Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Black Well, White Gold

Black Well, White Gold
Heijing is a small town in the northern Chuxiong mountains. Salt once made Heijing one of Yunnan's richest towns. Now its architectural splendours are being rediscovered.



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

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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.

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.


Yunnan's only Shui-Township with stunning karst scenery.

Markets this Friday

Kunming 昆明
Wumeng 乌蒙乡
Jinsuo 金所乡

Dali 大理
Xiangtu 象图乡
Hecun 萂村
Jiancao 捡槽
Gunipen 沽泥盆
Waxi 瓦溪
Pingchuan 平川
Wuxing 五星
Baidangping 白荡坪
Yangbi 漾濞彝族自治县
Shaxi 沙溪
Huangping 黄平镇
Zhongjiang 中江
Yousuo 右所镇
大栗树
Xinjie 新街镇
Mizhi 密祉镇
Jijie 鸡街乡
Jindunjiecun 金墩街村
果城村
Wachang 瓦厂乡
汤涧
龙洞村
Shalong 沙龙镇
Beiya 北衙
Xishan 西山乡
Liuchang 刘厂镇
Xiazhuang 下庄镇

Lijiang 丽江
Shunzhou 顺州

Honghe 红河
Xinhua 新华乡
Lengdun 冷墩
Lengquan 冷泉镇
Sancun 三村
Dongshan 东山镇
Longwu 龙武镇
Shitouzhai 石头寨
Mengping 勐坪

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

Chuxiong 楚雄
Dalongkou 大龙口乡
Shizhong 适中乡
Qianchang 前场镇
Jiuchang 九厂
Guihua 桂花乡

Baoshan 保山市
Hehua 荷花傣族佤族乡
Xinzhai 新寨

Lincang 临沧
Mengding 孟定
Nanmei 南美拉祜族乡
Banhong 班洪乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Fenghuang 凤凰
干海子
Laochang 老厂乡
Wuxing 五星乡
Xinjie 新街回族乡
Yangmeishan 杨梅山

Zhaotong 昭通
Linfeng 麟风
Shuitian 水田
Menggu 蒙姑镇

Yuxi 玉溪
Yani 亚尼
Yuanjiang 元江哈尼族彝族傣族自治县
Nanuo 那诺乡

Nujiang 怒江
Chenggan 称杆
Daxingdi 大兴地乡
Zilijia 子里甲乡

Puer 普洱
Nuofu 糯福
Dashan 大山乡
Mengma 孟马镇
Fubang 富邦乡
Meizi 梅子镇
Mujia 木戛乡
Ankang 安康佤族乡
Wendong 文东佤族乡