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.




A small Yi group in Heqing County with distinctive dress.


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.


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

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.


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

Markets this Monday

Kunming 昆明
Jiulong 九龙乡

Dali 大理
Shanyang 衫阳
Longjie 龙街
Biaocun 表村
Xintun 辛屯
Jizushan 鸡足山
Songgui 松桂
Longjie 龙街
Tuanjie 团结
Misha 弥沙
Baishi 白石
Caojian 漕间
Shaping 沙平村
Huangping 黄平镇
寅街村
Miaowei 苗尾傈僳族乡
Midian 米甸镇
Taiping 太平乡
西庄
Puping 普淜镇
Junhuacun 均华村

Lijiang 丽江
Shigu 石鼓镇

Honghe 红河
Laozhai 老寨苗族乡
Chemalong 车玛龙
Sankeshu 三棵树
Dixibei 地西北
Xinjie 新街
Puxiong 普雄
Baihe 白河乡

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

Chuxiong 楚雄
Chadian 插甸乡
Qianchang 前场镇
Shizhong 适中乡

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

Lincang 临沧
Menglai 勐来乡
Fengqing 凤庆县
Yalian 亚练乡

Qujing 曲靖市
Daba 大坝
Fenghuang 凤凰
干海子
Jiache 驾车乡
Laochang 老厂乡
Wuxing 五星乡
Xinjie 新街回族乡

Zhaotong 昭通
Jiucheng 旧城
Shikan 石坎
Weixin 威信
Changan 长安
Menggu 蒙姑镇

Yuxi 玉溪
Tadian 塔甸
Jiasa 戛洒镇

Nujiang 怒江
Pengdang 捧当
Maji 马吉乡

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

Diqing 迪庆
Zili 梓里
Shangjiang 上江
Kaifaqu 开发区