Kunming China

   The ingenuities of the Chinese are many and varied. Their approach to everyday tasks often baffles the Western mind. Here on the main street of Kunming, Chinese terminus of the Stilwell Road and of the U. S. Air Transport Command's famous "Hump" route over lofty mountains, was proof in abundance:

   A shopkeeper squirted water into his melons with a hypodermic needle to increase their weight and price.

   On children's clothing were quaint open seats and fronts, styled for quick action and the elimination of diapers.

   A laborer swung a heavy sledge hammer with a flexible bamboo handle, gaining extra power with a minimum of force.

   Outdoor washstands made their appearance each morning. They were equipped with hot water, soap, and towel, which you could use for only $50 in inflated Chinese currency.

   Fishing birds perched on their carrying poles, en route to a new stream for business.

   Coolies carried buckets of the city's night soil out to the farms.

   Such is Kunming today, capital of Yunnan Province, military beanstalk city of China and southwestern gateway to the Nation by air; also its link with Calcutta, India, and Rangoon, Burma.

   Five years ago few people would have predicted the meteoric rise of this primitive city in the destinies of wartime China. Though the boom brought on by the war may not continue, China's planners have faith in the postwar possibilities of Kunming.

   A new hydroelectric plant, financed by the Bank of China, is planned. Others, out of the blueprint stage, are being built. New mines are being opened and light industry is springing up. Impact of modern war left an indelible imprint.

   Here in simple squalor lived half a million busy Chinese, representing a cross section from every part of Free and Occupied China.

   There were scholars from Peiping, bankers from Shanghai, merchants' from Canton and Hong Kong, traders from coastal cities such as Swatow and Foochow (Minhow), and business men from Hankow, the great inland port on the Yangtze River.

   Here, too, I saw Miao tribespeople in curious black dress. They are looked down upon by the Chinese and usually perform only menial tasks. French colonial troops, who had walked out of French Indochina, sauntered along smoking American cigarettes and talking rapidly between puffs. And then there were shy Lolo tribesmen from Sikang Province and the Tibetan border.

   The "Westernized" Chinese made a strange contrast with the beggarly appearance of the native Kunming population. They said frankly…"