Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Raid on Cikou Church

Western missionaries were not always welcome in Yunnan. And when in 1867 they opened a mission in the upper Mekong valley, on the gates of Tibet, they incurred the wrath of Tibet's rulers.



The watermills in Fengqing's Gumo village operate just like a thousand years ago.


Fei Hsiao-Tung and Chang Chih-I: Earthbound China: A Study of Rural Economy in Yunnan

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Fei is the father of modern sociology in China: western-trained, he came to Yunnan at the end of the 1930s when China's eastern universities relocated west. In "Earthbound China" he applied modern empirical techniques that he had pioneered around Shanghai to the Chinese hinterland. The economical development, and subsequent societal changes, of three un-named, but typical villages in Yunnan is analyzed in great detail in this fascinating study.


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

Cangshan 苍山 to the west and Erhai 洱海 to the east frame the Dali Bai homeland.



Best surviving station on the French-built Vietnam-Kunming railway.


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.


Cangshan 苍山 to the west and Erhai 洱海 to the east frame the Dali Bai homeland.



The Danxia, or red sandstore, cliffs around Liming are a hikers' and climbers' paradise that is just now being discovered.

Markets this Monday

Dali 大理
Biaocun 表村
Fengyi 凤仪
Jizushan 鸡足山
Wase 挖色
Caicun 才村
Yongjian 永连
Dali 大理
Tuanjie 团结
Misha 弥沙
Baishi 白石
Huangping 黄平镇
Zuòyì 作邑
Dacang 大仓镇
Shaping 沙平村
Zhongjiang 中江
Shalong 沙龙镇
蛇街
Miaowei 苗尾傈僳族乡
Hedian 禾甸镇
Shidongcun 石洞村
Taiping 太平乡
Hongyan 红岩镇
Luming 鹿鸣乡
Jindunjiecun 金墩街村
妙姑村
Xiazhuang 下庄镇
龙洞村

Lijiang 丽江
Judian 巨甸镇

Dehong 德宏
Kachang 卡场镇
Lianghe 梁河县

Honghe 红河
Shengcun 生村
Laozhai 老寨苗族乡
Chemalong 车玛龙
Daheigong 大黑公
Wuwan 乌弯
Mengping 勐坪
Puxiong 普雄
Baihe 白河乡

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

Chuxiong 楚雄
Xiaoju 小苴
Qianchang 前场镇
Chadian 插甸乡

Baoshan 保山市
Wafang 瓦房彝族白族乡
Mangbang 芒棒

Lincang 临沧
Guoda 郭大彝族白族乡
Yongde 永德县
Danjia 单甲乡
Fuhe 复合
Mengdui 孟堆乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Baiwu 白雾
Daqiao 大桥乡
Leye 乐业镇
Malu 马路乡
Yulu 雨碌乡
Zhichang 纸厂乡

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuitian 水田
Linfeng 麟风

Yuxi 玉溪
Xingmeng 兴蒙
Hexi 河西
Fuliangpeng 富良棚

Nujiang 怒江
Pengdang 捧当
Fugong 福贡
Maji 马吉乡

Puer 普洱
Jiangcheng 江城哈尼族彝族自治县
Mangxin 芒信镇
Qiannuo 千糯
恩永

Diqing 迪庆
Zili 梓里
Weideng 维登
Kaifaqu 开发区
岩瓦