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Yúnnán (云南) is a province in the far south west of China. The area is a junction between China propper and the south east asian countries of Indo-china. The province is mountainous. The eastern edges of the Hymalyas and the Tibet platue touch on Yunnan's North and west. The south and east of Yunnan is generally lower in altitude and it is there that most of the province's population can be found. The provincial capital is Kunming, which is known as the spring city. The name hints at Yunnan's favourable climate with an all year round growing season making it ideal for producing a wide veriety of cops. This also makes it a target for tourists who come to see Yunnan's amazing landscapes and it's high diversity of plants and animals. Yunnan is relative remote from the rest of China and so isless developed than China's eastern provinces.

Yunnan is a landlocked province with no coast. However six mighty rivers traverse the area: TheYangtze River, the Mekong (Lancang), the Pearl River, the Red River (Yuan or Honghe), the Salween (Nujiang) and in the far west, the Irrawaddy. To the north of Yunnan lies the central Chinese province of Sichuan. To the east is Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Southwards, Yunnan has international borders with Vietnam and Laos. The west of Yunnan has a 4,060km border with Burma (Myanmar). The northwest of Yunnan touches the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

Yunnan province first came under Chinese control during the Qin and Han dynasties of the 3rd Century BC. Later Yunnan was part several independant kingdoms before being consumed again by the Yuan dynasty in the 13th Century AD.

The Yuanmou Man, a Homo erectus fossil unearthed by railway engineers in the 1960s, has been determined to be the oldest known hominid fossil in China. By the Neolithic period, there were human settlements in the area of Lake Dian. These people used stone tools and constructed simple wooden structures.

Around the third century BC, the central area of Yunnan around present day Kunming was known as Dian. The Chu general Zhuang Qiao (庄跤) entered the region from the upper Yangtze River and set himself up as "King of Dian". He and his followers brought into Yunnan an influx of Chinese influence, the start of a long history of migration and cultural expansion.

In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified China and extended his authority south. Commanderies and counties were established in Yunnan. An existing road in Sichuan – the "Five Foot Way" – was extended south to around present day Qujing (曲靖), in eastern Yunnan. In 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent General Guo Chang (郭昌) south to Yunnan, establishing Yizhou commandery and 24 subordinate counties. The commandery seat was at Dianchi county (present day Jinning 晋宁). Another county was called "Yunnan", probably the first use of the name. To expand the burgeoning trade with Burma and India, Emperor Wu also sent Tang Meng (唐蒙) to maintain and expand the Five Foot Way, renaming it "Southwest Barbarian Way" (西南夷道). By this time, agricultural technology in Yunnan had improved markedly. The local people used bronze tools, plows and kept a variety of livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs. Anthropologists have determined that these people were related to the people now known as the Tai. They lived in tribal congregations, sometimes led by exiled Chinese.

During the Three Kingdoms, the territory of present day Yunnan, western Guizhou and southern Sichuan was collectively called Nanzhong. The disollution of Chinese central authority led to increased autonomy for Yunnan and more power for the local tribal structures. In AD 225, the famed statesman Zhuge Liang led three columns into Yunnan to pacify the tribes. His seven captures of Meng Huo, a local magnate, is much celebrated in Chinese folklore.

In the fourth century, northern China was largely overrun by nomadic tribes from the north. In the 320s, the Cuan (爨) clan migrated into Yunnan. Cuan Chen (爨琛) named himself king and held authority from Lake Dian (then called Kunchuan [昆川]). Henceforth the Cuan clan ruled Yunnan for over four hundred years. In 738, the kingdom of Nanzhao was established in Yunnan by Piluoge (皮罗阁), who was confirmed by the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty as king of Yunnan. Ruling from Dali, the thirteen kings of Nanzhao ruled over more than two centuries and played a part in the dynamic relationship between China and Tibet. In 937, Duan Siping (段思平) overthrew the Nanzhao and established the Kingdom of Dali. The kingdom was conquered by the Mongol Empire in 1253. During the Yuan Dynasty Kublai Khan appointed the first governor, Turkmen Sayid Ajall, in Yunnan in 1273.Before that, the area had been ruled by a local king and a Mongol prince under the Great Khan. Yunnan and Hunan were main bases for Mongol military operations in Indo-China.

