Deep in the southwestern corner of China, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau rises from the semi-tropical jungles of Southeast Asia to meet the Himalayas in the west. As a result of both its high altitude and southerly latitude, Yúnnán (云南, meaning "south of the clouds")—which borders Tibet, Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Vietnam and the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou—is unrivaled in its ecological and ethnic diversity.
Indeed, this single province is home to some of China's most impressive natural scenery: snow-capped peaks, lush jungles, crystalline alpine lakes, and peaceful highland meadows. In addition, three of Asia's biggest rivers—the Mekong, Yangtze (Yangzi), and Salween—pass through Yunnan from their sources in Tibet.
And to compliment all of its geographical and ecological variety, Yunnan also has the greatest number of minorities in any Chinese province. 28 recognized ethnic groups make up over a third of the population, each with its own cuisine, spoken language, festivals, belief systems and mode of dress. With all this natural and cultural diversity, it's no surprise that there are plenty of things to see and do in Yunnan.
Cycle the winding lanes of cities like Kunming, Lijiang and Dali, then head into the countryside to visit temples and villages. The ancient town of Dali is a laid-back place to dip into backpacker café culture while taking in gorgeous lake and mountain views.
Avid hikers can spend days picking their way along on the ridge of the world's deepest canyon, Tiger Leaping Gorge, trekking through lush Xishuangbanna jungles, exploring the jagged scenery of the remote Meili Xue Shan; and rambling through quaint Yuanyang in Honghezhou where Hani villages rise from a layer cake of rice terraces.
And speaking of the Hani, they are but one of the province's officially recognized ethnic minorities, all of which are recognized in Kunming's Yunnan Museum of Minority Nationalities. The most prominent of them include the Naxi, whose colorful culture is what defines the charm of Lijiang; the Bai, who are the dominant ethnicity in and around Dali; the Mosuo, whose matriarchal culture draws many curious tourists to the beautiful shores of Lugu Lake on the border with Sichuan's Xichang region; the Muslim Hui, who are scattered throughout Yunnan and much of western China; and Yunnan's ethnic Tibetans who live in the mountainous regions in the north of Yunnan including Shanghri-La (Zhongdian). All are fascinating in their own right, and all have opened up to the increase in regional tourism by opening guesthouses, restaurants and, often, their homes to visitors curious about the ways of China's lesser-known inhabitants.
As for accommodations and transportation in Yunnan, the province's popularity has led to a boom in tourism that has yet to peak, resulting in a slew of new luxury hotels and resorts, yielding plenty of options for travelers of all stripes, as well as upgrades to roads, airports and rail links that make it easier than ever to explore what was once China's most remote hinterland. In other words, Yunnan isn't just for backpackers anymore.
Yunnan travel guide | Yunnan flights (Kunming) | Yunnan on the China Travel Blog
Yunnan tours & activities | Dali tours | Kunming tours | Lijiang tours | Xishuangbanna tours
Yunnan's history is as wild as its rugged terrain. Over the years, isolation from the Han Chinese heartland, a topography ranging from snow-capped peaks to thick lowland jungles, and a diverse mix of independent-minded and often combative ethnicities have made the lands comprising present-day Yunnan difficult to govern. None of this, however, kept outsiders from trying, thanks to Yunnan's strategic location on trade routes linking China, India, Tibet and the nations of Southeast Asia—not to mention its wealth of natural resources—have made it a prize worth fighting for.
And over the centuries as dynasties rose and fell, Yunnan's rugged mountains and deep jungles often proved ideal for renegades and exiles wishing to plot power grabs or lay low, making the province's story a scandalous one of invasions, rebellions, heroic stands and treachery. That said, the region is also home to many a peaceful scene, and the Tibetans, Naxi, Bai, Dai, Yi and other ethnic groups who have long thrived in Yunnan as farmers, traders, herders and monks retain to this day ancient traditions rooted in the respectful observation of nature's cycles and the cultivation of its bounty.
Yunnan has been inhabited by human beings for a very long time
In the 1960s, geologists in Yunnan unearthed two 1.5-million-year-old human front teeth, the oldest evidence of prehistoric man in China.
Recorded history picks up in the fourth century BC with the Dian, who, as legend has it, were ruled for a time by a renegade Chinese general, Zhuang Qiao, and who left evidence in the form of bronze models of a sophisticated culture that included gruesome human sacrificial ceremonies.
