Watersplashing in Yongping
Ask for the Watersplashing Festival, or Poshuijie 泼水节, and everyone will tell you to go to Jinghong, capital of Yunnan's Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region: the 'biggest and best' Dai celebrations to mark their New Year are taking place there. And big it is. Thousands of Han Chinese and foreign tourist flock to Jinghong every year. Jinghong's Poshuijie certainly is big -- and very commercial. If big crowds and big events are your thing, go to Jinghong.
The watermills in Fengqing's Gumo village operate just like a thousand years ago.
C. Patterson Giersch: Asian Borderlands: The Transformation of Qing China's Yunnan Frontier
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.
Donglianhua is a Muslim caravan town with plenty of historic architecture.
Jim Goodman: Children of the Jade Dragon: the Naxi of Lijiang and their mountain neighbours the Yi
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.
Small Benzhu shrine, used for rituals on the third day of Raosanling.
Fog swirling on a cold winter morning over endless rice-terraces, the red of the
early morning sun reflected in the flooded paddies: this is the classic view of the
Hani Rice Terraces of Yuanyang, now of UNESCO World Heritage status.
Upcoming Festivals
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
| Buddha Relic Worship | 17 Apr |
| Buddha Relic Worship | 18 Apr |
| Hanna Temple Worship | 20 Apr |
| Buddha Relic Worship | 21 Apr |
| Ximu Buddha Print | 21 Apr |
| Fumeng Bada | 24 Apr |
| Monihei | 01 May |
| Yangmei Festival | 01 May |
| Third Month Fair | 01 May |
| May Day | 01 May |
| Migan Festival | 02 May |
| Baitan Temple Fair | 04 May |
Markets this Monday
| Dali | 大理 |
|---|---|
| Duomei | 朵美 |
| Junhua | 均化 |
| Wanqiao | 湾桥 |
| Biaocun | 表村 |
| Jizushan | 鸡足山 |
| Liuhe | 六合 |
| Heqing | 鹤庆县 |
| Tuanjie | 团结 |
| Misha | 弥沙 |
| Baishi | 白石 |
| Shuanglang | 双廊镇 |
| Shaping | 沙平村 |
| Longjie | 龙街 |
| Xiazhuang | 下庄镇 |
| Miaowei | 苗尾傈僳族乡 |
| 龙洞村 | |
| Taiping | 太平乡 |
| Shalong | 沙龙镇 |
| Baoshan | 保山市 |
|---|---|
| Xiaopingtian | 小平田 |
| Tengchong | 腾冲县 |
| Wama | 瓦马彝族白族乡 |
| Zhaotong | 昭通 |
|---|---|
| Shuanghe | 双河 |