This autonomous prefecture has under its jurisdiedinnthres coun-ties :Jinghong, which is its capital, Mengla andMedghai .Yuhjing-hong, the county seat of Jinghong, means in the Dai language .”a city at dawn”. It is now open to foreign tourists as an excursion centre. The whole region has a temperate and moist climate, fit for the growth of all kinds of vegetation. This wooded country of exotic trees and flowers is the haunt of rare birds and animals-a para-dise in which all living beings thrive and flou-rish.

Xishuangbanna is a multinational prefecture. Of its population of 600,000one third are Dais, the rest being Hanis, Hans, Blangs, Lahus, Yaos, Was, Miaos, Jinos, Yis and others.

The climate in Kunming is mild. In spring (February, March, and April) and autumn (August, September, and October), a wool sweater is recommended. The city has a cool summer and, while a shirt is enough for the day, a jacket is needed in early morning and evening. Elderly tourists should bring wool vests or wool sweaters. Rain gear is needed during this season. Winter is seldom cold in Kunming. However, tourists are advised to bring wool or heavy clothes or jackets.

The major scenic spots on the route are Dai stockades, the Manfeilong Buddhist Pagoda and the Mengla Tropical Botanical Garden.

Xishuangbanna lies in southern Yunnan. In the thick forest on both sides of the Lancang River live dozens of ethnic groups including the Dai, Hani and Jino. The ancient folk customs and beautiful tropical landscape will give you a new experience. It takes 50 minutes to fly from Kunming to Jinghong, capital of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. The major scenic areas include the Ethnic Folklore Garden, the Manjinglan Dai Stockade, the Menghan Dai Stockade, the Menghan Dai Stockade, the Luosuo River Rafting, the Lushi Forest Park, the Wild Elephant Valley and the Tree-Top Hotel.

In Manting, a Dai stockade, tourists can visit the local people’s home freely. Whenever there are visitors, the hospitable hosts and hostesses will make a fire and serve their guests a cup of hot tea. There are tropical fruit trees and flowers in each courtyard. Wandering  in Manting is like touring a marvelous garden. The chant of scriptures coming out, now and then, from the monastery, adds more charm to the Dai stockade.

The Manfeilong Pagoda was built in 1204 and was said to be designed by an Indian monk. It looks magnificent with eight small towers clustering around the 20 meter high major tower. It’s also a remarkable construction worth visiting.

The Mengla Tropical Botanical Garden occupies an area of 1000 ha. It has precious plants under state protection such as the wangtian tree and dawang tree, one leaf of which can hold a child.

The Stone Forest and Karst Cave Tour

Along this route tourists can visit the strange karst landforms centered around Shilin in southeastern Yunnan, and get a general idea of the customs and practices of the local minority groups such as the Yi, Zhuang, Miao, Bouyei and Yao. The major scenic areas along the route are the stone forest scenic area, the Jiuxiang scenic area and the A’lu ancient cave.

The Jiuxiang scenic area is located in Yiliang County, about 90 km from Kunming. The scenic area is composed of more than 100 karst caves. It is one of the largest karst cave groups on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The Yincui Gorge outside the cave is about 600 meters long and the local people also call it the “lovers valley”.

The A’lu ancient cave lies 169 km east of Kunming. It extends about 3000 meters in length. Inside the cave, there are beautiful stalagmites, stone flowers, stalactites and stone waterfalls with various shapes. A small stream runs through the cave all year round and people can even row a boat on it.

Tips for Traveling in Yunnan

Customs and Taboos of the major minority groups in Yunnan:

Yi:    Touching a man’s hair is regarded as an insult. Some Yi people don’t eat the meat of the horse, donkey or mule. Refuse to drink the proposed wine by the host is regarded as an insult.

Bai:    Bai people don’t visit friends, relatives or patients in the morning. When drinking tea, they only fill half of the cup, then refill it. Otherwise, it is considered rude.

Hani:    People can’t drape their clothes on their shoulders when entering the village. The triangular frame on the fire can’t be used to parch wet shoes. The falling of dragon tree is forbidden.

Dai:    Leave your shoes outside the door when entering a Dai bamboo building. Sitting over or stepping over the fire stove is not allowed. Guests can’t enter the host’s private room. When visiting a temple, leave your shoes outside the door and never touch a young monk’s head.

