kunming is very floral, it's also home to many different species of birds, which spend the winters in the wetlands surrounding the city. One of the most coomon birds in Kuming is the seagull, which can also often be found at the nearby lake. In addition to the wetlands surrounding the city, the eigth largest lake in China, Lake Dian, is very close to Kunming. It was polluted a few years ago, but the local government is doing a lot to improve the situation. Life in Kunming is very slow-paced and relaxing, and my partner Maggie likes to for example run around the lake or take bike trips on the weekends.

The city is also known for it's extremely good air condition and the always clear and pure blue sky that welcomes you every day when you wake up.This also differenciates Kunming from bigger cities in China, where the air is polluted, the streets are always crowded and everyone is in a haste all the time.

Overall, in the way my partner describes Kunming, the city sounds lovely and very refreshing. The surroundings and Lake Dian sound very beautiful, and the relaxing atmosphere there seems amazing!

I would love to visit Kunming sometime, because the city and it's surroundings sound incredibly beautiful. It would be amazing to visit Lake Dian - maybe take a bike trip around it - and see the different kinds of flowers and birds living in the wetlands. The pure blue sky sounds fascinating, same as the relaxing and slow-paced atmosphere of the city.

Classes
At my partner's school, but also at elementary and high schools in China, averagely 50-55 students make up one class. Compared to classes in Germany, which consist of a maximum of thirty students at most schools, this makes the classes in China very big, and also makes it harder for the students to concentrate and for the teachers to focus on each individual student.

Course subjects
The main subjects taught at middle schools in China are Chinese (which can also be called literature), maths, English and physics, whereas in Germany physics isn't a main, but only a regular subject. These main subjects are taught for 2-3 lessons per school day, while the less important subjects (which are history, geography, biology, politics, art, music and physical education) are only taught for a maximum of one lesson every day. Another thing that is different from the course subject system in Germany is, that subjects such as geography or biology are taught every term, while at German schools they are mostly only taught for one of two semesters.

School day schedule and activities
On an average school day, the students have nine lessons, which are all forty minutes long. In between every lesson, there's a ten-minute break, and at noon there's a one-hour lunch break, because all students eat lunch at school every day. During the lunch break everyone is required to take a nap, but my partner and her friends nonetheless do their homework in that break and whenever a teacher comes to check on them, they pretend to be asleep. That means that the whole school day lasts a total of 10 hours, starting at 7:30 a.m., and ending at 5.30 p.m. (on most days). This makes an average school day in China much longer than in Germany, where classes begin at a few minutes to eight and end at either 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m..

On school days, Maggie gets up at 5:30 a.m. to have enough time to review her notes before classes start, because she has to take at least one exam every day. She normally gets home at around 6-6:30 p.m., but on some days (every day when there's a match ahead) she has got volleyball practice after class, which means she gets home even later. In the evenings, Maggie spends 1 hour reviewing her notes and doing homework, reads for one hour, does exercise for 30 minutes and also learns vocabulary for half an hour, so she usually goes to bed at about 11 p.m..

Homework
Maggie spends about 2 and a half hours doing homework every day. She tries to do as much as possible in school breaks though, to have more free time in the evening to for example read or do other activities.

Options after graduation
When graduating from a school in China (not just one school form, all forms from elementary to high school), every student has to take a big exam that determines which school they'll go to next. For example my partner Maggie, who is in junior high, has to take an exam at the end of junior high, which then decides on the senior high school she'll be attending. To finish senior high school, she'll have to take another exam that determines the college she'll be going to. That makes it very hard for lots of students to get into good schools, because the only way to be attending one is doing very well in the exam. Another issue is, that in China good education is concentrated in the big cities, which means that only few students are able to receive the best education.

Tips for a Göttingen student exchanging in Kunming
1. Since all students have to take at least one exam every day, it's helpful to get up early to have time to review your notes again.

2. While in Germany, physics is a regular subject, it's one of the main subjects in China. Therefore you have to pay more attention in the lessons and take notes carefully, because the subject is more important than it is at German schools.

3. To have more free time in the evenings to for example read or meet friends, it's helpful to try to do as much homework as possible in the breaks at school.

morning
The one-day excursion in Kunming starts at 8 a.m., with taking the subway to Dian Lake. Taking the subway is both the fastest and the greenest way, which is why we'll be taking it multiple times throughout the day. The ride takes about 30 minutes, so the group will get to Dian Lake at about 8:30 a.m.. At Lake Dian, there are many ways to spend the morning. We can for example rent bikes and take ride around the lake, which is very relaxing and also gives everyone an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery. When going around the lake, we can also stop and visit one of the many nearby wetland parks for free. There we can for example go boating, fly kites and have a picnic near the lake.

late morning / lunchtime
Later in the morning, or maybe at around lunchtime, we can visit the 1903 park near the lake. The park is a sort of shopping mall with many buildings in Chinese and western style, and therefore a very beautiful place to have lunch at. The students can either bring food from home or buy something in the mall in one of the various shops or at the food plaza inside the market. A market of this kind so far away from the center of a city is kind of an exception, but it is a very convenient one since you don't have to go that far to buy food.

afternoon
After lunch, the group can take the subway to the ethnic minority village and spend the afternoon there. Of the overall 56 minorities in China, you can find a total of 30 in Kunming. That makes it very interesting to visit the village, because it gives you a chnace to acknowledge the cultural diversity. A few people of each minority perform shows for tourists there in which they introduce the history, culture and festivals of their minority so that visitors can learn more about each of them. For example a thing that's interesting to note is that not even all minorities in China have the features of Asian people, some have more western-looking features. In this village (which is, as described, kind of a like a theme park) we can also have dinner, because it's served there.

evening
At about 6:30 p.m. we will take the subway to Western Hill park, to overlook the beautiful city of Kunming from the mountaintop. On the way there (while climbing the mountain) we can visit former residences inhabited by acient people, which is very meaningful.

