If You Have Time for but One Province in China, Yúnn
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© Lonely Planet Publications 216 云南 YÚNNÁN YÚNNÁN Y ú n n á n We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: if you have time for but one province in China, Yúnnán should be it. Strong words but hyperbole is remarkably understated when describ- ing Yúnnán. No other province can rival Yúnnán’s diversity in land and people. Guìzhoū is also an ethnic mosaic, Sìchuān’s rivers garner much of the Southwest’s glory and Guǎngxī’s scenery leaps from every encyclopaedia’s entry on China. Yet Yúnnán can top ’em all. Just gaze at a map. Yúnnán’s majestic, and often sacred, peaks thrust from the Tibetan ranges to the north, lush jungle lies a two-day bus ride south and a fertile plain spreads through the rest of the province. It’s also home to China’s highest number of species of flora and fauna – including 2500 varieties of wild flowers and plants – and known for its mild climate year-round. Indeed, the province’s nicknames include ‘Kingdom of Plants’ and ‘Garden of Heavenly Marvellous Flowers’; the capital’s nickname is ‘Spring City’. A huge attraction is the province’s astonishingly diverse populace. Home to nearly half of all China’s ethnic minorities, nearly 50% of the province is non-Han (Han are China’s main ethnic group). Village-hop this breathtaking province and greet a new minority group each day, many in time-capsule towns that you’ll never forget. Smacks of PR pulp? Well, just be prepared that if you start here, you may never get to another province. It has happened. HIGHLIGHTS Feel your jaw hit your chest watching Déq¸n a sunrise or sunset over the Yuanyang Shangri-la Tiger rice terraces ( p323 ) Leaping Gorge Lìjiƒng Glimpse the Tibet border, marvel at Jiànchuƒn sublime Méilǐ Xuěshān, and find your Shƒx¸ own Shangri-la in the northwestern Dàl¨ Nuòdèng towns of Déqīn ( p294 ) and Shangri-la W‰ishƒn (Xiānggé Lǐlā) ( p287 ) Flee the freeze up north and get your Yuányáng Southeast Asia fix in Xīshuāngbǎnnà X¸shuƒngb†nnà ( p324 ) Lose your way (and your cares) in the funky old towns of Lìjiāng ( p267 ) and Dàlǐ ( p257 ), then strike out into the sublime countryside around them. Escape the hordes and explore the regional time-warp towns and villages of Shāxī ( p277 ), Wēishān ( p245 ), Jiànchuān ( p274 ) and Nuòdèng ( p248 ) Test your legs (and recharge your soul) trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge ( p281 ), Southwest China’s hiking rite of passage AREA: 394,000 sq km POP: 42.1 MILLION www.yunnantourism.net lonelyplanet.com YÚNNÁN •• History 217 HISTORY It wasn’t until the Warring States period YÚNNÁN In the 1960s scientists rocked the anthro- (453–221 BC) that the rest of China became pological world when they determined that interested in the frontiers. Armies invaded fragments of humanlike teeth discovered by twice before Chu general Zhuang Qiao put railway engineers in Yuánmóu, northwest of himself into power as the emperor of the Dian Kūnmíng, belonged to hominids who lived kingdom near Kūnmíng. Though regular con- 1.75 million to 2.5 million years ago. This and tact with the rest of China was still a long way further discoveries proved what was once con- off, it was Zhuang who facilitated eventual ex- sidered a wild, isolated region was inhabited pansion and the first large-scale migration. before any other in China. Qin dynasty emperor Qin Shihuang ex- Yúnnán’s other great anthropological tended a road from Sìchuān to Qūjìng in discovery was of sophisticated Bronze Age northeast Yúnnán and established the first cultures around Diān Chí (Lake Dian). jun (prefecture). As the Qin dynasty ceded First discovered in the 1950s, excavations to the Han dynasty, western Yúnnán was throughout southeast Yúnnán are filling organised within prefectures and the famed gaps in a previously unknown period of the Southern Silk Route into Burma and India province. was established. Meanwhile, Yúnnán was 0 200 km YÚNNÁN 0 120 miles To Markam To L¨táng (130km); (50km); Lhasa Xiƒngchéng Chéngd¥ (760km) (1100km) Luzhou Derong 108 TIBET Kawa Birang SÌCHU„N Yíb¸n Karpo (Shangri La) (6740m) Déq¸n Gorge Míngy¡ng Dhondrupling Gompa B‰nzílán B¨ngzhŸngluò Baima Níx¸ Mountains Jiƒng) Dímáluò Shangri-la Lugu Xichang Valley Gòngshƒn (ZhŸngdiàn) Lake g Tiger n u Leaping r (J¸nshƒ Putao D Wéix¸ Gorge Shítouchéng Nujiang Valley Mt Satseto Nínglàng ZhƒotŸng (5500m) Límíng Bijie Báishƒ W‰iníng To Guìyáng Fúgòng Lìjiƒng GUÌZH±U (5km) Shíg© 213 Liupanshui Jiànchuƒn Hèqìng Pƒnzh¸huƒ Xuƒnw‰i Shƒx¸ Chicken Foot (Jinjiang) Mountain Anshun (J¸zú Shƒn; ha Cloudy Peak River DŸngchuƒn Liùkù Dàl¨ 3240m) Shíyáng Jins Mountain Nuòdèng Panxian (Yúnf‰ng (Old Erhai