Looking Up — Kunming in Angles and Curves

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.

Curved two-story wooden merchant house in Kunming’s old town, with traditional eaves and weathered facade facing a street market area.

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

Recently constructed building in traditional Chinese architectural style, with wooden details and small storefronts displaying goods along the street.

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

View from above of a block of abandoned old houses in Kunming’s old town, with tiled roofs, crumbling walls, and patches of overgrown vegetation.

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.

Entrance to a modern building in Kunming with a large frame painted to resemble rusted steel, creating the illusion of aged metal.

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

Old wooden house in Kunming supported by exterior scaffolding, the structure visibly aged and partially deteriorated.

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

Wall mural in Kunming depicting a traditional clay-pot rice noodle shop, showing two cooks behind a wooden counter with jars, shelves, and a painted shop sign.

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

Narrow pedestrian lane in Kunming decorated with cube-shaped lanterns painted with Chinese calligraphy, hanging between old brick and plaster buildings under a blue sky.

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.

Tall modern building in Kunming seen from its narrow front angle, appearing thin like a vertical slice, photographed on a bright sunny day with people in the surrounding plaza.

Modern curved high-rise in Kunming nicknamed the wine cup building, showing its rounded façade widening behind the front edge, with pedestrians and open plaza in sunlight.

Flat side view of Kunming’s wine cup building, standing above a busy public square on a bright day with many people around.

Carrefour Arch Building

Large residential and commercial building in Kunming with a prominent central arch above a shopping plaza, formerly anchored by a Carrefour hypermarket, photographed on a sunny day with people in the square.

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

Rounded modern building in Kunming with a vintage aircraft mounted on the roof, referencing the city’s World War II aviation history, photographed in an urban street setting.

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

Back view of the New Era Hotel in Kunming, showing a broad striped façade that appears almost completely flat from this angle.

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

Front view of the New Era Hotel in Kunming, a large striped building with a curved glass base, appearing visually flat from this perspective.

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

Angled view of the New Era Hotel in Kunming revealing its three-dimensional form, with the building tapering strongly toward one edge.

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.

Panlong River in Kunming with clear reflections of a tree-lined walkway and surrounding buildings mirrored in the calm water on a sunny day.

Clean canal-like section of the Panlong River with stone side walls, reflecting deep blue sky and surrounding vegetation in still water.

Reflection of the “Yunnan Hydrology” building mirrored almost perfectly in the calm water of the Panlong River in Kunming.

Back at Street Level

Former entrance to a sunken plaza at Jinma Biji Square in Kunming, now closed and decorated with colorful murals, flowers, and landscaped steps under bright sunlight.

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.

Topiary hedges trimmed into the shape of traditional guardian lions in Kunming, resembling the stone lions that stand at temple and gate entrances.

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.