Naxi:    People don’t kill farm cattle, pack horses and roosters which announce the arrival of dawn.

Tibet:    People don’t eat the meat of odd-hoof animals, especially donkeys and dogs. Some people don’t eat fish.

Shopping List

Yunnan weiqi ( go ), also called yunzi, is of top grade. It feels cold in summer and warm in winter.

Bornite handicrafts look simple and vigorous.

Tie-dyed cloth, a traditional dyed fabric of the Bai ethnic group in Dali. It doesn’t fade easily.

Lunan cross-stitch work, a traditional product of the Sani people in Lunan County (now called Shilin County). It looks beautiful and exquisite.

Dai bamboo weaving. It is both beautiful and practical.

Located between Erhai Lake and Cangshan Mountain, Dali is the capital city of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture. The city was built in 1382 as a city of the ancient states of Nanzhao and Dali. The wind of Xiaguan, the flower of Shangguan, the snow of the Cangshan Mountain and the moon of the Erhai Lake make up the Top Four Scenes in Dali.

Stretching from north to south, the Cangshan Mountain is 3,500 meters above sea level with its main peak at 4,122 meters high. Snow covers the mountain top all year round and the melted water forms streams flowing down the valley into the Erhai Lake. The thickly-forested mountain always looks green and moist, and in autumn, belts of cloud skirts the mountain side, lingering for days on end. The Clear and Green Stream, the Dragon and Phoenix Cave and the Zhonghesi Temple are the main scenic spots of Cangshan Mountain.

Erhai Lake is a plateau fault limn. Legend has it that at the bottom of the lake grows a tremendous jade cabbage and the jade juice secreted by it forms the water of the Erhai Lake. In the bright moonlight, the smooth Erhai Lake presents the mirror image of the white Cangshan Mountain snow, creating the famous scene called “Jade Erhai Lake and the Silver Cangshan Mountain”. Erhai Lake is reputed for the three islands, four shoals, eight scenes and nine bends. A cruise around the lake at night will give you the full taste of its charisma.

The architecture of Dali is still featured with a traditional pattern of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, with five east-west streets and eight north-south lanes, all paved with gray flagstone and with brooks flowing alongside them. The first impression left by the houses of the Bai ethnic group is its orderliness and grandiose. Each has three white plastered walls and roofs of gray tiles, with the front gate shielded by a screen wall. Decorated with bracket sets and cordons, the front gate never fails to get noticed. The screen wall on the other hand is where the eyes of the visitors linger. In the center of the screen wall usually embeds a big marble stone of the Cangshan Mountain, surrounded by calligraphy and paintings. In front of the screen wall stands a small flower bed. The screen wall, together with the mosaic-covered ground constitutes the living space of the Bai people. As a matter of fact, the dwelling is where a Bai person’s total income went in days gone by.

In ancient times, Dali was mostly known for its countless towers. Among them, the most magnificent ones should be the three pagodas in the Chongshengsi Temple. The main pagoda of the three, the 16-tiered Qianxun Pagoda, stands in the middle, and the two adjacent pagodas are 10 stories high. The Qianxun Pagoda was hollow and once equipped with a ladder for people to climb. Seem from the top of the pagoda, the Erhai Lake decorated with white sails and green shoals and the Cangshan Mountain skirted by clusters of clouds are all within a clear view.

About 26 km away from the ancient city of Dali lies the Butterfly Spring. The spring water squeezes its way out of white sand and pebbles and then pours into a 2-square-meter pond walled with white marble banister. The pond is surrounded by thick foliage, among which the most notable is an ancient tree called the Butterfly Tree for its shape like the wings of a butterfly. In the season when the Butterfly Tree is in blossom, thousands of butterflies, both palm-big and bee-sized ones, gather at the Butterfly Spring. The butterflies resting on the Butterfly Tree then form a colorful ribbon down to the spring by linking their feelers one by one. When they have reached the surface of the spring, the butterflies then scatter to all sides and start the game all over again.

Dali is the dwelling place of the Bai ethnic group. White is the color of honor for the Bai people. Men prefer to wear white shirts and women like to wear earrings and bracelets. Maidens have braids and tie bright red strings on their white turbans. Between the 15th and the 21st day of the third month of the lunar calendar, the traditional festival of the Third Month Street is held annually, with horse racing, singing and dancing and trading activities as the main events.

