# About Kunming, Yunnan Province, China.



## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

General Introduction About Kunming 

http://www.chinesefolkculture.com/Info_View.asp?id=4676

2007-10-20 23:45:17 View:188 

Kunming is the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, a primarily agricultural province of 45 million. Kunming has a population of five million and is located in one of the world’s most geographically, ethnically, biologically and linguistically diverse regions. Situated at 1,900 meters (6,233ft) above sea level and 25° north of the Equator it has a rather unique and pleasant climate for a Chinese city.

As the provincial capital, Kunming’s variety of people, languages, customs and food is a reflection of the variety found in Yunnan province itself. Roughly the size of California, Yunnan borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Burma), Guangxi and Tibet autonomous regions and Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Yunnan is also less than 150 km from northeast India and northern Thailand.

Kunming weather is typically mild, except for two months of hot days usually around April and May and two months of cold nights and chilly days typically spanning from late December to early February. Otherwise, high temperatures average around 21°C (69°F) and lows are typically around 10°C (50°F). Weather in Kunming is influenced heavily by Indian monsoons as well as weather patterns in Tibet to the northwest.

Because of its high altitude Kunming weather is typically characterized by intense sunlight during the daytime and a slight chill at night. When the rest of China is hot, Kunming is one of the country’s coolest cities. When the northern half of the country is frozen and covered with snow, flowers are blooming. Hence, Kunming’s nickname in Chinese is ‘Spring City’.

Kunming sits upon the Yunnan Plateau, which rises toward the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau heading northwest and yields to lower altitude tropical jungle heading southward toward Southeast Asia. The city is surrounded by mountains and is just northeast of Dianchi Lake, the largest lake in the province and the sixth-largest freshwater lake in China.

Kunming is rapidly becoming one of China’s more internationalized cities. It has sister city relationships with Denver, Colorado in the United States and Wagga Wagga, New South Wales in Australia. Within five years it will have road and rail connections to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in addition to rail links to Hanoi, Vientiane, Phnom Penh. After the Stilwell Road is renovated, Kunming will be the only Chinese city connected to India by road. It will also be the main Chinese city of the China-ASEAN Asia Free Trade Area which will be launched in 2010 and will be the world’s largest FTA with over 1.8 billion people.

History
Kunming’s Chinese history exceeds two millennia. In 279 BC general Zhuang Qiao of the Chu kingdom set up camp near Dianchi Lake. During the Han Dynasty a city named Kunzhou was established to the southeast of present-day Kunming. Later on during the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty, the area was given the name Kunming County. During the early 19th Century Kunming constructed a city wall – the hallmark of any true Chinese city at the time.

From 1910 to 1913 the French built the Indochina Rail Line to Kunming, connecting it to Hanoi and even as far as Haiphong on the Gulf of Tonkin. The line was extended to Kunming to tap the vast copper resources in the area. The line still operates today.

In the past, Kunming was considered to be a backward and isolated city. Government officials that fell into disfavor with their superiors were often posted there as punishment. In 1928 Kunming was elevated to municipality status by the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China. Shortly afterward, the city was about to experience what was arguably its most formative period to date.

During China's war of resistance against Japan during World War II, a large number of refugees from elsewhere in China, particularly the country’s north, fled to Kunming. From 1937 to 1938 approximately 60,000 refugees poured into Kunming, which only had a population of around 150,000 beforehand.

Many of these refugees were intellectuals fleeing persecution under Japanese rule as well as Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang government – which had already been pushed back to Chongqing but did not control Yunnan, with which it had an alliance but did not rule.

Kunming was on the receiving end of a brain drain that resulted in the establishment of Southwest Associated University, which was located on the grounds of present-day Yunnan Normal University. The legacy of this intellectual immigration is apparent today – Kunming is still one of southwest China’s educational and research centers.

During World War II, Kunming was the terminus of military supply routes originating in Burma and later India. American forces were stationed in the city, most notably the Flying Tigers. The design of Kunming's current airport was influenced heavily by the American troops posted in the city during this time.

After the Communist victory of 1949 and the reintegration of Yunnan into Beijing’s sphere of control, Kunming quieted down for the most part and rode the political ebbs and flows experienced by the rest of the country.

