Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Kiss of Life for an Old Caravan Market

Until the middle of last century, Shaxi was a flourishing village on the caravan road to Tibet. The following decades made it a place that history forgot. Now Shaxi is undergoing an award-winning restoration.



Lingjiu Temple near Fengyu is said to date back to Nanzhao, but the current structures are from the Qing Dynasty


Jim Goodman: Living in Shangrila: Tibetans and Mosuo in Northwest Yunnan

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Abstract: When Diqing Prefecture, opened its doors to foreign visitors in 1992, tourist agencies and government officials promoted Zhongdian County as the Shangrila of James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon. In 2001 the city officially changed its name to Shangrila. On a high plateau of over 3200 meters, surrounded by snow covered mountain peaks, inhabited mainly by relatively prosperous, friendly and contented Tibetans, with beautiful monasteries, lakes, forests and summer flowers, the county’s scenery and lifestyle certainly bore a strong resemblance to that in the novel. Living in Shangrila describes the life and environment of the Tibetan people throughout Diqing Prefecture. It also examines their neighbors the Mosuo, a branch of the Naxi nationality, who adopted Tibetan Buddhism as their religion, but are still mainly a matrilineal society, unique to Yunnan, living around Lugu Lake, the most picturesque body of water in the province. The book includes over 200 photographs.


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

Azhali is a historic branch of Buddhism with strong Bai local characteristics.



This old caravan town on the Jinsha River is Yunnan's gateway to Tibet.


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.


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

Markets this Wednesday

Kunming 昆明
Shilin 石林彝族自治县
Longtou 龙头街

Dali 大理
Shunbi 順濞
Xintun 辛屯
Shaba 沙坝
Songgui 松桂
Zuòyì 作邑
Zhongying 种英
Huangping 黄平镇
Shanglan 上兰
Zhouguanying 周官营
Miaojie 庙街镇
Shangcang 上沧
Gongguoqiao 功果桥镇
顺荡
三胜
Houshancun 后山村
Shalong 沙龙镇
Hedian 禾甸镇
Caifeng 财丰
龙洞村
Hongyan 红岩镇
龙街
Xiazhuang 下庄镇

Lijiang 丽江
Shigu 石鼓镇
Yongsheng 永胜县
Banqiao 板桥

Dehong 德宏
Husa 户撒乡
Nangsong 曩宋阿昌族乡

Honghe 红河
Zhicun 芷村镇
Shengcun 生村
Sancun 三村
Baiyun 白云乡
Shaochong 哨冲镇
Mengping 勐坪
Yongning 永宁乡
Niujie 牛街镇
Tutai 土台
Hongtian 红田

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

Chuxiong 楚雄
Maojie 猫街镇
Yaoan 姚安县

Baoshan 保山市
Manglong 芒龙

Lincang 临沧
Cangyuan 沧源佤族自治县
Shuangjiang 双江拉祜族佤族布朗族傣族自治县
Quannei 圈内
Zhenkang 镇康县
Junsai 军赛乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Dahai 大海乡
Huohong 火红乡
Nagu 娜姑镇
Sandao 三道
迤车
Zhehai 者海镇

Zhaotong 昭通
Shikan 石坎
Jiucheng 旧城
Weixin 威信
Changan 长安

Yuxi 玉溪
Yangjie 羊街乡
Dianzhong 甸中

Nujiang 怒江
Lazan 腊咱
Lumadeng 鹿马登乡

Puer 普洱
Jiangcheng 江城哈尼族彝族自治县
Fuyan 富岩

Diqing 迪庆
Jiagetu 价格土
Kaifaqu 开发区
岩瓦