Blog 5: Kunming continued

The "Stone Forest" outside of Kunming in the Yunnan province is their crown jewel tourist destination. It was pretty cool, and Denis & I found a quiet section of the park to sit and improvise - me on Uke (which can be made to sound like a traditional pipa) and he on Chinese flute. There was a beautiful natural echo amongst the giant stone pillars and we attracted a bit of an audience.

Tonight I went to an awesome traditional music and dance show that was truly inspirational and gave me a lot of new ideas. 6000 years of Chinese civilization...it's impossible to do more than just scratch the surface, but it's amazing how similar the most ancient of Yunnan music is to the Inuit and Native American music we are familiar with at home. Bering Straight Land Bridge perhaps?

Tomorrow we're going to a village outside of town that has a state sponsored music academy and then to a traditional musical instrument factory.


RL