*Thanks for that, and thanks for the reformation and open-door policy of China, Kunming is going to be one of the best in China again!*


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

A Little Something About Kunming

(An article on Kunming from David Wu, famous VJ of Channel [V], 吴大维)

http://blog.hjenglish.com/david/archive/2006/04/14/283561.html 

... so where is Kunming? I know it's in the Yunnan province, but that is just about all I know about the place. 

Just the other day, I was in Kunming out shooting a travel-related program for the Discovery Travel and Leisure Channel. Before I went, I really didn't know what to expect from the place because the last time I was there, I was in the hotel for a day and then the airport...that's it! This time it’s different, I got to finally see the place! 

At first, I wasn't too psyched about going to Kunming, but after I got there, I realized that Kunming is a very beautiful place with a lot of famous sites! 

I didn't see a lot of foreigners in Kunming until we went to a cafe called Salvadore's Cafe in the middle of Wen Hua Street, close to the university. The place is owned by a few Americans and Japanese catering mostly to the foreign students in the area.

Much to my surprise, they had all the comforts a foreign student would come to expect to make it feel a bit like home. Things like Cappuccino, magazines, internet, pasta, and a bar to hangout and talk to other people at. It's totally a place where you can go hangout and forget about where you are and be in a completely different world. It's good to learn different things in a different place, but every once in awhile, you need a little 'fix' to tune yourself up a little bit! 

The other amazing place I went to was a spa called 'Brilliant Spa' a bit outside of Kunming. Much to my surprise, the place is absolutely beautiful! It is one of the top ten resort hotels in all of china and well known throughout the whole world! I never thought Kunming would have such a beautiful spa where they have 26 different hot spring pools, massage huts for various different massages for your different needs, and all this in a very beautiful Thai style resort. With something like this, who needs to go to Thailand for a spa treatment? I'm not a guy who's known to like massages, but the one I got over there while doing the program, my gosh, felt so good that I told the camera guy to forget work for now, wait till this is done!!! 

The spa felt so good that I even took a picture! iI fact, I thought that the place was so nice that I’ve decided to bring my mom and family here to chill and enjoy the hot springs! If you like this sort of stuff, you should try it too. 

If hitting the spa is not your thing, another one of china's great sites is just around the area, a place called Spring City Golf Resort. As the name says, it's a golf course and you can stay there for days either to golf or just hangout. The place is considered the best in china, the so called number one golf course in all of china. I asked the resident pro why it's the best, and he said for me to just look around. The view is beautiful, the course is pretty, and the facilities are first rate. It's also a pretty difficult course so it can be a challenge to anyone at any level of play. The weather in Kunming is also one of the best in china. It's warm in the winter, and not too hot in the summer. All these conditions combined makes Kunming a great place to do all sorts of outdoor activities or just to hangout. 

So next time if you feel like getting out of the city and relaxing a little, you don't have to go far, just go to Kunming, and you can enjoy world class comfort right in your own back yard!


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

*Lost in awe of the progress of China's cities*

By Inam Ahmed (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-21 07:11


Ma Yi almost certainly saved my life.

"Why have you booked your ticket to Guangzhou? Is there no flight to Hangzhou," she wrote to my horror.


The travel agent looked a bit baffled, typed on the keyboard and then sheepishly said: "Oh, yes. Hangzhou. Harry George Harry is the code. We made a mistake. One night's stopover at Kunming."

That night, our plane touched down at Kunming airport at about nine. As soon as I went through immigration, I heard to my surprise a volley of Bengali voices: "Bhai, Kothai jaben? Amar hoteley thaken." (Brother, where are you going? Stay at my hotel).

Before I could think clearly, I was whisked away to a waiting taxi and in less than 10 minutes, we were outside an apartment building.

On the first floor is the "hotel" - a four-bedroom flat. A comfortable room with two beds, fantastic Bengali food, well-mannered "hotel owners" - two brothers - Kajol and Masum, the elder one's wife and child.

A Bangla drama serial being played on the DVD. The all familiar "Badna" in the washroom. Who says I am in China? I have never left Dhaka.