The Mongols established regular and tight administrative control over Yunnan. In 1253 Mongke Khan of the Mongol Empire dispathced the prince Kublai to take Yunnan. The Mongols swept away numerous native regimes, including the leading Dali kingdom. Later Yunnan became one of the ten provinces set up by Kubilai Khan. Kublai Khan appointed Turkmen Sayid Ajall governor in Yunnan in 1273. Before that, the area had been ruled by a local king and a Mongol prince under the Great Khan. The Yuan provincial authorities conferred various titles on many native chieftains, who were obliged to pay taxes. When the Mongols were expulsed from China in 1368, Yunnan was thrown into chaos and anarchy for a number of years. The Ming Dynasty defeated the last of the Yuan loyalists in 1381.

The newly-proclaimed Ming Dynasty did not send armies into Yunnan until 1381. The central government allowed the general Mu Ying, foster son of dynastic founder Zhu Yuanzhang, to set up a hereditary feudatory system in the province. Throughout the Ming, the Mu family developed tremendous influence in Yunnan.

From the end of the fifteenth century, the Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar began encroaching on Yunnan. In the sixteenth century Chen Yongbin, the governor of Yunnan, held back a Myanmar invasion. After the war, he built eight passes along the border in Tengyue subprefecture to mark the demarcation between the two countries.

After the fall of the Ming in northern China, Yunnan became the last Southern Ming regime headed by Zhu Youlang. Supported by rebels-cum loyalists, he persisted in resistance against the Qing conquest even after the Qing capture of Kuming in 1659. Zhu and his men then fled into Myanmar to seek refuge in Ava, but were treated as prisoners. Zhu's armed followers savaged Upper Myanmar in an attempt to rescue him. General Wu Sangui, then still loyal to the Qing, invaded Myanmar in 1662 with a sizable army, and demanded Zhu's surrender. Although he hesitated, King Pye finally decided to hand Zhu over to avoid hostility.

Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Yunnan came under the control of local warlords, who had more than the usual degree of autonomy due to Yunnan's remoteness. They financed their regime through opium harvesting and trafficing.

Yunnan was transformed enormously from the events of the war against Japan, which caused many east coast refugees and industrial establishments to relocate to the province. It assumed great strategic significance, particularly as the Burma Road was constructed from Kunming to Lashio in Burma during this time.

In 1894, George Ernest Morrison, an Australian correspondent for The Times, travelled from Beijing to British-occupied Burma via Yunnan. His book, An Australian in China, details his experiences.

From 1916 to 1917, Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews led the Asiatic Zoological Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History through much of western and southern Yunnan, as well as other provinces of China. The book, Camps and Trails in China, records their experiences.

Other notable explorers include Joseph Francis Charles Rock who from 1922–1949 spent most of his time studying the flora, peoples and languages of southwest China, mainly in Yunnan, and, Peter Goulart, a White Russian who studied Naxi culture and lived in Lijiang from 1940 to 1949.

Ethnicity

Yunnan is noted for a very high level of ethnic diversity. It has the highest number of ethnic groups among all provinces and autonomous regions in China. Among the country's fifty-six recognised ethnic groups, twenty-five are found in Yunnan. Some 38% of the province's population are members of minorities, including the Yi, Bai, Hani, Tai, Dai, Miao, Lisu, Hui, Lahu, Va, Nakhi, Yao, Tibetan, Jingpo, Blang, Pumi, Nu, Achang, Jinuo, Mongolian, Derung, Manchu, Shui, and Buyei. Several other groups are represented, but they live neither in compact settlements nor do they reach the required threshold of five thousand to be awarded the official status of being present in the province. Some groups, such as the Mosuo, who are officially recognised as part of the Naxi, have in the past claimed official status as a national minority, and are now recognised with the status of Mosuo people.

