Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Historic Dali

Founded in the Ming dynasty, in today's old Dali history is present, but sometimes hidden.




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


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.


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

Judith Shapiro: Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China

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Even if Chinese civilization has developed more against than with nature, the Mao years were a particular exercise in environmental destruction. In one case-study Shapiro tells the story of the draining of the northern part of Dianchi Lake, one of the first steps turning Kunming's lake into the fetid cess-pool it is today.


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.

Markets this Thursday

Kunming 昆明
Kedu 柯渡镇

Dali 大理
Duomei 朵美
Junhua 均化
Nanxin 南新
Niujie 牛街
Yangcen 羊岑
Shanyang 衫阳
Maidi 脉地
Gudi 古底
Liuhe 六合
Heqing 鹤庆县
Qiaohou 乔后
Daying 大营
Dacang 大仓镇
Taiyi 太邑彝族乡
Zuòyì 作邑
Caojian 漕间
Shuanglang 双廊镇
Xiazhuang 下庄镇
鲁庄
Longjie 龙街
龙洞村
Junhuacun 均华村
Qiaodian 乔甸镇
Shalong 沙龙镇
太和社区

Lijiang 丽江
Liming 黎明

Xishuangbanna 西双版纳
Xiding 西定哈尼族乡

Dehong 德宏
Lianghe 梁河县
Kachang 卡场镇

Honghe 红河
Niujiaozhai 牛角寨
Mengla 勐拉
Dianwei 甸尾乡
Sancun 三村
Heping 和平乡
Daheigong 大黑公
Wuwan 乌弯
Baixian 白显
Maandi 马鞍底

Wenshan 文山
Shadou 沙斗
Nijiao 腻脚彝族乡
Jijie 鸡街乡
Donggan 董干镇
Tienpeng 田蓬镇
Jiumo 旧莫乡

Chuxiong 楚雄
Jiyi 己衣乡
Tanhua 昙花乡
Mixing 弥兴镇
Sanchahe 三岔河乡
Dongpo 东坡傣族乡
Guanglu 光路镇

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

Lincang 临沧
Yongde 永德县
Danjia 单甲乡
Lushi 鲁史
Mengdui 孟堆乡
Fuhe 复合

Qujing 曲靖市
Dahai 大海乡
Daibu 待补镇
Huohong 火红乡
Nagu 娜姑镇
迤车
Zhehai 者海镇

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuanghe 双河

Yuxi 玉溪
Jiasa 戛洒镇
Tadian 塔甸
Mosha 漠沙镇
Xingmeng 兴蒙
Hexi 河西

Nujiang 怒江
Jiakedi 架科底乡
Pihe 匹河怒族乡
Dimaluo

Puer 普洱
Mangxin 芒信镇
Qiannuo 千糯

Diqing 迪庆
岩瓦