Yunnan's French colonial connections lives on in the old train station at Bisezhai
Not far outside the bustling city of Mengzi, Yunnan province, famous as the home of “crossing-the-bridge rice noodles (过桥米线),” the small town of Caoba (草坝) nestles amid the lush green hills. The endless pomegranate groves, tropical flowers, and rice fields hide an array of curiously European mustard-yellow buildings, grass-green doors, and steel tracks sprawled on the ground like spiderwebs.