Yunnan Travel

With the development of the railway network in Yunnan, it now takes only 35 minutes to travel from Kunming to Mile, and only 1.5 hours to Mengzi and Jianshui. This has made these relatively niche tourist destinations popular during the Lunar New Year. We made a brief stop at Dongfengyun in Mile. This was once Dongfeng Farm, which mainly grew grapes and produced wine. Since 2014, local designer Luo Xu has used local red bricks to create a series of sculpture-like buildings, such as "Kaleidoscope" and "Half a Cloud". This place has gradually become an art town and a popular tourist destination. In an interview, Luo Xu described himself as follows: "I am destined not to be a mainstream phenomenon or follower, but a bent tree in the field." Dongfengyun is also a unique landscape in Yunnan. Walking into it reminds me of the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. The similar architectural style carries different local customs. During the Lunar New Year, the place was crowded with people, but the management of the scenic area was commendable. Although there was always a long line for the shuttle bus, there were many buses and they came frequently, so the wait was not too long. If you are not obsessed with taking photos, you can find quiet corners in the scenic area and experience free lacquer fan making. The promotion of the scenic area is also more in line with the needs of young people today. Instead of simply praising love, it conveys many values such as "getting rich" and "a bright future". Bisezhai is part of Mengzi and has many shining "labels": it is one of the earliest train stations in China, the only special station on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, the transfer station between the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Ge-Bi-Shi Railway, and the intersection of the meter-gauge and narrow-gauge railways. Today, there are no passenger or freight stations here, but two trains still pass by every day. 76-year-old Grandpa Shen (born in 1949) is the first guide of Bisezhai. He is energetic, with a loud voice, and walks briskly on the tracks, so we couldn't keep up with him. From taking care of the historical buildings in the scenic area to now being a guide who knows every brick and tile, Grandpa Shen's father participated in the construction of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. This heavy historical memory is now passed on by Grandpa Shen to us from afar. The railway brought a glorious era to Bisezhai. French engineers brought frangipani trees and China's first red clay court, while Vietnamese people brought Annam Cafe. After the railway was suspended, Bisezhai was forgotten for many years until the movie "Youth" brought this French-style station back into the public eye. Now, there is no entrance fee for the scenic area, only a charge for the shuttle bus. The management is not as good as Dongfengyun, but the website of the scenic area records that glorious era in five languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, and Vietnamese. We arrived in downtown Mengzi at 8 pm and didn't have time to explore the former site of the National Southwest Associated University. We ran to Nanhu Lake at night to get to the Xianfeng Bookstore before it closed to buy souvenirs. I don't know when I became obsessed with fridge magnets. I used to be indifferent to them, but now I don't want to miss any city!