Kunming is 20.6 miles away and we should be there tomorrow evening. We have walked 210 miles since we left Dali. Once we get to Kunming we will say goodbye to our little highway 320. Until today, the 320 has been a relatively quiet 2 lane rural road that occasionally creeps into a decent sized city. Today it dropped into a really industrial area and by the time we popped out the other side our little route 320 had become a split highway with 3 lanes going in both directions. We walked for a while against traffic on the opposite side of the metal guard rail but neither of us felt safe doing that.
Believe it or not, there are crosswalks in the middle of Chinese highways and Doug and I opted to use one to get off of the 320. We found a really nice alternative. A narrow little sometimes paved road that ran through some farm land where they were growing of all things, barrel cactus! The farm land thinned out and we found ourselves walking behind some homes. This road eventually dumped out onto a split highway that was still under constructon. Only one side of the road was completed and paved. We opted to walk on the unpaved side. When we saw city on our left, we took the first side street we saw and amazingly enough got back onto the 320 which was once again a 2 lane road. The 6 lane 320 only lasted for 5 or 6 miles.
We have seen all sorts of construction going on here. Rows after row after row of townhomes sitting empty. Wide roads that don’t seem to go to any destination at all. At one point we were walking along the 320 in the middle of nowhere and there were at least 6 overpasses crossing over our heads.
Once we get through Kunming we will be walking along the 324 until we get to Hong Kong! We will miss the 320. Everyone has been so kind to us here. These two ladies for example who pulled over and crossed the 2 lane road to give us a bag of peaches and offer us some water. We are constantly surprised by people’s interest and generosity. I hope they all know what their smiles, waves and thumbs up gestures do for us. They make my feet hurt a little bit less. .
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