Peter was the only UK representative, apart from Nicola Bradbear from Bees for Development who was one of the speakers and attended part-time. There were over 1,000 delegates, 700 of whom were Chinese. Peter made friends with Rashid, the Royal Beekeeper to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman - actually he’s head of the relevant government department - and with the one delegate from Albania. But he had good conversations with experts in various fields of beekeeping, bee biology, etc., from many different countries.
Peter & Rashid with a Miao (?) lady
Probably the most exciting contact was with the team from Nagaland, an Indian state very similar to Yunnan but whose people speak English. They are actively developing Cerana beekeeping and largely share our aims and values. If you have read any books about the history of Nagaland, you will know what we mean. It could be that a visit to Nagaland will be necessary before too long! The capital, Kohima is not very far from Kunming as the crow flies, but we as are not crows we would need to go via Calcutta, but still quite a short journey. (The Kohima epitaph from the Commonwealth War Memorial there is often quoted on Remembrance Day.)
The foreign delegates were looked after by a team of English language students from local universities, including one girl who made it clear that she was definitely on the same wavelength as us. So we shall have friends in Hangzhou if we go there as tourists as we hope to do next summer.
The conference had its lighter moments, like when two Chinese gentlemen of similar age to Peter asked if they could have a talk with him. After about 15 minutes of rather mystifying conversation, it became clear that they had mistaken him for the European expert on Colony Collapse Disorder. Peter had to explain that the only thing he knew about CCD was that his colonies collapsed!
And there was the New Zealand expert whose government has banned the use of antibiotics to treat bee diseases. He explained other methods of treatment which are actually more effective. But he was followed by a Chinese speaker who felt that stringent EU standards for antibiotic levels in imported honey were unfair and were really intended to keep out Chinese imports! The closest things got to a political disagreement.
There were visits to a honey production factory and to apiaries with plenty of flying bees, but no-one got stung. The journey back to the hotel took about an hour in a fleet of 11 or 12 buses led by two police cars with flashing blue and red lights and an unmarked government car. There were policemen at every intersection stopping the traffic to allow the important visitors (!) to speed through unhindered. Peter said it felt like when we were stopped by a policeman near Windsor Castle and Mr Gorbachev went past right in front of us. The journey was made more interesting by the group from Bangalore who each insisted on singing a solo over the bus tannoy.
Gentle Cerana bees with Bangalore beekeeper
Apart from the apiary visit when the sun came out, it rained solidly in Hangzhou and Kunming all the time Peter was away. A very worthwhile conference but he is very glad to back in Kunming in spite of more torrential rain.
We are now in a period of warm sunny days, although with clear skies the temperature drops rapidly after sunset. A lovely time to be in Kunming. The water in the swimming pool is now really cold but Peter has found a Olympic size indoor pool heated to over 30 degrees Celsius. Luxury at £2 a visit!
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