It was late when I went to sleep after having a long chat with the hoteliers. They have rented the apartment for Tk 30,000 ($300) a month and converted it into a guesthouse. Each night for Tk 1,000, inclusive of food and airport pickup and drop. A good deal.

Kunming has become a buzzing city for Bangladeshi traders and tourists and so business is good. Every month, 200 to 250 guests step into Kajol's guesthouse. When the rooms are full, the drawing room is turned into a makeshift camp.

I made a quick calculation - 250 guests mean Tk 250,000 a month. No tax.

Early next morning I sleepily reached the airport again and fell asleep as soon as I took my seat in the aircraft. Four hours later, I successfully managed to dodge the gastronomical treats of China Eastern Airlines and arrived at Hangzhou airport.

Until I stepped out of the airport building, I had not actually seen anything of China. And now China hit me with its full force of 11 percent GDP growth; I was floored.

What mental image did I carry to China?

Despite reading all the growth stories and feeling the crunch of commodity supply in Dhaka, I, for some strange reason, still clung on to that late 1960s and early 1970s image of the country:

People in strapped grey or bottle green coats and shapeless pajamas; soft, flat shoes like those of the ballerinas; happy farmers showing off fish out of ponds; dancers in Red Army dress holding the red flag with a proud look on their shinning faces and puffed up chests; roads filled with bicycles.

Those magazines used to pour into Dhaka streets in the good old days.

And now I was lost in the midst of Buicks, BMWs, Ferraris, Chryslers, Citroens, Volkswagens and Fords zooming past me.

Sitting in the backseat of a Chrysler, I wondered where have those good old bamboo houses gone. Instead, the competing swanky high-rises dotting both sides of the roads glean back at me, almost mockingly. Their huge glass windows reflect only more vertical graphs.

I have heard of Beijing and Shanghai as great cities in China. But Hangzhou? A city that even the travel agent mistook for another.

At a five-star hotel, the smiling staff greeted me with all the warmth but not in a language that I fully understand. I communicated in broken English and finally secured the card to my room.

Later, I wanted to use the business center of the hotel, and again it took me a gargantuan effort to make them understand my desire and it took them a similar amount of time and energy to sink into me the price of using the Internet.

As I surfed the Web, I wondered how a five-star hotel could operate with such limited language skills.

Later that cool afternoon, I strolled the city streets in awe and wonder. I took in deep breaths of fresh air. The spacious roads and pavements were immaculately clean.

The mystery became clear as soon as I found uniformed men with vans every few hundred yards. They would not let a single leaf remain on the pavement. A cigarette butt would not escape their eyes.

And every now and then lorries with water tanks would slowly pass through the streets spraying water, and ringing out music. At midnight the litter collectors were still busy at work. For the next few days as I traveled from one city to another, I found the same kind of cleanliness.


I finally found my cyclists. But alas, their cycles have been mostly converted into electric-powered two wheelers, cruising noiselessly through special lanes.

At low speed, the riders travel side by side, gossiping. At road crossings, they use their pedals to generate more power to quickly get over to the other side. A pollution-free solution to commuting.

I was looking for the China Eastern office. On the way to the hotel, I had noticed it was close by. But I got lost. I asked a man, perhaps the 50th on the street, for directions to the airlines office, showing my ticket.

There was no variation in response - he smiled, shaking his head from side to side and saying something in Chinese. I found a kiosk and thought the owner might know the area better.

Among the hundreds of glitzy magazines on the shelves - at least 90 percent of them were fashion and lifestyle ones splashing pictures of scintillating women.

The kiosk owner could not help me. Finally, a man on an electric bike nodded and signaled me to follow him. I walked on the pavement as he rode.

After 30 minutes, I was definite he was taking me to the wrong place. But I kept on following because I just could not ignore his willingness to help. We finally reached a bus stop to the airport. I tried my best to thank him for his help and started walking toward my hotel.

I recalled my experience during dinner with a Chinese lady and mentioned automobiles.

I asked why I couldn't find any of their products on the streets since the Chinese have many large automobile companies.

The lady winked and said: "But they are so cheap. We want to spend on costly cars."

Money, it seems, is no problem for many Chinese people. The cities are awash with funds, and at every corner you see a bank. Costly clothes hang in the show-windows of shops.

