January 2026 · Kunming, China

In my last post, I kept my eyes at street level. There was more than enough to notice. This time, I look up and farther out — at facades, rooftops, angles, and edges.

Over the years, I’ve seen many cities rebuild their “old towns” from scratch — perfectly styled, beautifully lit, and somehow hollow. Kunming felt different. The restored quarters still breathe. New and old stand side by side without pretending to be each other.

Some of the crumbling houses won’t last much longer. That tension — between preservation and disappearance — is part of the city’s texture.

An early 20th-century merchant house — curved to follow the street, built for trade, still quietly facing the market.

A modern structure borrowing the language of the past, now filled with small shops and everyday commerce.

From my hotel window: not the postcard view, but the back side with its own charm — a quiet cluster of aging houses slowly surrendering to time.

A carefully constructed illusion: the entrance frame looks like weathered, rusted steel — but it’s only paint. New architecture borrowing the patina of age.

I remember this house from years ago. The scaffolding isn’t restoring it — it’s simply keeping it upright.

A painted memory: clay-pot rice noodles, shelves of jars, steam imagined but almost visible — Kunming’s comfort food preserved in color.

Calligraphy lanterns strung between brick and plaster turned the alley into a floating scroll against the sky.

A Building That Only Appears When You Move

From one angle it looks almost impossibly thin — just a narrow slice of glass and concrete rising out of the plaza. Only when you walk around it does the shape unfold into a rounded structure widening like a vessel, which is why locals nicknamed it the “wine cup building.” In fact, there are two of them, standing opposite each other across the square — though from most viewpoints you’d never guess.

They belong to Kunming’s late-20th-century building boom, when architects began experimenting with landmark shapes instead of plain office blocks — showing that the city’s skyline didn’t just grow taller, it also grew more playful.

 

 

 

Carrefour Arch Building

One of Kunming’s early mixed-use mega-blocks, built during the city’s fast expansion around the early 2000s. A hypermarket below, apartments above, and a huge central arch framing the plaza — part gateway, part design trick to soften the mass of an otherwise enormous building. Developments like this introduced the European-style retail complex to Kunming, turning shopping into a destination rather than just a storefront.

The Missing Runway

A playful modern building with a very serious historical reference: the aircraft on the roof recalls Kunming’s role in World War II, when the city became a crucial airbase for Allied forces and the famous Flying Tigers. From here, pilots flew dangerous missions along the Burma Road and over the Himalayas to keep supply lines into China open. Today the plane is decorative, but it points back to a time when Kunming stood on the frontline of a global war.

Kunming’s “New Era” Began in the Mid-1990s

From the back, the New Era Hotel almost looks like a stage set — a flat façade with no hint of depth.

Even from the front, the illusion continues — the building still feels oddly flat despite its size.

Only from the side does the truth emerge — the hotel tapers sharply toward one edge.

Reflections That Make You Look Twice

One change I’ve noticed all over China is how meticulously cities and public spaces are maintained. As you may have seen, there’s no litter — just fallen leaves. Roads and walkways are swept constantly, and the same care now extends to rivers and canals. Streams that once carried murky water now run clear, reflecting the sky, the trees, and the buildings along their banks. It’s not sterile — just remarkably well kept.

 

 

 

Back at Street Level

Once an entrance to an underground plaza at Jinma Biji Square, this sunken space no longer leads anywhere. Instead, it’s been transformed into a piece of public art — murals, flowers, and careful landscaping turning what used to be a passage into a visual pause in the middle of the city.

Even Kunming’s greenery gets symbolic duties. These carefully trimmed hedge lions echo the traditional stone guardians placed at temples and gates — softer, playful versions still keeping watch in their own way.
May these leafy guardians keep bad luck and unwanted spirits at bay 😜 — and may we stay curious and open, because there’s still so much to discover in this beautiful world.

Next time we’ll slow down in the parks and temples — stay tuned.