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Northern Lights

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Preparation 2025 is solar maximum, peak of a 11-year solar activity cycle, which means best chance to see northern lights (aurora). One cannot see norther lights in the summer due to the constant daylight. I wanted to see it in the Spring. Here is how I chose the travel dates and place to see northern lights: New moon . Strong moonlight may reduce the chance to see northern lights.  Jan 29 is new moon. 27-day northern light forecast   It is not accurate, but I thought it was better than nothing.  I saw two red bars (Kp=5) on Jan 30 and 31.  Clear weather. Clouds will block northern lights. I searched Accuweather weather forecast  for Fairbanks (Alaska, USA), Whitehorse (Canada), and Yellowknife (Canada) to see which place would have clear weather on these days.  Yellowknife was in favor of good weather. That made me to book a trip to Yellowknife on Jan 29 - Feb 5. Before the trip, I upgraded my phone plan so that my SIM card would work in Canada. Goo...
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Day 0. Fly to China

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Flight 1 We left SFO at midnight 12:35am July 1 and arrived Wuhan 14 hours later at 6:00 am July 2 local time. The flighht was smooth. We flew China Southern Airline this time and a nice surprise is that they offered a little gift bag with toiletries.  Wuhan Airport In Wuhan airport, the borader entry was quick and there was no lines.   It was 6am, most shops were closed. We walked around and found a noodle place. The food was good.  I tried to buy a SIM card, but it turned out that there is no SIM card vendor in this aiport. One had to take Didi to some shop 20 minutes outside of the airport. I decided not to do that.  The good part is that the WiFi in the airport can be accessed by providing a scan of passport, so we were able to play with our phones while waiting 6 hours for our next flight.  Flight 2 We left Wuhan at 11:40am and arrived Kunming at 2pm. For such a short flight, they provided lunch, so it was nice.   Kunming Airport We got our c...
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Day 3. July 5. Saturday. River and Mountain

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Breakfast This hotel also included breakfast buffet. The restaurant had a great view of a lake. River I went to the park 甸溪河湿地公园. The park was built along a river, with paved trails on both sides. I walked from the south end entrance all the way to the north end entrance, 8km (5 miles). There were many trees along the paths, providing shades. The park was free and there were many locals here, mostly seniors exercising. There had been record rain fall the past month, so the water level was very high in the river and the water was muddy. People told me that the water was normally clear and much prettier in other times. Mountain At the end of the river park, it was the entrance to a mountain park called 锦屏山公园. There was a giant buddha statue on top of the mountain. One could climb up the stairs with 1999 steps, or take the shuttle. The entrance fee was 50 RMB, shuttle was 15 one-way, 20 round-trip.  I purchased the roundtrip shuttle, but in hindsight, only one-way was needed, bec...
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