The one-day excursion allows the students to get to see some beautiful spots around Kunming, and also learn more about the culture and history of the region.

ways to make the excursion greener
The form of transportation - taking the subway - for this trip is already very friendly to the environment, but there are some other things to remember to make the excursion even greener.

Aside from taking the subway consistently, another thing to remember is to bring plastic garbage bags to collect the garbage after having a picnic.

It's also best to bring your own water bottle, so you don't have to buy bottled water at the mall and therefore contribute to the use of single-use plastic.

Cross bridge rice noodles
The cross bridge rice noodles are a very traditional food in Kunming, one that is served in many restaurants there, and inhabitants of the city eat it as a regular meal for breakfast and for dinner.

ingredients
While the chicken soup functions as the base of the dish, ingredients you have to add while making it are either pork or mutton, some green vegetables and rice noodles. To season the dish, you use garlic, Chinese chives, onion and ginger.

how to make the dish
The first step is to cook the chicken soup. For this it's important that the meat used for the soup is chicken, and not any other meat.

As a next step, you slice the pork or mutton, and add the meat into the soup when it starts to boil. It's important to not make the slices too thick, because then they end up raw or with the wrong flavour.

Then you have to season the soup with some garlic, Chinese chives, onion and some ginger. Because people in Kunming love spicy food, many also add some chili peppers.

After seasoning the dish, you have to chop the vegetables you chose and add them into the soup. People usually use green vegetables for this one, but make sure not to use too many kinds. The final step is adding the rice noodles to the soup, which you have cooked seperately first. Make sure that the noodles aren't in the soup for too long, so that they don't get soggy and lose their taste.

Eating this dish at a restaurant and eating it at home are two very different things in Kunming. When you eat it at a restaurant, they give you the soup, the rice noodles and the seasoning and then a variety of other ingredients like different kinds of meat or vegetables, so that you can decide on which ingredients you want to have in your soup yourself. That means it is kind of like a buffet and you mix the dish yourself with all the seperate ingredients. Eating the dish at home is very different, because there you just use one basic seasoning and not that many ingredients. This makes the dish a little more basic at home than it is at restaurants.

The colours of the dish are bright yellow, because of the soup and the noodles, and also red and some green, because of the vegetables. The dish has a very sour and also spicy taste. I would definitely love to taste this dish, because I love soup with other ingredients in it. I would eat it without the meat though, because I'm a vegetarian.

Would this dish be popular in the city of Göttingen?
I think this dish could be very popular in Göttingen. While there aren't that many Chinese or Asian restaurants in Göttingen compared to some other cities, there are still quite a few of them in the center of town. Göttingen also has a very young population, and young people tend to be more interested in other cultures and the food of other countries.

date
The festival my partner introduced to me is the "Spring Festival", which starts on January 1st in the Chinese Lunar calendar and lasts for 15 days. This calendar is different from normal calendars, so the celebrations usually start around the end of January to the beginning of February. Around that time, the students also have a 7-day holiday, but that isn't related to the festival.

events/opinion on the festival
The Spring festival is a time when people unite and just in general get together and spend time with each other. When she was in middle school, my partner Maggie used to go back to her hometown to celebrate the festival with her grandparents, but now she doesn't have enough time for that (because of school), so she and her family just celebrate with her cousins' family.

Before the festival, the whole family cleans the house, for which Maggie also gets pocket money that is called "lucky money" from older relatives and her parents. You can only get this money when you're still young, and it's my partner's favourite thing about the festival.

For them, the festival is kind of like a family reunion, where they just chat over dinner, exchange news and share joy. After dinner, they watch the Spring festival gala on TV, from 8 p.m. to midnight (dancing and dragon dances, it's very traditional to perform them at this festival) and then they go outside to light the fireworks they bought before. That first night of the Spring festival, the sky is always bright with all the different fireworks in different shapes and colours, because all families light some.

While these events all take place on the first day of the festival, there are also lots of other things and activities Maggie and her family do on the following days, such as visiting their relatives.

In general my partner Maggie really likes the festival because she can get together with other family members, and people show their positive attitudes towards what lies ahead. They also make resolutions and wishes to sweep away ill fortune.

What does my partner think about celebrating foreign festivals?
Some foreign festivals my partner has celebrated before are Halloween and Christmas. She for example used to celebrate Halloween at school, but that stopped a few years ago since the government doesn't encourage it.

While my partner does think that it's good to celebrate foreign festivals, and she likes doing so, she thinks that the Chinese festivals should be put first, because it's still a little more important to truly know the most about your own culture and your own country's history. There are for example lots of Chinese festivals that aren't celebrated anymore but that could be "brought back", so that people don't forget about them.

In general, my partner and I agree that it's good for our own festivals to be celebrated in other countries, because it's always good and important for the international communication to learn more about each other's country's history, virtues and traditions.