Marco Polo in Yunnan?
Did the great Venetian traveller reach Yunnan? Almost certainly not, but still his accounts are the first words Europeans heard about this far-away region.
The firing of self-made rockets is one of the fun parts of the Dai Watersplashing Festival 泼水节.
Even if Chinese civilization has developed more against than with nature, the Mao years were a particular exercise in environmental destruction. In one case-study Shapiro tells the story of the draining of the northern part of Dianchi Lake, one of the first steps turning Kunming's lake into the fetid cess-pool it is today.
A number of Chinese historic texts covering life and politics in Yunnan have survived over the centuries. I have translated a few of them.