As China grew, Yunnan became a central point in the Tea Horse Road, a trade route connecting it to India and Europe. The Silk Road story includes numerous violent chapters in the region's history, including the story of an ambitious eighth-century AD Yunnanese prince, Pilogue, who admired Dali for its lucrative Silk Road location. He invited five rival princes for dinner in his tent, then, like the good host that he was, lit the tent—and his guests—on fire. Subsequently, he was able to establish the Bai Nanzhao Kingdom, which survived until Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai subdued the Bai in 1252 with the help of his Mongol hordes. Following the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the Ming and Qing ruled Yunnan for centuries as a colony rather than as a true province of China.
The region served as a kind of Siberia—a place of exile for criminals, dissidents and officials who fell out of favor with the emperor. The banished brought with them the language, architecture and customs of north China. The style of roofs in many central Yunnanese towns, reminiscent of the imperial splendor in Beijing, bears testimony to northern influence. After a protracted Muslim uprising that started in 1856, only to end some 20 years later with the reassertion of Beijing's rule, the province was more or less left to bandits and warlords until the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s. This indirectly boosted the province's fortunes, bringing Chinese Nationalists and Communists to Yunnan, which served as base of resistance against the Japanese. Great Britain and the United States joined the fight in Yunnan, bringing supplies into a beleaguered China via the legendary Burma Road and sending military detachments, including the famous Flying Tigers, against the Japanese.
Following the war and the Communist victory over the Nationalists in 1949, Yunnan would serve once again as a place of exile (during the Cultural Revolution) and of warfare (during China's short war against neighboring Vietnam). Today, the province's rich history and fascinating cultures combine with a stunning range of beautiful natural landscapes to make Yunnan—peaceful after so many centuries of tumult—an outstanding destination.
Yunnan travel guide | Yunnan flights (Kunming) | Yunnan on the China Travel Blog
Yunnan tours & activities | Dali tours | Kunming tours | Lijiang tours | Xishuangbanna tours
Sayings about Yunnan's climate range are as various and numerous as the conditions you'll find in this amazingly diverse province itself. Kunming enjoys the title of "City of Eternal Spring" thanks to its elevation of 1,892 m (6,207 ft) above sea level and a southerly location on the 25th parallel north, a latitude shared with subtropical spots like the island of Key Largo off the coast of Florida, the Bahamas and Taiwan. But head a little ways out of town and, as the elevation changes, you'll soon discover that in Yunnan get get, as another saying has it, "all four seasons on the same mountain" as temperatures drop half a degree Celsius with every 100 meters in elevation, more or less.
That means that, from Yunnan's highest point atop the 6,740 m peak of Kawegebo in the Meili Xue Shan range bordering Tibet to its lowest point on th border with Vietnam where the Nanxi and Yuangjiang rivers meet in Hekou a mere 76.4 m above sea level, you'll find incredible variation, from glaciers to tropical rainforest.
Aside from this highly variegated topography, the other major climatological factor is the annual subtropical monsoon, which typically brings heavy rains to the province from mid-May through August as humid air pushes up from the south, dumping an average of over 400 mm in the month of July alone on lush Dehong near the Burma/Myanmar border, over 200 mm on Kunming in that same month, and, also in July, over 150 mm on Deqin (Shangri-La) in the far, high-altitude north near the border with Tibet. Overall, annual rainfall is over 1,000 mm, with a whopping 85% of that rain falling in between May and October.
All that variation aside, it's safe to say that throughout Yunnan in general temperature variation from season to season is fairly slight, though variation between day and night can be quite marked--especially when you get into the mountainous regions in the norther two-thirds of the province.
Dry season runs from November through April, making Yunnan an appealing destination year round but particularly in the fall and spring when rainfall is moderate and temperatures are at their best. Yunnan is, however, a fantastic year-round destination. Of course, those doing extensive traveling throughout the province need to be prepared for almost anything, from high-altitude surprise snows in July to thick heat and humidity down in the jungle-carpeted lowlands.
Yunnan travel guide | Yunnan flights (Kunming) | Yunnan on the China Travel Blog
Yunnan tours & activities | Dali tours | Kunming tours | Lijiang tours | Xishuangbanna tours