There's no telling what humans may or may not one day be able to understand; science this far has been ever-progressing. I'm not saying nature isn't to be respected, but it seems almost religious to me to claim that nature is some eternal mystery that's inherent impossible to understand or master. With sufficient technology and scientific understanding, it simply -has- to be possible to control nature, to a measure; I just leave it an open question whether 'sufficient' in this case would mean 'god-like, scifi, off-the-kardashev-scale-level', or simply 'current human capabilities'.

Of course you can theoretically control nature, it's just a matter of technological and engineering capabilities. It's an open question to what extent humanity at present has these capabilities, sure, but China is indeed trying very hard. Viewed form another perspective: historically, the chinese civilisation has always been nature's bitch, subject to earthquakes, floods and other ravagings that, at least in art and religion, gave rise to an idea where humanity is essentially a victim of nature. Hence all the ancient chinese paintings with a small human figure in the midst of an enormous natural landscape and so forth; this is in stark contrast to european art history, where man is in the forefront and nature the background. I won't speculate as to what extent this ideas might have shaped the development of China visavis the West, but the chinese government nowadays does seem to be pursuing some kind of wierd revenge...

'Hah', says the Gobi, and eats Beijing...

I wanna do this hike, but how more precisely do you find the original path, that you guys got to through some "light bush-wacking"?

And are their accomodation possibilites spread out along the trail, or do you need to time your treck so that you reach a particular place in the evening?

Two small additions:

The Likan Waterfall is an absolutely amazing site for bathing (though the rocks are slippery), as the pond beneath the waterfall is tranquil and deep.

And the instrument-maker in Natuoba is not only a musician, but a shaman, who claims to be in contact with his ancestors. In addition to his amazing instruments, he also has an awesome necklace made from human bone inherited from his great-great-grandfather or some such. He's been on CCTV and is locally famous, and keen on preserving Wa culture. In general one of the most interesting guys I've ever met in China.

All in all, great article, Ximeng certainly deserves some love!

Today I discovered you can get to/frow Yu'anshan cemetery from Haiyuan temple down in Kunming proper. Behind Haiyuan si, up the mountain, is an enormous boarding school complex; follow the serpentine roads up to the top of this complex, until they end in a high mountainside platform with gorgeous views over Kunming. From this platform, a small, really steep path leads up the mountainside and to the remote gravesites at the slopes of the cemetary; from there you can find various trails that go up to the cemetary proper. This is a slightly difficult and steep climb, though, so one easier way to go about it would be to start at the Bamboo temple or the cemetary, and then walk -down- the mountain to Haiyuan (this is also a good option because the buses back to the city center from Haiyuan doesn't stop going until 10 PM, unlike the C61 and such up in the mountains; also, those buses are cheaper than the C61).

This discovery means it would actually be possible to combine Haiyuan street market, Haiyuan temple, Yu'anshan cemetery, the small temple along the way to the bamboo temple, the Jiaoye park, and the grand Bamboo temple itself, as a pleasant one day über-excursion.