Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Kiss of Life for an Old Caravan Market

Until the middle of last century, Shaxi was a flourishing village on the caravan road to Tibet. The following decades made it a place that history forgot. Now Shaxi is undergoing an award-winning restoration.



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


Ronald G. Knapp: China's Old Dwellings

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Few people know as much about Chinese architecture as Knapp: from palaces to humble homes he explains important building principles; the connection between environment and housing styles and the development of style over time. A section on minority housing styles complements the book.


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

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.


With its well-preserved architecture and tranquil atmosphere, Weishan's capital is Yunnan's most beautiful county town.

Markets this Friday

Kunming 昆明
Tuanjie 团结
Jinsuo 金所乡

Dali 大理
Junhua 均化
Xiangtu 象图乡
Hecun 萂村
Duomei 朵美
Gunipen 沽泥盆
Jiancao 捡槽
Waxi 瓦溪
Pingchuan 平川
Wuxing 五星
Liuhe 六合
Heqing 鹤庆县
Yangbi 漾濞彝族自治县
Baidangping 白荡坪
Shaxi 沙溪
Yousuo 右所镇
Hongyan 红岩镇
Xishan 西山乡
大栗树
龙洞村
Shalong 沙龙镇
Jijie 鸡街乡
汤涧
Hedian 禾甸镇
Xiazhuang 下庄镇
Wachang 瓦厂乡
Qinghaiying 青海营

Honghe 红河
Shengcun 生村
Xinhua 新华乡
Lengquan 冷泉镇
Lengdun 冷墩
Dongshan 东山镇
Shitouzhai 石头寨
Mengping 勐坪

Wenshan 文山
Shuanglongying 双龙营乡
Zhujie 朱街镇
Lida 里达镇
Mugan 木杆
Banlun 板仑乡
Zhulin 珠琳镇

Chuxiong 楚雄
Dalongkou 大龙口乡
Qianchang 前场镇
Mixing 弥兴镇
Jiuchang 九厂
Guihua 桂花乡

Baoshan 保山市
Hehua 荷花傣族佤族乡
Xinzhai 新寨

Lincang 临沧
Mengding 孟定
Nanmei 南美拉祜族乡
Banhong 班洪乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Dahai 大海乡
Huohong 火红乡
Nagu 娜姑镇
Xitu 西土
迤车

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuanghe 双河

Yuxi 玉溪
Chahe 岔河
Dalongtan 大龙潭

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

Puer 普洱
Jiangcheng 江城哈尼族彝族自治县
Nuofu 糯福
Mengma 孟马镇

Diqing 迪庆
Zhonglu 中路