An Introduction to Yunnan Province 云 南 省 简 介

Abbreviation: Yun云or Dian 滇
Capital: Kunming
Area: More than 380,000 square kilometers
Population: 41.41 million
Location: In southwest China

Situated in the southwestern borderland of China and noted for magnificent landscape, agreeable climate, and fascinating life styles of ethnic group people, Yunan Province is home to 26 ethnic groups, the most of any province. The province is a multi-functional tourist resort for sightseeing, acquiring knowledge, exploring wonders and pursuing enjoyment. It is a province with the greatest variety of ethnic groups in China. A diverse history and different lifestyle have made Yunnan a museum of human society. Their distinctive cultures, folkways, costumes and architectural styles seem to unfold before the eyes scroll of genre paintings with a riot of colours. The captivating festivals there, such as the Water Sprinkling Festival in Xishuangbanna and Dehong, the Third Month Fair in Dali, the Torchlight Festival of the Yi people at the Stone Forest, the Sword Pole Festival (Daoganjie) of the Lisu people, and Munao Zongge Festival of the Jingpo people, will make the tourist immersed in a sea of joy and excitement.

Yunnan is also a natural museum. Different topography and climate have formed in Yunnan a unique biosphere ranging from the tropical to the frigid. The province leads China in number of plants and animal species.

Nature has endowed the province with numerous wonders. The submarine wonderland of 270 million years ago has become today’s Stone Forest. To roam around it is a great joy. The Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiaoxi) is one of the world’s deepest canyons with a depth of 3,200 meters from the mountaintop to the river surface, an ideal place for exploration and tourism. The Snow Dragon Mountain (Yulongxueshan) is superb with its loftiness and elegance. Another rewarding experience is to reveal in the beautiful scenery of Dali noted for the wind (that blows through the valley at Xiaguan), the flowers (camellias that prople in Shanguan like to grow), the snow (that covers the top of Cangshan Mountain perennially), and the moonlight (over the waves of Erhai Lake). Further, a tour in the tropical monsoon rain forests of Xishuangbanna will make the tourist feel returning to nature. The province would be a popular tourists’ destination in its own right.

Yunnan Province is also famed as the Kingdom of Animals, the Kingdom of Plants and the Kingdom of Non-Ferrous Metals.

Yunnan has abundant natural plants and diversified topography. Its vegetation includes that of cold, temperate, subtropical zones. At present, it contains 18,000 species of valuable plants, which account for 60 per cent of the country’s flora species. It has been considered as one of the major plants in both China and the world. After several years of efforts, Kunming has established a 1,000-hectare flower base, which has become an important source of flower exports in China. In addition to excellent wealthier conditions, the province’s plateau landscape, tropical rainforest, as well as the ethnic groups with their colourful customs form a solid foundation appealing to tourists. Among the spots appreciated by visitors, there is the tropical rain forest Xishuangbanna, the wonder-on-earth stone forests, and the “Oriental Geneva” of Dali and the Lijiang Jade Dragon Snow Range—a skiing resort at the world’s lowest latitude. The 800-year-old Lijiang was added to the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1997. Besides, these 25 ethnic groups in the province bring flavour with their special history, their culture and living customs.

The Yunnan Province’s terrain is mainly composed of plateaus. Basins are scattered between mountains. To the northwest of the province is the brim of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, winding up with snow-capped mountains. The province is situated in the subtropical and tropical area with a continental and monsoon climate. The difference in temperature does not vary largely, and the arid and humid seasons are distinctly divided. The eastern part of Yunnan Province enjoys a mild plateau climate, and is reputed as “spring-like all the four seasons.” Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, is acclaimed as a “Spring City.”

The industrial sectors of the province include mining, electric power, metallurgy, petrochemical, cigarette, and sugar. There are a great variety of minerals including copper铜tin锡, lead铅 and zinc锌. Agricultural produce includes grains such as rice, wheat, corn, potatoes and economic products such as oilseeds, tobacco, sugar-cane and tea. Tropical products in south Yunnan Province include rubber, coffee, pepper and sisal, In its mountainous area, forests are widely distributed with abundant timbers and a great variety of precious medicinal herbs. Dali is well known for marbles of fine quality. Besides, Yunnan Province is rich in hydraulic resources, and its ethnic handicrafts products are colourful. In the flowery and always spring-like city of Kunming, the two mountains of Jinma 金马and Biji碧鸡 clamp the Lake Dianchi, which is clear and limpid, with an expanse of 250 kilometers. Dali’s four major scenic spots refer to Xiaguan’s wind下关风, Shangguan’s flowers上关花, Mount Cangshan’s snow苍山雪 and Lake Erhai’s moonlit洱海月. Tourists can enjoy the beautiful legendary story of Ashima阿诗玛 in the Stone Forest, and the Water Sprinkling Festival 泼水节at the home of peacocks, and the enchanting views of the snow-capped mountains of Yulong玉龙雪山 and Lake Lugu泸沽湖.

It can also entertain tourists with the diverse culture and customs of the 25 ethnic group people that live in the province. Rich in tourism resources, such as plateau forests, karst landforms, tropical forests, and low latitude glaciers, Yunnan is one of the most popular tourism destinations in China. Tourists can stroll through massive rain forests where rare flora and fauna can be found, experience the mystery of Shangri-La香格里拉 (a distant beautiful imaginary place where something is pleasant想象中之人间乐园或世外桃源) and bask in the glory of gorgeous maintains and rivers. One-third of Yunan’s 42-plus million people are made up of the 26 ethnic groups, each with their own unique folk arts and culture, another big draw.

The province borders Myanmar, Laos, and Viet Nam, and is not far from Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India, making it a convenient gateway to Southeast Asian countries.

Ancient Music Eyes Heritage in Yunnan Province

China will apply to have one of its ethnic music forms—Naxi ancient music—listed as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. Known as a “living fossil,” ancient Naxi music originated from Taoism music that dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and three types of the original music have been handed down orally to the 280,000 Naxi people living in Lijiang today. Presently,Naxi people in the mountainous area still practice the custom of singing and dancing around a bonfire to mourn the dead, carrying on tradition. The songs they sing on such occasions seem to have neither rhythm nor obbligato. Another well-preserved ancient form of music is a grand orchestra piece composed more than 700 years ago, 486 years before the symphonies of Joseph Haydn. It is an epic of the Naxi group that tells about wars between different tribes. Studies into the history of Chinese music have found that most of the pieces played by Naxi musicians as those performed more than 1,000 years ago, and ancient musical scores that have long been discarded in Central China are still being used by many Naxi musicians today. The ancient music has gained a worldwide reputation in recent years, and it is on the top of the majority of tourists’ agendas to attend a live concert in Lijiang. Experts have called for increased efforts to retain and develop the music, which is praised as “orthodox and unpolluted classical Chinese music.” The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines oral and intangible heritage as “the totality of traditionally based creations of a cultural community, expressed by a group of individuals, and recognized as reflecting the expectations of a community.”

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