Ethnic groups are widely distributed in the province. Some twenty-five minorities live in compact communities, each of which has a population of more than five thousand. Ten ethnic minorities living in border areas and river valleys include the Hui, Manchu (the Manchu, remnants of the Qing administration, do not live in compact settlements and are in all respects indistinguishable from the Han), Bai, Naxi, Mongolian, Zhuang, Dai, Achang, Buyei and Shui, with a combined population of 4.5 million; those in low mountainous areas are the Hani, Yao, Lahu, Va, Jingpo, Blang and Jino, with a combined population of 5 million; and those in high mountainous areas are Miao, Lisu, Tibetan, Pumi and Drung, with a total population of four million.

An oft-repeated proverb tells the story of three brothers who were born speaking different languages: Tibetan, Naxi, and Bai. Each settled in different areas of Yunnan and Tibet, respectively, the high area, the middle area, and the low area.

Languages

Most dialects of the Chinese language spoken in Yunnan belong to the southwestern subdivision of the Mandarin group, and are therefore very similar to the dialects of neighbouring Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. Notable features found in many Yunnan dialects include the partial or complete loss of distinction between finals /n/ and /ŋ/, as well as the lack of /y/. In addition to the local dialects, most people also speak Standard Chinese (Putonghua, commonly called "Mandarin"), which is used in the media, by the government, and as the language of instruction in education.

Yunnan's ethnic diversity is reflected in its linguistic diversity. Languages spoken in Yunnan include Tibeto-Burman languages such as Bai, Yi, Tibetan, Hani, Jingpo, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi; Tai languages like Zhuang, Bouyei, Dong, Shui, Tai Lü and Tai Nüa or northern lao dialect; as well as Hmong-Mien languages.

The Naxi, in particular, use the Dongba script, which is the only ideographic writing system in use in the world today. The Dongba script was mainly used to provide the Dongba priests with instructions on how to carry out their rituals: today the Dongba script features more as a tourist attraction. The most famous western Dongba scholar was Joseph Rock.

Literacy

By the end of 1998, among the province's population, 419,800 had received college education or above, 2.11 million, senior middle school education, 8.3 million, junior middle school education, 18.25 million, primary school education, and 8.25 million aged 15 or above, illiterate or semi-literate.

Culture

Yunnan's cultural life is one of remarkable diversity. Archaeological findings have unearthed sacred burial structures holding elegant bronzes in Jinning, south of Kunming. In Zhaotong in northeastern Yunnan, there has been discovered, frescos of the Jin Dynasty (265–420). Many Chinese cultural relics have been discovered in later periods. The lineage of tribal way of life of the indigenous peoples persisted uninfluenced by modernity until the mid-20th century. Tribal traditions, such as Yi slaveholding and Wa headhunting, have since been abolished. After the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), when many minority culture and religious practices were suppressed, Yunnan has come to celebrate its cultural diversity and subsequently many local customs and festivals have flourished.

Eighteen Oddities of Yunnan

Eighteen Oddities in Yunnan (Chinese: 云南十八怪; pinyin: Yúnnán Shíbā Guài; sometimes called Eighteen Wonders of Yunnan) are eighteen unique traits of the Yunnan province of southwest China. The oddities, which are as follows, are generally presented in the form of a list, which is promulgated in promotional materials advertising the province to foreign and domestic tourists.

1. Eggs are tied up sold in rope-like clustersphoto
2. Bamboo hats are used as wok lids
3. Three mosquitoes make up a dish - mosquitoes are so large that it is said that just three mosquitoes are large enough to make a meal
4. Bamboo is used to make water pipes for smoking
5. Erkuai - a local culinary specialty made of rice, whose name translates literally as "ear piece" (called zi ba, 糍粑 in Mandarin)
6. The same dress is worn for all four seasons - clothing for all four seasons may be seen on a single day in Yunnan, as climatic conditions may vary widely according to altitude and region
7. Young girls are called "Old Lady"
8. Automobiles move faster than trains
9. Toes are exposed all year round
10. Rain here but sunshine there - the weather is often variable between areas just a few kilometers apart
11. Girls wear flowers in all four seasons
12. Girls carry tobacco bags
13. Green vegetable is called "bitter vegetable"
14. Grannies climb mountains faster than monkeys
15. Trains go abroad but not inland
16. Monks can have love affairs
17. Children are raised by men - Yunnan women have a reputation for being hard-working, thus many men stay home to take care of their children.
18. Automobiles move in the clouds - many roads are high in the mountains.

