Our man in Asia SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2004 - CHRISTOPHER DEWOLF MONTREAL, 23.07.04 : BELLTOWERS SEEN FROM MILE END MONTREAL, 17.07.04 : STE-CATHERINE STREET FAIR MONTREAL, 18.07.04 : AT THE SUNDAY TAM-TAMS MONTREAL, 17.07.04 : STE-CATHERINE STREET FAIR MONTREAL, 18.07.04 : AT THE SUNDAY TAM-TAMS MONTREAL, 02.08.04 : DANTE STREET, LITTLE ITALY MONTREAL, 19.07.04 : BEAUBIEN STREET, ROSEMONT MONTREAL, 23.07.04 : GAUTHIER STREET ON THE PLATEAU MONTREAL, 17.07.04 : STE-CATHERINE STREET FAIR MONTREAL, 24.07.04 : HIGHRISE NEAR DÉCARIE EXPRESSWAY MONTREAL, 25.07.04 : ESPLANADE STREET IN MILE END MONTREAL, 31.07.04 : DE LA GAUCHETIÈRE STREET, CHINATOWN Contributing editor Colin Kent is in the midst of a crazy two-month journey around Asia and Russia. Here he offers us his first dispatch, from the city of Kunming, China, after having spent a month in India and Bangkok. I am now in a Kunming internet cafe (one of millions it seems, all shiny and perfect, taunting their Indian counterparts) with a spatter of Chinese-speaking European expats and, of course, Chinese residents of all ages and types. We are staying in Yunnan University's hotel,  more expensive than what we became accustomed to in India, but also significantly nicer. Significantly. We are lost here, in every sense: language is a constant barrier and our Lonely Planet, written two years ago, is almost utterly useless. China is changing rapidly and it's hard to imagine it until you see it; no list of suave newspaper articles describing the transformation can do it justice. Kunming is one of the most pleasant cities I've ever been to; what it lacks, it lacks in edginess, in character. It is embarrassingly modern (I have been scolding myself for days for thinking China would be less sophisticated), clean, calm... . We can't decide if it is wealthy or not, but the standard of living is beautifully high, the air is no dirtier than the air in major Western cities, and this, a provincial city sans pretension, yet with almost four million people, is unquestionably urbane, perhaps even peaceful. Debunked are all images of urban China inferred from messy and chaotic Chinatowns. When we arrived from Bangkok we were struck by a feeling of tranquil complacency which has only increased as we've explored more of the city. The air here is cool, even chilly; the Chinese call Kunming "Spring City" for its moderate climate, northern-style greenery and rain. It seems a pretty accurate description. It seems wrong, maybe pathetic, that in this country which should for every reason feel more familiar to us (it is not such a far cry from Toronto or Vancouver, besides that it is more confident, with more consistent architecture and less worldliness), we find things so difficult. Restaurant procedures, ordering train tickets ― these become enormously difficult tasks here while in India they were comparatively effortless. English is probably the major cause of this disconnect (we took it for granted at the time, since an astounding number of Indians could get by in it), though I do wonder. In any case, we are enjoying ourselves here, if in a very different way than we were a few weeks ago. Yesterday, A. and I walked through an immaculate park ― traditionally Chinese to the extent that if it were built in San Francisco or Boston or Halifax it would be shunned by whites claiming it was a simplistic Chinese stereotype ― and down street after street of elegant green tea cafes, clothing shops, DVD-VCD stores (heavens, I swear), restaurants (Western and Chinese), in light rain, the well-paved streets (a-ha what a change!) lined with bamboo and slick black-trunked evergreens. We were weak, sick after our Thai rushjob (more about that later), and it was the perfect antidote. China is ancient, but only a very trained eye would ever notice. Kunming's old wooden alleys demolished, all that remains (seriously, all) are the postmodern skyscrapers. it appears as if this city was founded in the early 1980s. In a way, and this I'll have to elaborate on another time, this is less unsettling than one might think. It isn't unsettling at all, in fact: it feels normal, very comfortable, not at all contrived. Natural. Part of the more relaxed atmosphere here ― apart from the lack of stares, which had, by our last moments in India, become horribly tiring ― might be the equality between men and women. In Indian cities ― and this we didn't notice fully until we left ― the men to woman ratio was around 10:1. Here it is more like 1:1, and that makes an interesting difference in the way the crowds feel. It feels safer, more welcoming. Colin is now on his way to Hong Kong. Discuss this post on our discussion forum Head over to the archives for last month's posts