Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Black Well, White Gold

Black Well, White Gold
Heijing is a small town in the northern Chuxiong mountains. Salt once made Heijing one of Yunnan's richest towns. Now its architectural splendours are being rediscovered.



A Lahu minority Christian service in a hill village near Menglian.


C. Patterson Giersch: Asian Borderlands: The Transformation of Qing China's Yunnan Frontier

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Yunnan was not always China: indeed not so long ago large parts of Yunnan were only nominally part of the empire. To make Yunnan, outside the main Han cities, a Chinese province required significant effort. Here Giersch's study on Yunnan's hinterland makes an interesting if academic read.


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

Traditional Bai vernacular architecture with buildings to three sides and a screenwall.



Unspoiled Weishan boast Yunnan's most beautiful county town, an important Taoist mountain and areas of strong Muslim and Yi tradition.


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 Bai town famous for its typical Bai architecture.



The old border crossing to Guizhou.

Markets this Friday

Kunming 昆明
Jinsuo 金所乡

Dali 大理
Xiangtu 象图乡
Hecun 萂村
Jiancao 捡槽
Gunipen 沽泥盆
Waxi 瓦溪
Shuixie 水泄
Pingchuan 平川
Wuxing 五星
Yangbi 漾濞彝族自治县
Baidangping 白荡坪
Shaxi 沙溪
Huangping 黄平镇
Yousuo 右所镇
Gonglang 公郎镇
Zhongjiang 中江
Jindunjiecun 金墩街村
Jijie 鸡街乡
汤涧
西庄
Midian 米甸镇
Wachang 瓦厂乡
寅街村
Xishan 西山乡
大栗树
Beiya 北衙
云南驿村
前所

Lijiang 丽江
Shunzhou 顺州

Honghe 红河
Xinhua 新华乡
Lengquan 冷泉镇
Lengdun 冷墩
Majie 马街
Dongshan 东山镇
Lvchun 绿春县
Shitouzhai 石头寨
Longwu 龙武镇
Nanke 南科
Xinjie 新街
Jinping 金平苗族瑶族傣族自治县
Mengqiao 勐桥乡

Wenshan 文山
Pingzhai 平寨乡
Muyang 木央镇
Banggu 蚌谷乡
Nanping (Majie) 南屏镇 (马街)

Chuxiong 楚雄
Shizhong 适中乡
Qianchang 前场镇
Dalongkou 大龙口乡
Jiuchang 九厂
Guihua 桂花乡

Baoshan 保山市
Zhonghe 中和
Bawan 坝湾镇
Mangkuan 芒宽彝族傣族乡

Lincang 临沧
Menglai 勐来乡
Xinhua 新华彝族苗族乡

Qujing 曲靖市
干海子
Jiache 驾车乡
Kuangshan 矿山镇
Laochang 老厂乡
Luna 鲁纳乡
Shangcun 上村乡
Wuxing 五星乡
Xinjie 新街回族乡
Yulu 雨碌乡

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuitian 水田
Linfeng 麟风
Menggu 蒙姑镇

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

Nujiang 怒江
Chenggan 称杆
Daxingdi 大兴地乡
Zilijia 子里甲乡

Puer 普洱
Donghui 东回镇
Xuelin 雪林佤族乡
Minle 民乐
Menglian 孟连傣族拉祜族佤族自治县
Mengsuo 勐梭镇