The items on the list are not fixed, so other versions of the list may include other oddities, as follows:

1. Stone grows in the clouds - Yunnan's Shilin, or Stone Forest resembles stalagmites growing out of the ground
2. Locusts or grasshoppers are eaten as a delicacy
3. Fresh flowers are served as a vegetable
4. Water and fire are worshiped as gods
5. People sing rather than speak
6. Tea leaves are sold in piles
7. Non-slanting walls are built with cobblestones
8. Keys are hung on waist belts
9. Small, lean horses are hard-working
10. Fresh fruits and vegetables are available in all four seasons

Cuisine

Yunnan cuisine (滇菜, pinyin: Diāncài; or 云南菜, pinyin: Yúnnán cài) is an amalgam of Han Chinese and Chinese minority cuisines. As the province with the largest number of ethnic minorities, Yunnan has a great variety of food, and it is difficult to make generalisations. Many Yunnanese dishes are quite spicy, and mushrooms feature prominently. Another important characteristic of Yunnan cuisine is the wide use of flowers as food.

Famous dishes

• Boluo fan 菠萝饭 (Pineapple rice, found in Xishuangbanna and possibly other Dai areas)
• Guoqiao mixian 过桥米线 ('Crossing the bridge' or 'Across the bridge' noodles, Yunnan's best known dish. Consists of a bowl of chicken stock to which diners add their own selection of paper-thin meat slices, noodles, vegetables and spices, much like a hot pot. Found throughout the province.)
• Qi guo ji 气锅鸡 (Steam pot chicken, chicken steamed with tonic herbs in a special ceramic pot)
• Pu'er cha 普洱茶 (Pu-erh tea, traditionally grown in Simao)
• Yiliang Roast Duck 宜良烤鴨 crispy skin roast duck similar to Peking duck but uses honey on to crisp and colour the skin and roasted with pine branches and needles, which imparts a unique flavour on the duck.
• Shiping doufu 石屏豆腐 (Shiping tofu)
• Erkuai 饵块 (highly refined and compressed rice cakes)
• Rubing 乳并 (goat's milk cheese, from Bai cuisine in the area near Dali)
• Rushan (cow milk cheese)

Tea

For the tea from this region, see Yunnan tea.
One of Yunnan's famous products is Pu-erh tea, named after the old tea trading town of Pu-erh, as well as the Yunnan Golden Needle tea.

Music

The Nakhi of Lijiang play a type of song and dance suite called baisha xiyue, which was supposedly brought by Kublai Khan in AD 1253. Nakhi dongjing is an ancient type of music related to southern Chinese forms, and is popular today. Both these styles are quite old, which has led Nakhi music to be called a "living fossil" of Chinese music. In addition to donjiang and baisha xiyue, a style called huangjing yinyue also has an ancient history in the area, but is no longer known.

Nakhi musicians

Baisha xiyue

Supposedly introduced to the Nakhi by Kublai Khan when he conquered the Kingdom of Dali and received help from a Nakhi leader named Mailiang, basha xiyue is performed by orchestras. There are 24 simple, energetic qupai (tunes) in use.

Baisha xiyue (Chinese: 白沙细乐, literally "Baisha fine music") is one of the two surviving forms of traditional music of the Naxi (also spelled Nakhi or Nahi) people of Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China, known as "Naxi ancient music". Baisha is a town located ten kilometres north of Lijiang, and was the capital of the independent Naxi kingdom before it was annexed by the Yuan Empire in 1271.

Baisha xiyue is a classical orchestral musical form, with 24 qupai (tunes), played on antique Chinese musical instruments, such as flute, shawm, Chinese lute, and zither. It is derived from the ritual music of Taoist and Confucian ceremonies from the 14th century. Since Lijiang is relatively remote, the music form has survived relatively unchanged since that period. The music is characterised by the "three olds" – old melodies, old instruments and old musicians.

