Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


Raid on Cikou Church

Western missionaries were not always welcome in Yunnan. And when in 1867 they opened a mission in the upper Mekong valley, on the gates of Tibet, they incurred the wrath of Tibet's rulers.



The temple in Mangdao 芒岛, built in 1899, is one of few surviving examples of Dai Buddhist temples having survived the Cultural Revolution by being converted into grain storage.


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.

John Israel: Lianda: A Chinese University in War and Revolution

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Everyone knows about the Mao's Long March, but a few years later another long march took place: that of Chinese students leaving their cushy campuses on the east coast, trekking all the way to Yunnan where their universities reformed as Lianda, the united university. Kunming, then a total backwater, became a hotbed for new ideas, not just scientific. We liked the section of east coast girls scampering around Mengzi in their latest fashion.


Historic village on the old Kunming-Dali road.

Markets this Thursday

Dali 大理
Junhua 均化
Duomei 朵美
Nanxin 南新
Niujie 牛街
Yangcen 羊岑
Shuixie 水泄
Maidi 脉地
Gudi 古底
Liuhe 六合
Heqing 鹤庆县
Qiaohou 乔后
Daying 大营
Taiyi 太邑彝族乡
Gonglang 公郎镇
云南驿村
Beiya 北衙
Qiaodian 乔甸镇
鲁庄
太和社区
前所

Lijiang 丽江
Shunzhou 顺州

Xishuangbanna 西双版纳
Xiding 西定哈尼族乡

Dehong 德宏
Kachang 卡场镇
Lianghe 梁河县

Honghe 红河
Niujiaozhai 牛角寨
Dianwei 甸尾乡
Longwu 龙武镇
Sancun 三村
Heping 和平乡
Lvchun 绿春县
Yafangzi Yafangzi
Majie 马街
Longwu 龙武镇
Wuwan 乌弯
Daheigong 大黑公
Nanke 南科
Baixian 白显
Jinping 金平苗族瑶族傣族自治县
Mengqiao 勐桥乡

Wenshan 文山
Pingzhai 平寨乡
Banggu 蚌谷乡
Muyang 木央镇
Nanping (Majie) 南屏镇 (马街)

Chuxiong 楚雄
Jiyi 己衣乡
Tanhua 昙花乡
Sanchahe 三岔河乡
Mixing 弥兴镇
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
Xinhua 新华彝族苗族乡
Fuhe 复合
Mengdui 孟堆乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Fenghuang 凤凰
干海子
Laochang 老厂乡
Luna 鲁纳乡
Shangcun 上村乡
Wuxing 五星乡
Xinjie 新街回族乡
Yangmeishan 杨梅山

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuanghe 双河
Menggu 蒙姑镇

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

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
Minle 民乐
Puyi 普义乡

Diqing 迪庆
岩瓦