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.
Midu Folk song is a national level intangible cultural heritage.
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.
Fei Hsiao-Tung and Chang Chih-I: Earthbound China: A Study of Rural Economy in Yunnan
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.
Rattlestick Dance is a traditional dance of the Bai minority, specifically in Jianchuan county.
Best surviving station on the French-built Vietnam-Kunming railway.
Upcoming Festivals
| Name | Date |
|---|---|
| Flower Festival | 17 Jun |
| Golden Horse Festival | 18 Jun |
| Flower Mountain | 19 Jun |
| Horse Races | 19 Jun |
| Gunu Temple Healing Walk | 19 Jun |
| Flower Mountain | 19 Jun |
| Dragon Boat Festival | 19 Jun |
| Kanglang Shengmu Temple Fair | 19 Jun |
| Benzhu Worship | 19 Jun |
| Flower Market | 19 Jun |
| Xizhou Medicine Market | 19 Jun |
| 端午节 | 19 Jun |
Markets this Friday
| Dali | 大理 |
|---|---|
| Xiangtu | 象图乡 |
| Hecun | 萂村 |
| Jiancao | 捡槽 |
| Xintun | 辛屯 |
| Shuixie | 水泄 |
| Gunipen | 沽泥盆 |
| Waxi | 瓦溪 |
| Songgui | 松桂 |
| Wuxing | 五星 |
| Pingchuan | 平川 |
| Yinqiao | 银桥 |
| Baidangping | 白荡坪 |
| Yangbi | 漾濞彝族自治县 |
| Shaxi | 沙溪 |
| Gonglang | 公郎镇 |
| Yousuo | 右所镇 |
| Huangping | 黄平镇 |
| 寅街村 | |
| 云南驿村 | |
| Jijie | 鸡街乡 |
| Qinghaiying | 青海营 |
| Wachang | 瓦厂乡 |
| 汤涧 | |
| Midian | 米甸镇 |
| Xishan | 西山乡 |
| 前所 | |
| 西庄 | |
| 大栗树 |
| Lijiang | 丽江 |
|---|---|
| Shigu | 石鼓镇 |
| Honghe | 红河 |
|---|---|
| Xinhua | 新华乡 |
| Lengquan | 冷泉镇 |
| Lengdun | 冷墩 |
| Lvchun | 绿春县 |
| Majie | 马街 |
| Dongshan | 东山镇 |
| Wuwan | 乌弯 |
| Shitouzhai | 石头寨 |
| Daheigong | 大黑公 |
| Xinjie | 新街 |
| Nanke | 南科 |
| Jinping | 金平苗族瑶族傣族自治县 |
| Mengqiao | 勐桥乡 |
| Wenshan | 文山 |
|---|---|
| Pingzhai | 平寨乡 |
| Banlun | 板仑乡 |
| Banggu | 蚌谷乡 |
| Muyang | 木央镇 |
| Nanping (Majie) | 南屏镇 (马街） |