The other surviving form of Naxi ancient music is the Han derived dongjing yinyue ("cave scripture music"), which has its roots in Taoist and Buddhist ritual music. A third form of Naxi ancient music, huangjing yinyue, has not survived. Traditional Naxi music has been described as the living fossil of Chinese music. The city of Lijiang is itself a World Heritage Site.

Dongjing

Dongjing uses a type of traditional musical notation called gongchepu. There are traditional dongjing operas, such as Song of the Water Dragon, Waves Washing the Sands and The Sheep on the Hill.

Dongjing is a type of ritual music, said to have been sung by Taoist monks in the area. It was introduced at least by the AD 13th century, and is now known only in Yunnan and the distant city of Chengde (in Hebei) and Chifeng (in Inner Mongolia). Dongjing is traditional performed during the Chinese Lunar New Year. The President of the Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association, Xuan Ke, has claimed that donjiang originated from the religious and imperial music of the Tang and Song dynasties. (thus placing its origins between 618 and 1279). This same period saw the developed of ci poetry, which accompanied music led by stringed instruments.

By the 1980s, dongjing had mostly died out. It has since been revived, however, and its popularity among the younger generation is rebounding, especially in Chuxiong, Lijiang, Baoshan, Dali and Kunming. The Dayan Naxi Ancient Music Association was formed in 1987 to help revive donjiang. Renowned modern performers include Peng Youshan and Lei Hong'an.

Dongjing music (洞经音乐; dòngjīng yīnyuè) or donjiang is a type of Chinese ritual music traditionally performed by the Nakhi people of Yunnan.

History

Prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China, most Han towns and cities in Yunnan contained Dongjing associations, exclusive religious societies oriented around worship of the Taoist deity Wenchang. The term Dongjing is an abbreviation of the title of the Taoist scripture Dadong Xianjing (大洞仙經), or "Immortals' Book of the Great Grotto". The Dongjing associations also performed highly regarded music during their ceremonies. The most prominent Dongjing associations were located in Dayan, Baisha, Shuhe, and Lasha.

From 1949 to 1978, the Dongjing associations were suppressed under Communist rule. In the 1980s, when this grip was loosened, there was a major revival of dongjing music.

Performance

Unlike most Naxi music, dongjing uses Chinese titles, Chinese instruments, heterophonic sizhu style, and Chinese gongche notation. Often, the orchestra will include the wooden muyu fish, the pipa, sugudu, and sanxian lutes, the reed pipe, and the guqin and guzheng zithers.

In the pre-1949 rituals, participants had to be male, virtuous and honorable (usually this meant that membership was hereditary), and they had to donate to the association. Because of these requirements, and as evidenced by the Sinicized repertoire, performances and rituals could be seen as asserting the Dongjing members' elite status within the Naxi community. Semiannual sacrifices were made to Confucius, and biannual rituals were performed for Wenchang and Guan Yu.

Chinese medicine

Yunnan is host to 15,000 species of plants, including 60 percent of the plants used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Yunnan is one of China's relatively undeveloped provinces with more poverty-stricken counties than the other provinces. In 1994, about 7 million people lived below the poverty line of less than an annual average income of 300 yuan per capita. They were distributed in the province's 73 counties mainly and financially supported by the central government. With an input of 3.15 billion yuan in 2002, the absolutely poor rural population in the province has been reduced from 4.05 million in 2000 to 2.86 million. The poverty alleviation plan includes five large projects aimed at improving infrastructure facilities. They involve planned attempts at soil improvement, water conservation, electric power, roads, and "green belt" building. Upon the completion of the projects, the province hopes this will alleviate the shortages of grain, water, electric power and roads.

