04-Sep-2005 -- 24N – 102E Yunnan (云南), China

Visit Date: September 4, 2005

After the solo hunt for 25N 102E two days earlier before the start of a conference in Kumming, the post conference hunting party swelled to four, including two first-time hunters.

One of the first-time hunter, Zhang Yong who is Kumming based arranged for a jeep that can depart from the conference hotel as soon as the meeting concluded at noon. Every minute matters because of over the 150 km driving to get near the CP, and we never knew how complicated the final approach would be. Given Yunnan is a very mountainous province; it would be safe to assume that most the points are hard to reach.

It took us a little over 2 hours to reach the county capital of Xing-Ping, and put us 6.5 km north of the CP. We found a right road south and brought us to a large village and about 2.1 km from the CP. After exploring several side roads, eventually we found the right road which brought us up a big hill and end up on a plateau and heading straight toward the CP. We abandoned the car when we reached a point about 400 metes away.

There were tobacco plants everywhere and all were flowering, a pretty sight. The CP actually located inside a forest, and trees made it hard to get a stable GPS reading. At CP, we noticed there were houses below us, as it turn out we were very near a village.

After return to the car, we drove to the village below the CP, and found the nearest point only 180 meters from the CP. The village named Ta-La-Chun, mainly inhibited by the Yi minority.

We left the plateau at 6 pm, and found a road side restaurant for a good dinner and rounds of beer to celebrate the good hunt. We made it back to Kumming by 10 pm.

Given the hilly terrain in this part of Yunnan we were very fortunate to drive within a few hundred meters from the CP. Otherwise the half day we had would not be enough to do both the long drive and hunting for the lines.

An appropriate name for this confluence point would be “Tobacco Hill point”.

Rating of this hunt:

Degree of Challenge: 2 – it took some search to find the road to go near the CP (1= very easy - drive to the point; to 5= a death march – glad it is over)

Scenery: 3– Hilly areas full with flowering tobacco plants (Scale: 1= not interesting at all; 5= take your breath away)

Culture-social factors: 4 - classic Yunnan minority area with distinct customs (Scale: 1=dull; 5= most stimulating)