B¸nchuƒn Lake Dàyáo Yuánmóu Shƒn; C†ojiàn YúnlóngCity) ZhŸuchéng 3005m) Xiàguƒn (Dàl¨ City) Myitkyina Y¡ngpíng H‰ij¨ng 108 Q¥jìng W‰ishƒn TéngchŸng B†oshƒn K§NMÍNG Ji©xiƒng Mekong Ch©xióng Yíliáng Luópíng X¸ngyì Yíngjiƒng Zíx¸ Shƒn Lake Dian B‡OSH„N Lùnán Shílín Mángshì Chéngjiƒng Guìshƒn GU‡NGX¹ Ri Lúx¸ (Lùx¸) Burma Road Dadieshui Mílè Tuoniang River ver Waterfall Tianlin DÉHÓNG 214 Yùx¸ Jiƒngchuƒn Bƒm›i Ruìlì P©zh›h‰i/Qi¥b›i W†nd¸ng Gu†ngnán Bó'ài TŸngh†i Mu-se Líncƒng Bƒb†o Ji›gào Thanlivin Jiànshu¨ To Nánníng River Shípíng Ka¸yu†n Yànshƒn (280km) (Lá Fùníng 323 Gèjiù Wénshƒn n Hónghé c Méngzì ƒng Yuányáng 326 Lashio Jiƒng) Lüch¥n S¸máo Ha Giang Láncƒng Jiƒngchéng Hék¡u X¹SHU„NGB‡NNÀ Lao Cai Mènglián M›ngƒ M›ngm† Sapa VIETNAM J¨nghóng Red River MYANMAR M›ngh†i M›ngh†n Phongsali Black River (G†nl†nbà) (BURMA) Dàm›nglóng M›nglà LAOS Dien Bien Kengtung Móhƒn Phu Boten To Hanoi (60km) 218 YÚNNÁN •• Climate lonelyplanet.com occupied by large numbers of non-Chinese Wracked by ethnic disturbances, including aboriginal people. They lacked good politi- the bloody 1855 Muslim uprising and even cal organisation and their chieftains either bloodier Chinese army put-down, Yúnnán YÚNNÁN YÚNNÁN obeyed or ignored the emperor. was exploited by local warlords, European In the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220– powers along the border, and the emperor. 280), a kingdom including parts of Sìchuān It was the death of China, at least in the east, was formed when a rebellion by Yúnnán’s with the arrival of Japanese forces in 1937 up-and-coming elite was put down. From this that was to ironically augur a better future time and throughout the Western Jin period for Yúnnán. Strategically located away from (AD 265–316), Yúnnán crept ever closer to Japan’s forces in the east, the province was consolidation, and came under the jurisdic- used to shuttle material for the Allied war tion of some sort of Chinese control. machine. Later, the Red Army would be wel- The power base of Yúnnán also shifted comed by a peasantry that felt it had been slowly – first eastward to Qūjìng, then west- ignored long enough. ward. By the 7th century AD the Bai people Today, Yúnnán province looks firmly had established a powerful kingdom, the back in the Chinese fold. It is a province of Nanzhao, south of Dàlǐ. Initially allied with 42 million people, including a veritable con- the Chinese against the Tibetans, this king- stellation of minorities (25 registered): the dom extended its power until, in the middle Zhuang, Hui, Yi, Miao, Tibetans, Mongols, of the 8th century, it was able to challenge Yao, Bai, Hani, Dai, Lisu, Lahu, Wa, Naxi, and defeat the Tang armies. It took control of Jingpo, Pumi, Nu, Achang, Bulang, Jinuo and a large slice of the Southwest and established Drung. These groups make up more than a itself as a fully independent entity, dominat- third of the population, but they occupy two- ing trade routes from China to India and thirds of the land. Burma. The Nanzhao kingdom fell in the 10th CLIMATE century and was replaced by the kingdom of Yúnnán has a stunning range of geomor- Dàlǐ, an independent state overrun by Kublai phology – 76.4m above sea level in Hékǒu to Khan and the Mongols in the mid-13th cen- 6740m in the Tibetan plateau with an average tury. Kublai’s armies also brought in many of of 2000m – and thus the official classifica- Southwest China’s Muslims, who were war- tion as ‘subtropical highland monsoon’ re- riors from Central Asia. ally translates as dozens of microclimates. In The Ming dynasty purged the Mongols but the grip of summer (June through August) Yúnnán resisted capitulation to the emperor’s you can freeze your tail off in the north, armies. Finally, after 15 centuries of resistance and in the midst of winter (mid-November to northern rule, the Qing emperor cowed through late February) you can get by with enough local power-brokers into submission a light coat within a 12-hour ride south of to gain a modicum of control. In 1658 this Kūnmíng, the capital, which seemingly lacks part of the Southwest was finally integrated ‘weather’, its mean temperature never fluc- into the empire as the province of Yúnnán. tuating more than 10°C throughout the year. Even so it remained an isolated frontier Dàlǐ is also blessed with an ideal tempera- region, with scattered Chinese garrisons ture year-round, with temperatures rarely and settlements in the valleys and basins, a dipping below 4°C in the winter months or mixed aboriginal population occupying the above 25°C in summer. highlands, and various Dai (Thai) and other More detail about the worrisome extremes: minorities along the Mekong River (Láncāng in the frozen northwestern region around Jiāng).