Yunnan's four pillar industries include tobacco, agriculture/biology, mining, and tourism. The main manufacturing industries are iron and steel production and copper-smelting, commercial vehicles, chemicals, fertilizers, textiles, and optical instruments. Yunnan has trade contacts with more than seventy countries and regions in the world. Yunnan established the Muse border trade zone (located in Ruili) along its border with Myanmar. Yunnan mainly exports tobacco, machinery and electrical equipment, chemical and agricultural products, and non-ferrous metals. In 2008, its total two-way trade (imports and exports) reached US$9.6 billion. The province signed foreign direct investment contracts involving US$1.69 billion, of which US$777 million were actually utilized during the year. Yunnan's unemployment rate at the end of 2008 was 4.21%.

Yunnan's nominal GDP in 2008 was 570 billion yuan (US$83 billion), an annual growth rate of 11%. Its per capita GDP was 12,587 yuan (US$1,842). The share of GDP of Yunnan's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were 17.9%, 43%, and 39.1% respectively.

Yunnan is one of the major production bases of copper, lead, zinc, tin and aluminum in China. Gejiu city is well known as "the Kingdom of Zinc" with the reserves ranked first in the country. The Yunxi brand refined tin is one of the main products in Gejiu, which is registered on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Besides, reserves of germanium, indium, zirconium, platinum, rock salt, sylvite, nickel, phosphate, mirabilite, arsenic and blue asbestos are also high. Significant copper deposits are found at Dongchuan, iron ore at Wuding, and coal at Xuanwei and Kaiyuan. Economic policy to locate new industry in interior areas with substantial mineral wealth, led to major industrial development in Yunnan, especially in the Kunming area.

The electricity industry is another important economic pillar of Yunnan, which plays a key role in the "West-East Electricity Transmission Project". The electricity produced in Yunnan is mainly transported to Guangdong Province.

Agriculture

The region maintains a strong agricultural focus. Agriculture is restricted to the few upland plains, open valleys, and terraced hillsides. Level land for agriculture is extremely scarce and only about 5 percent of the province is under cultivation. Rice is the main crop; corn, barley, wheat, rapeseed, sweet potatoes, soybeans (as a food crop), tea, sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton are also grown. On the steep slopes in the west livestock is raised and timber, a valuable resource, is cut (teak in the southwest).

Tobacco is the main (export) product and makes up a big part of the provincial GDP. Furthermore, Yunnan has a strong competitive potential in the fruit and vegetable industries, especially in low value-added commodities such as fresh and dried vegetables and fresh apples.

Yunnan is one of the regions in the world with the most abundant resources of wild edible mushrooms. In China, there are 938 kinds of edible mushrooms, and over 800 varieties can be found in Yunnan. In 2004, around 7,744 tons of wild edible mushrooms were exported, making up for 70% of the total export of this product in China. The so-called 'pine mushroom' is the main product in Yunnan and is exported to Japan in large quantities.

Another interesting industry with a clear growth potential is the coffee sector. Yunnan is currently China's most important producer of Arabica coffee. Besides the export of roasted coffee, coffee-related products such as extracts, essences and substitutes may be promising products. Yunnan's the birthplace of tea. Still, ancient tea trees can be found in Yunnan of which tealeaves are processed. Tea is becoming an important export product. Especially in the US and Japan the demand is growing.

Due to China's growing consumption of dairy products (a trend heavily supported by the national government), Yunnan's dairy industry is also developing more rapidly and receiving large subsidies from the government develop a competitive edge in Southwest China, but is also aiming to export to its ASEAN neighbors.

Then last but not least, a growing sector, heavily supported by the local government is the horticultural sector. The flower industry in Yunnan province started to develop towards the end of the 1980s. Currently, Yunnan is the most important province nationwide in the field of flower growing. Yunnan province accounts for 50% of China's total cut flower production. The size of the planting area for cut flowers in Yunnan province amounts to 4000 hectares. In 2003, the output totaled 2.3 billion stems. In 2002 the flower industry in Yunnan had a total output of RMB 3.4 billion. Export amounted to USD 18 million. Apart from sales on the domestic market, Yunnan also exports to a number of foreign countries and regions such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.

The rapid developments in this field soon attracted the attention of Dutch horticultural companies and Dutch investments in flower related projects and businesses are steadily growing.