Yunnan - China's most beautiful province


The Dengchuan Plain 邓川坝子

The Dengchuan Plain 邓川坝子

The Dengchuan Plain 邓川坝子, north of Dali's Erhai Lake 洱海, has with West Lake 西湖 and the Miju River corridor 弥苴河 some beautiful, if hardly known, scenic areas. It's natural scenery, however, is man-made, the result of more than a thousand years of cultivation and water-management projects that have transformed a swamp and marshland into the current cultural environment.




The annual Bai Raosanling is one of the wildest temple fairs in the province.


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.

A fake festival that has become part of Dali's 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

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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.


Central point of the activities of the third day of Raosanling.



Once an important salt-mining town, now the second largest town along the Heihui River north of Yangbi.

Markets this Tuesday

Kunming 昆明
Jiulong 九龙乡
Tuanjie 团结

Dali 大理
Duomei 朵美
Fuheng 富恒
Junhua 均化
Yongping 永平县
Fengyu 风羽
Liandong 炼洞
Longjie 龙街
Guanping 关平
Dali 大理
Baofeng 宝丰乡
Caicun 才村
Longjie 龙街
Liuhe 六合
Heqing 鹤庆县
Madeng 马镫
Binju 宾居
Shuijing 水井
Deju 德苴乡
西庄
Midian 米甸镇
寅街村
Puping 普淜镇

Honghe 红河
Mingjiu 鸣鹫镇
Wantang 湾塘乡
Caoba 草坝镇
Sankeshu 三棵树
Dayangjie 大羊街
Dixibei 地西北
Xinjie 新街

Wenshan 文山
Badaoshao 八道哨乡
Jiayi 稼依镇
Heizhiguo 黑支果乡
Boai 剥隘镇
Dongma 董马乡
Xinzhai 新寨乡

Chuxiong 楚雄
Gaoqiao 高桥镇
Dalongkou 大龙口乡
Mixing 弥兴镇

Baoshan 保山市
Zhonghe 中和
Bawan 坝湾镇
Mangkuan 芒宽彝族傣族乡

Lincang 临沧
Luodang 洛党
Menglai 勐来乡
Yalian 亚练乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Baiwu 白雾
Daba 大坝
Daqiao 大桥乡
Jiache 驾车乡
Leye 乐业镇
Malu 马路乡
Zhichang 纸厂乡

Zhaotong 昭通
Shuanghe 双河

Yuxi 玉溪
Chahe 岔河
Mosha 漠沙镇
Dalongtan 大龙潭

Nujiang 怒江
Gudeng 古登
Bingzhongluo 丙中洛
Lishadi 利沙底乡

Puer 普洱
Menglian 孟连傣族拉祜族佤族自治县
Mengsuo 勐梭镇

Diqing 迪庆
Zhonglu 中路