In Kunming, September is a braid of late-summer warmth and the first whiff of osmanthus on the wind. Javier Gil, a line producer with the program Beijing Express, traveled from Madrid, Spain to the Spring City.

“I love Kunming. I’ll be waiting for you in Kunming!” he says to the camera, his Mandarin tentative but earnest. For him, the point of a journey isn’t how long it lasts; it’s whether a city gently catches you.

Javier strolls along a clean street in Kunming. Photo by Tan Shiyan.

Spring City, from noun to verb

Before he arrived at Kunming, “Spring City” was a poetic tag in Javier’s mind. In Spain, spring is the year’s sweet spot—not too hot, not too cold, flowers everywhere. Once he arrived, the noun turned into a verb—something lived rather than imagined.

Kunming’s climate and environment, he says, more than justify the name. “Madrid is very busy—traffic everywhere. Kunming feels completely different. It’s very clean, well-organized, and the streets are full of people who smile.”

Javier sees Kunming as a very clean, well-ordered city. Photo by Tan Shiyan.

A surprise for the palate, a kindness on the street: A Mutual Outpouring of Warmth

Asked what struck him most, Javier didn't hesitate: “The food.” The certainty comes from a wild-mushroom hot pot—pristine ingredients and a flavor he calls “truly special.”

Warmer than any taste memory, though, was the friendliness of strangers. Because he stood out, people on the street recognized him and asked for photos. “It surprised me—and made me very happy,” he recalls. The brief, easy exchange felt like a two-way kindness, the liveliest proof of Kunming’s human warmth.

The flower market’s “magic,” and a pocketable piece of spring

What truly astonished him was Kunming’s flower market, the focus of the shoot. “I’ve never seen anything like it—a market so vast, and full of flowers,” he says. The night market energy surprised him, too. “In Spain, places like this close in the afternoon. Here, the evenings are still buzzing.”

He settles on a word—“magic”—for what he saw: a place alive with color and energy and feeling. “Flowers carry emotion. You can feel it.” It’s nothing like the markets back home, where flowers share space with everyday groceries. On his way out, he bought a single bloom—he didn’t know its name—and took it back to his hotel, a small companion for his last night in Kunming.

Javier praises Kunming: “There are flowers everywhere—it’s beautiful!” Photo by Tan Shiyan.

The End of a Journey, the Start of a Promise

“Springtime, a big city, and very friendly people.” At the end of the interview, Javier distills Kunming into three notes. What he fell for is the city’s overall atmosphere. He’s already thinking ahead with anticipation: “I have family in Spain. I want to bring them here to see how beautiful this city is—and, of course, to taste that incredible food again.”

Three days is short, and somehow indelible. From Madrid to Kunming, Javier’s trip was like a drifting dandelion seed, drifting a long way to land in rich soil, bright with flowers. Here, the warmth and goodwill felt like sun and rain, enough to help something settle, and wait for the next bloom.

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(Editors: Rachel, Evan)