I witness another awe-inspiring site. In the distance, I see a whole city, or at least it looks like it, growing up out of nowhere. The skyscrapers, clouded by a thin layer of brown dust, look eerily science fictional.

Later, I see more such development that made me understand why the commodity market is so heated. China today has become a guzzler of iron and other construction materials. And when a butterfly flaps its wings in China the wave must hit Dhaka in a globalized world.

I was sitting by the West Lake as lights from the shopping malls across the road reflected on its water. Dusk was setting in on this tourist city and the din of the office goers returning home drowned the peacefulness of the lake.

A tourist boat in the shape of a temple, or at least what it looked like from a distance, was mooring. I turned my head to the voice of an infant. A couple were showing flowers to their baby. The baby looked at me and smiled and I waved back at China's future face.

The author is a news editor at The Daily Star in Bangladesh


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

Free Hug in Kunming, 2006. 
From Australia to Kunming.


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

and a :lol:ladies fashion show in the city of Kunming


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

*Debating lake project*

Updated: 2007-11-17 07:24 
There has been extensive media coverage recently of disputes between experts and local governments over several local government-initiated pollution treatment projects.

While public opinion in this regard may not sound nice to the ears of government officials, they test the forbearance of government officials to allow the flow of different ideas and draw useful suggestions from them.

The debate in question is over a gigantic water diversion plan to clean up Dianchi Lake, the largest fresh water lake on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

Like earlier rows, the local provincial government defends its project by insisting that the plan will kill two birds with one stone - solving water shortage of Kunming, the provincial capital on the lake side, and flushing off the lake's foul water once and for all.

A 500-kilometer-long canal will be built to divert water from the Jinsha River to wash the lake's stinking water down into the lower reaches of the river.

However, a lot of experts from the province's academic circle are not convinced. Apart from disagreements at the technical level, they warned that upon completion in some 20 years, pollutants purged from the lake will inevitably flow to other places.

At a time when local officials have yet to come up with a convincing response to such a concern, a more calculated review of the overall project would do little damage to government's reputation and credibility but rather win them praise for being open-minded.

The province has been spending heavily in treating water pollution and restoring the lake's damaged ecosystem in the past 30 years.

Regrettably, the more than 4.7 billion yuan ($626.7 million) that has been spent in the past 14 years has yielded limited results in preventing worsening pollution. The lake, with an area of almost 300 square kilometers, remains one of China's three key lakes with dire pollution problems.

The new project, the largest in the province since the founding of New China in 1949, requires 48.9 billion yuan ($6.5 billion). To an inland province that is not affluent, that amount of funding alone is strong evidence of the provincial government's resolve to bring a fresh look to the lake.

It is hoped the well-intended debate helps decision makers fine-tune their plans to revive the lake's bygone beauty.

China Daily


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## mgk920 (Apr 21, 2007)

I'm fascinated by the rail line between Kunming and Chengdu that was opened about 20 years or so ago. An incredible percentage of that line is either on bridging or in tunnels.

Mike


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

^Exactly. Yunnan Province is a mountainous province, building railroad in Yunnan is a magic in human being's history.


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

*Gulls flock to South*
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-25 08:30











A woman feeds seagulls near a bank of the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province December 24, 2007. The Kunming Birdwatching Association said more than 30,000 gulls have flown to the city this winter to take advantage of the improving environment and people's increasing awareness of the need to take care of the birds. [Xinhua]










Two seagulls vie for food near a bank of the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province December 24, 2007. The Kunming Birdwatching Association said more than 30,000 gulls have flown to the city this winter to take advantage of the improving environment and people's increasing awareness of the need to take care of the birds. [Xinhua]










A woman feeds seagulls near a bank of the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province December 24, 2007. The Kunming Birdwatching Association said more than 30,000 gulls have flown to the city this winter to take advantage of the improving environment and people's increasing awareness of the need to take care of the birds. [Xinhua]


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

Miss Kunming a lot! All the best, Kunming, more progress on the year of 2008.


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

Free Hugs, Kunming. Series II at:






Love, Peace, and Prosperity.


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## HKG (Aug 2, 2006)

Yunnan province has the best weather in China!


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