Day 2 - Kunming 1st December 2008

Woke up early at 6.30, we went down and had a buffet breakfast, not the best but OK. Kim gathered us together for our initial meeting at 9am and gave us the general run-down of what to expect. After the meeting she said she would take us on an optional walking tour which we all jumped at of course seeing as none of us would know what to do anyway. As we walked, a few of us were brave enough to sample various snack foods from street vendors but ended up splitting up into about 3 groups around lunch time. My group had some coffee in a trendy little coffee bar called Dali's that Kim took us to, and we then wandered down to Green Lake which was the typical Chinese park with lots of water, trees, birds, and traditional looking buildings and lots of locals enjoying themselves. We then went to the Yuantong Zen Buddhist Temple which has a history of over 1200 years which was very interesting. By then it was time to rush back to the Hotel as we were due to leave at 4pm for our visit to the local Oxfam office.

We were met at the office by Ming Ling Feng who is Assistant Program Manager - Rural Livelihood and Lichow Yang, M&E office who translated, They both actually work for Oxfam Hong Kong as there isn't actually an Oxfam China. Interestingly, some of the money given to communities for projects is actually in the form of loans and is suppose to be paid back if the project is able to generate any income. Its also interesting that all the funds come from Oxfam Hong Kong, there doesn't seem to be any form of donation from rich Chinese on the mainland, I would like to find out more about the reason for this.

After the meeting we went to the Sunflower Restaurant and had a typical massive Chinese banquet. Much of the food was spicy with a Sichuan influence. We then decide to walk back about 40 minutes to the Hotel and found an internet cafe which is where I am right now. Now 11.30 so time to go to bed. Leaving tomorrow morning at 8.30 for our flight to Lijiang.