Protecting Erhai: The Seven Big Activities
When in April 2017 guesthouses and restaurants around western Yunnan's Erhai Lake were suddenly summarily ordered closed until further notice, big character slogans also began proclaiming: "Protecting Erhai: The Seven Big Activities" 保护洱海七大行动. The slogan suggests that the closure of tourist facilities is just one part of a wider campaign to clean up the Erhai environment.
Market day in Shiping's Guanyin Temple Alley 观音寺巷 appears almost unchanged from twenty years ago.
Liao Yiwu, one of China's most prominent dissidents, was driven out of China, but not before he used a period of internal exile to research Christian groups, mainly in Yunnan. In this book he tells the stories of the Christians of Dali and of Wuding county.
A number of Chinese historic texts covering life and politics in Yunnan have survived over the centuries. I have translated a few of them.