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Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 21 April 2009, 02:25:41
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Last Dec our office had a short trip to Macau that included two rounds of golf in Macau. We had such an enjoyable time that we decided to take a longer, golf-focused trip this Easter. After hearing some recommendations, we selected the Spring City Golf & Lake Resort near Kunming, Yunnan.
The trip took place from the 14th to the 18th in Apr 2009. Before the trip, we booked three rounds of golf in each morning, and we hired a van to take us to touist places in the afternoon. (Hiring the van for 3 full days cost RMB2100 total. It cost the same to hire a car for one day in Beijing a few years back.)
I ended up playing 4 rounds of golf in three days, skipping one of the afternoon trips. One person in our group played 6 rounds of 108 holes in total in 3.5 days. And almost everyone, except me, took more than one massage sessions in the resort spa. My kids also went for a couple of 9-hole rounds with a golf instuctor.
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We stayed in the villas right next to the clubhouse. The villas are surrounded by some very nice landscaping and plants, including some very nice purple bamboo.
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The short walk from our villas to the clubhouse for breakfast and tee-off in the morning. Also the view of the golf course in the morning. The resort has two courses - the Mountain Course designed by Jack Nicklaus & Lake Course by Robert Trent Jones Jr.
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Some pictures taken on the golf course.
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When we arrived on the 14th and played our first round of golf in the morning of the 15th, we don't see too many people in the breakfast hall or on the course. But at the weekend approaches, we see more and more people. The place was packed on the 18th Saturday.
We were told that during peak seasons, the resort would have served almost 600 golfers each day. I wonder if the resort can have average 300 golfers per day paying average RMB1000 each to play and stay. If this assumption is correct, then the resort can only generate RMB 100 million per year. I wonder if the real estate sales is perhaps the bigger profit generator.
Many of the houses can be seen in the following pictures.
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This is one of the Par 3 holes in the Mountain Course. In my first game, I lost many balls to the water. In my next game, I had one-on and missed the birdie chance, playing par. ;)
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Can you see the ball?!
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A very nice day to be out there...
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Having a beer in the 19th Hole cafe after playing an afternoon round. The cafe is overlooking the 18th of the Mountain Course.
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In the afternoon of the 15th, we went to Jiu Xiang to see the giant lime stone cave.
At the entrance of the park, I saw this old woman with bind feet. Supposedly feet binding was initially only for the wealthy but later emulated by the mass. After asking and obtaining permission to take pictures of her, I started to take picture of her in different angle. And very surprisingly she started to pose with the V hand gesture, just like many teenage girls do these days.
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She say she was 81 years old.
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Inside the Jiu Xiang park, we first rode the small boat to tour this big "gap".
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Then went into the main cave that took us perhaps one hour to walk up and down. These 3 pictures are different angles at different height of the same rock formation that looked like a lion.
The lion was not quite visible in the last picture but it's the same opening in the mountain where the "lion" is.
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One of the many bridges inside and outside of the lime stone cave.
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Near the lion rock formation is this Hall of the Lion. It's very large open space and supposedly big enough to had a concert performance some years back.
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Some of the lime stone formation, including the signature "Magic Field" in the first picture. Compare to the talkway and person at the back to see the scale.
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At the end of the cave trip, we had a long climb inside the cave before reaching for the cable car for leaving the park. After climbing the long staire, one person in our group had sour legs in the golf games in the next two days!
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One the way back from Jiu Xiang to Spring City Resort, we passed many harvesting wheat fields. We stopped in one to take some pictures.
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I talked to this old couple for a few minutes. They told me they only grow wheat one season a year. After harvested the wheat, they will grow something else (I couldn't get the name due to their heavy accented Putonghua.)
It's back breaking work to tend the field and cut the wheat. They probably found it weird that I would be interesting in taking pictures of such mundane stuff. The woman was commenting to the man that I took so many shots.
I asked for one straw of wheat to show my kids, and the woman offered a whole bunch.
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Old racing the new.
We even saw horse drawn cart inside the city of Kunming.
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On the 18th, waiting for our van.
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Wow, Yunnan is a very nice place!
It seems kind of quiet there!
BTW, the photos are very nice~~
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very nice.....but i'm expecting more pics to prove the beauty of the city......
:( :( :(
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Very nice......I was invited to go there twice but I missed both...... :'( :'( :'(
Think I should seriously consider visiting there now..........
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We actually did not spend much time in the Kunming city, so there was no photo of the city. The trip was really golf focused. :)
Stick, you really should go.
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We went to Kunming in April. Let me post a picture of place that Chin didn't go . . . . .
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The main activity in Kunming was golfing. Let's check out how the Pros do it. . . . .
Teeing off demonstration. . . .
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Watch how the pro saves a bunker stroke . . .
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Thank you. Nice pics. :)
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The main activity in Kunming was golfing. Let's check out how the Pros do it. . . . .
Teeing off demonstration. . . .
Nice Pictures....We lose quite a lot of water-melon juice to this Pro...... :P
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The main activity in Kunming was golfing. Let's check out how the Pros do it. . . . .
Teeing off demonstration. . . .
Nice Pictures....We lose quite a lot of water-melon juice to this Pro...... :P
. . . . i heard that 2 . . . ;D in the game of wolf, right? :D
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We stayed in the villas right next to the clubhouse. The villas are surrounded by some very nice landscaping and plants, including some very nice purple bamboo.
(http://chinman.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=122.0;attach=3453)
The picture above is exceptional good, like those traditional Chinese calligraphic paints. I like that very much. Thanks you.
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Hehe, maybe I should post a higher resolution pic that can be used as wall paper...