Yunnan Province - Kunming 昆明市

Encompassing 21.688 square kilometers, and with a population of 4.73 million, Kunming (known as the Spring City春城), a famous historical and cultural city, is also a beautiful tourists’ destination. Neither cold nor hot, the city where people can enjoy flowers throughout the whole year is like spring all the time. It is therefore known as “Spring City” because every season is like spring. The city has appeared on the worldwide map because of its international horticulture exposition in 1999.

A classic museum piece is the unearthed relics of Yuanmou Man, from some 1.7 million years ago. The finding indicates that Chinese people might have originated in Yunnan.

Kunming has plans to become a center of tourism, finance, horticulture and a communications hub linking China and Southeast Asia. Cities should bring together a combination of capital, talent, technology and information. The most important function of a city is to provinde an environment conducive to habitation, transportation, services and transmission of information. Kunming has 10 city-improvement projects in the works, including a water-supply project at the Zhangliu River, the project to clean up the Dianchi Lake, the construction of Caohai Ecological Garden and a clean up of the upper reaches of the Jinsha and Zhujiang rivers. All this is aimed at making Kunming cleaner and beautiful. Now that emphasis is being put on the development of western China, Kunming has been chosen as one of the four trial cities to improve transportation and environmental conditions.

Dianchi Lake 滇池

Blue-green algae—which has threatened Dianchi Lake, the biggest lake in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, for three decades—will soon be out of control again. The provincial government has spent more than 3 billion yuan (US $ 361 million) during the past decade trying to bring the algae under control. Blue-green algae, a kind of water plant, grows easily in polluted water with a high concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus and with temperatures around 18 degrees centigrade. Too much blue-green algae will remove oxygen from the water killing fish and other aquatic life, and can turn Dianchi into a “dead” lake. Blue-green algae had been threatening Dianchi Lake since 1970s. In 1999, blue-green algae covered 20 square kilometers of the lake, one-fifteenth of the lake’s total area. Since 1983, the provincial government has tried to curb the growth of blue-green algae. Four sewage Treatment plants were built near the lake. They are able to treat a total of 365,000 tons of wastewater each day. In 1999, a government-led campaign spurred 249 of the 253 factories along the lake to stop dumping their industrial sewage into the lake. The government also spent 250 million yuan (US $ 30 million) to dredge 4.2 million cubic meters of mud. The network to collect sewage is incomplete and more than 80 per cent of domestic sewage with fertilizers and pesticides still flow into the lake through 16 rivers.

Tanhua Temple 昙花寺

Located 3 kilometers east of downtown Kunming, the Tanhua Temple has a history of more than 300 years. The gilded statues of Buddha in the Main Hall glisters under the sun, making it look brand new. Instead of the statues originally surrounding the Buddha, images of 500 Arhats are new carved on the wall inside of the hall. There are also many old pavilions, winding corridors, pagodas, statues of deities, steles with traditional Chinese characters and, of course, the 357-year-old yulan magnolia trees (Magnolia denudata) in front part of the temple. Some newer structures are also quite pleasant looking, such as the Ruiying Pagoda. Standing on top of the gentle slope of the back garden in the temple, the tourist can see the newly completed octagonal pagoda, which is a good example of this. On its top floor, the tourist can overlook downtown Kunming and catch a sight of the rolling Western Hills to the north. The lush surrounding forests of bamboo and pine trees give good shelter for various singing birds and comfortable shade for the tourist, making the temple a feast for both the eye and the ears.

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