The Erhu Man is Back

One of Judy’s memories of the first time she led a school trip to Kunming was the atmospheric sound of the erhu (pronounced Ah Hoo), a traditional two-stringed instrument being played outside the university hostel. We have seen and heard the elderly erhu player many times since then and he has become a friend. We enjoy his playing and usually put money into his collecting bowl as we pass, although he seemed a little puzzled during last year’s school trip when he found in his bowl a ticket for lunch at the hostel which Peter had accidentally dropped in! We have a theory that the erhu man is actually a university professor who enjoys playing the erhu in his spare time.
For some weeks there has been no erhu music outside the hostel. Maybe he was ill or perhaps too busy lecturing! However, we are happy to report that the strains of the erhu are once again drifting into the windows of the hostel. On Friday Peter came across our friend sitting in his usual place and there was a shaking of hands and smiles on both sides!

Saturday was a school holiday. It was "grave sweeping day" when many Chinese visit the graves of their ancestors. Many shops were still open, however, so clearly not everyone does this - perhaps the journey would take too long. Judy’s school arranged for Saturday’s classes to be rescheduled to Monday but none of her pupils could make it, so the holiday was, unusually, a holiday.

March has been an extra busy month for us both which is one reason why there has been a bit of a gap in our blog entries. April looks like being a bit quieter.

We visited Kunming Zoo, in spite of the guidebook’s warning that it wasn’t a place for animal lovers. The guidebook was right, although the park itself is a very pleasant place for the human visitors. The birds and butterflies seemed happy enough but conditions for the large mammals (elephants, bears, lions, wolves, etc.) were far from ideal. But the yak looked healthy and we liked the way he had his hooves neatly together.

Later this month we plan to visit Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors. We went to the impressive exhibition in London last year and are really looking forward to seeing them in their original setting, as well seeing the rest of what Xi’an has to offer.