在云南旅游
上周，我到中国西南的云南省去了，过了五天。我从我所工作的徽县到成都坐了火车，然后转到了开往昆明的车。来到昆明，我很快就意识到了这个城市的独特气息。昆明一点都没有成都那么时尚，该城市的高楼较少，建筑没有成都的那么壮观，相反，昆明的楼房像有复古的元素。再说，有些楼房涂成亮黄色，其他浅色，虽然这样的楼房诚然不很多，这还使我想起那种英国人当中最流行的旅游地，就是南欧暖和的小镇。怪不得 – 昆明一如既往以其四季如春的气候而闻名。
离昆明以西南120公里有一带令人惊叹，美丽如画的风景，这就是名副其实的石林。这边四处都是高大的石芽，奇形怪状，鬼斧神工。你一进入这个像迷宫的石林，你被石头围住了，在有些地方你只能通过一个窄窄的缝隙看到太阳。
昆明的自然风光当中，不仅仅有石林，还有一些山。站在山顶你可以欣赏全城市的景色，美观的寺庙，迷信的人还可以去摸摸龙门，给自己带来好运。不过，这里最引人注目的特征不是风光，而是景点前面和后面之间的对比。为了到达此景点，我坐了昆明挺现代化的地铁，从终点站出来之后，我被一个阿姨骚扰了，她想供一辆车给我带到景点的进口。和地铁相反，这种客运一点也不正式，所以我谢绝了，便开始跟着她走路。过了几分钟，我还离进口够远了，我就只得踏上别人的车。这是很便宜的面包车，破烂不堪。路边的村庄同样脏乱。山上还有好几个老年的农民，摆了一个可怜的摊子，为了挣一点钱蹉跎了晚年。出来景点之后，我们就发现了，我们过来的那边是山的后面，前面的入口更是一个像样的景点，设计得很不错，游人可以从地铁站坐电动车与专门观光大客车到进口来。这种区别到处都能看到：许多景点咋看好像是挺发达，但这常常给人造成错觉，因为后面的小镇看得出只有一半是发达，周边的居民经济似乎差很多。
这座山的景色为何是这么漂亮，是因为下面有湖。英国人往往认为海边是理所当然的，但在中国，参观一片海却是大事。这里海滩是没有的，但码头是有的。此码头满了人，大家都在湖边玩得很开心，观鸟。不过在我心目中，好多人的行为不雅观。人人在路边买了一包饲料，马上就开始给海鸥吃几口。游人为此都被海鸥这些可恼之物所围住，旁边的观光船都沾了鸟屎。这个一点不好看，无论怎样，人人继续把食扔出来，吸引海鸥。
Me standing in front of one of many parts of the Stone Forest
ENGLISH:
Last week, I went and spent five days in Yunnan Province in southwest China. I took the train from Huixian, where I work, to Chengdu, and then changed to a train bound for Kunming. When I got a Kunming, I quickly noticed the distinct feel of the city. Kunming is not half as fashionable as Chengdu, the city has relatively few high buildings, and the architecture isn’t so imposing. Instead, Kunming’s buildings seem to have more of a retro look to them. In addition, some are painted bright yellow or other light colours, and, although they aren’t that many, they still bring to mind those warm Southern European towns that are so popular with British tourists. It’s no wonder – the city has always been famed for having ‘four seasons like spring’.
One hundred and twenty kilometres to the southwest of Kunming is the stone forest, an area of breathtakingly beautiful scenery which undoubtedly lives up to its name. Here you are surrounded by huge stone pinnacles – a weird and wonderful work of nature. As soon as you enter the maze-like stone forest you are surrounded by stone, and in some places you can only see the sun through a tiny crack.
Besides the stone forest, the scenery around Kunming also includes a few mountains. Standing on the top of these you can enjoy a view of the whole city and a pretty temple, while the superstitious can bring themselves good luck by touching the Dragon Gate. However, the most noticeable feature of this place is not the scenery, but rather the sharp contrast between front and back. To arrive at the mountain, I took Kunming’s super-modern tube system; on arrival I was pestered by a woman offering to drive me to the mountain. Unlike the tube, this was hardly official transport, so I turned her down and walked behind her up towards the entrance. After a few minutes, this didn’t seem to be getting any nearer, so I was left with little choice but to take up another person’s offer for a ride. The vehicle was a cheap box van, old and worn out; equally scruffy were the villages we passed at the side of the road. On the mountain there were a number of elderly peasants forced to spend their time selling items from a meagre little stand to make ends meet. When we came out the other end of the attraction, we discovered that we had come in from the back end of the mountain; the front looked more like a proper tourist attraction, well designed and with buses and electric buggies delivering tourists to the entrance. This kind of difference can be seen everywhere. Many tourist attractions seem at first glance to be very modern, but this is in many ways a false impression: the towns behind them are only halfway to being developed, and their residents hardly well off.
One of the reasons for this mountain being so beautiful is that below it is a lake. British people tend to take being near the water for granted, but in China visiting the lakeside is a big deal. At this lake there was no beach, but there was a pier. It was full of people enjoying themselves on the lake and watching the birds. As far as I was concerned, however, what many people were doing was hardly pleasant to watch: many people were buying bags of bird feed and straight away giving out a few mouthfuls for the seagulls to eat. As a result, we got surrounded by these irritating birds, and the nearby tour boats were covered in bird mess! This didn’t make for a good view at all, yet regardless of this, people kept throwing out food to attract the birds…