Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Watersplashing in Yongping

Watersplashing in Yongping
Ask for the Watersplashing Festival, or Poshuijie 泼水节, and everyone will tell you to go to Jinghong, capital of Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region: the 'biggest and best' Dai celebrations to mark their New Year are taking place there. And big it is. Thousands of Han Chinese and foreign tourist flock to Jinghong every year. Jinghong's Poshuijie certainly is big -- and very commercial. If big crowds and big events are your thing, go to Jinghong.



The temple in Mangdao 芒岛, built in 1899, is one of few surviving examples of Dai Buddhist temples having survived the Cultural Revolution by being converted into grain storage.


Jim Goodman: Children of the Jade Dragon: the Naxi of Lijiang and their mountain neighbours the Yi

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In the first half of the 1990s Lijiang had barely made its appearance on the Chinese tourism stage, even less so the then remote mountains of Ningland and Lugu Lake. Jim Goodman's account of the Naxi and the Yi draws back to a time where not everything was staged for mass tourism: an account of a lost world.


A number of Chinese historic texts covering life and politics in Yunnan have survived over the centuries. I have translated a few of them.

John Israel: Lianda: A Chinese University in War and Revolution

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Everyone knows about the Mao's Long March, but a few years later another long march took place: that of Chinese students leaving their cushy campuses on the east coast, trekking all the way to Yunnan where their universities reformed as Lianda, the united university. Kunming, then a total backwater, became a hotbed for new ideas, not just scientific. We liked the section of east coast girls scampering around Mengzi in their latest fashion.


Dali's dragon boat races were held on the day of the Torch Festival.



Historic village on the old Kunming-Dali road.

Markets this Thursday

Kunming 昆明
Jijie 鸡街乡

Dali 大理
Nanxin 南新
Junhua 均化
Duomei 朵美
Niujie 牛街
Yangcen 羊岑
Haidong 海东
Maidi 脉地
Gudi 古底
Liuhe 六合
Heqing 鹤庆县
Qiaohou 乔后
Daying 大营
Taiyi 太邑彝族乡
Liuchang 刘厂镇
Qinghaiying 青海营
Beiya 北衙
果城村
Xinjie 新街镇
Qiaodian 乔甸镇
Mizhi 密祉镇
鲁庄
太和社区

Lijiang 丽江
Shunzhou 顺州

Xishuangbanna 西双版纳
Xiding 西定哈尼族乡

Honghe 红河
Dianwei 甸尾乡
Shalatuo 沙拉托
Heping 和平乡
Longwu 龙武镇
Baixian 白显
Zhemi 者米拉祜族乡
Panzihua 攀枝花
Tongchang 铜厂

Wenshan 文山
Babu 八布乡
Tiechang 铁厂镇
Banlun 板仑乡
Zhuanjiao 篆角乡
Funing 富宁县
Jiumo 旧莫乡
Mulun 睦伦乡

Chuxiong 楚雄
Jiyi 己衣乡
Tanhua 昙花乡
Sanchahe 三岔河乡
Mixing 弥兴镇
Dongpo 东坡傣族乡
Guanglu 光路镇

Baoshan 保山市
Xiaopingtian 小平田
Tengchong 腾冲县
Wama 瓦马彝族白族乡

Lincang 临沧
Mangka 芒卡镇
Fengwei 风尾镇
Boshang 博商
Wumulong 乌木龙乡
Mengjiao 勐角乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Dahai 大海乡
Huohong 火红乡
Nagu 娜姑镇
Xitu 西土
Yema 野马林场
迤车

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuanghe 双河

Yuxi 玉溪
Mosha 漠沙镇
Yani 亚尼
Yuanjiang 元江哈尼族彝族傣族自治县
Nanuo 那诺乡

Nujiang 怒江
Jiakedi 架科底乡
Pihe 匹河怒族乡
Dimaluo

Puer 普洱
Fubang 富邦乡
Yongping 永平镇
Mujia 木戛乡
Ankang 安康佤族乡
Meng'a 孟啊
Wendong 文东佤族乡

Diqing 迪庆
岩瓦