Set off from Dali, take the Yunnan-Tibetan highway, drive northward for 400 km, and you will reach Lijiang, another ancient city of historical and cultural heritage. It is a land of mystery and elegance.

Dayan Town, the center of Lijiang, is on UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage List. It is surrounded by the Lion Mountain to the west and by the Elephant Mountain and the Golden Rainbow Mountain to the north. To its south and east stretch fertile fields for miles on end. It is an intact ancient city inhabited mostly by people of the Naxi ethnic group.

A bird’s eye view at the top of the Lion Mountain gives you a full picture of the city. From the central square of the city spread four main streets which then split into dozens of streets and lanes, creating the pattern of a web. In the center of each street or lane lies a space that serves as the neighborhood fair in the daytime and as the resting place for the mornings and evenings. Paved with natural colorful stone slabs, the streets neither get muddy on rainy days nor turn dusty in dry weather. The branches and blossoms stick out from the roofs or walls of the shops and houses, projecting mottled shadows on the stone-paved lanes. Stone is the common foundation of the house and timber as the material. Most houses have a screen wall in the front and some have a quadruple courtyard.

Lijiang is favored with plentiful sunshine, an easterly wind and clear spring water within easy access to every family. Willow trees and flowing springs make you imagine that you might be in a city by the water in Southeast China. Occasionally, couples of Naxi women can be seen walking along the streets, wearing broad-sleeved-and-broad-waisted blouses, long trousers inside frillies and boat-shaped embroidered shoes.

The ancestors of the Naxi ethnic group created the mysterious Dongba Culture focused on the Dongba Religion. According to the legend, the founder of the Dongba Religion, with his supernatural abilities learned from the deities, killed the monster and the ghosts, bringing peace to the local people. Dongba believers practice witchcraft and are skilled in medicine. The Dongba Culture in turn fostered the world-renowned Dongba Civilization, as can be found in the Dongba Script reputed as the only surviving hieroglyph in the world. Various aspects of the Dongba Civilization such as the appealing Dongba music, the vivid and romantic Dongba literature, the unique Dongba paintings and the wild and warm Dongba dances are all evidence to its profoundness. So tourists interested in folk customs will not be disappointed by the city.

In the eyes of the Naxi folks, happiness is derived from a unity with nature, and the chief pursuit lies in music and painting. As the Naxi women do most of the labor, the men have plenty of free time to develop their abilities in music, painting and poetry. In the twilight, a group of elderly Naxi people can be found singing in the street by the river. One man does the solo and all the others serve as the chorus. Though the Naxi language is beyond the comprehension of outsiders, their love of life is clearly written all over their faces.

The Yulong Snow Mountain that pierces into the sky is an permanent background of the city. With its altitude above 4,500 meters, the north-south mountain has 12 peaks, the main peak reaching 5,596 meters.

The best place to appreciate the Yulong Snow Mountain is the Spruce Ground, a highland ranch with breath-taking beauty. The green grass, yellow flowers and straight spruce trees seem to whisper to you an ancient legend. It goes like this: On the Yulong Snow Mountain lives a couple of gods of love who dominate a kingdom of love. True lovers who cannot be united in the earthly world can go to the Spruce Ground and cry out the name of the gods of love who will then take the lovers to the flower land and grant them an everlasting happy life.

From: www. china.org.cn

Yunnan has an unique array of fascinating ecotourist resources, including mountains and glaciers snow-capped all year round, lakes and hot springs, alpine landscapes, primeval temperate woodland, and tropical rain forests where elephants and monkeys roam . Forests, totaling nearly 10 million hectares, or eight percent of the nation’s total, cover 24.9 percent of the land of Yunnan, which is China’s haven for plants and animals.

More than half of China’s 30,000 kinds of high-grade plants can be found in Yunnan, which is also home to 3,000-plus kinds of rare animals (55 percent of the national total), 31 kinds of birds (64 percent of the national total), and 130 kinds of reptiles (42 percent of the national total).Meili Snow Mountain with an elevation of 6740 meters, magnificent and precipitous, has not been conquered by men.

The Lunan Karst topography covers an area of 350 square kilometers and forms ” the first wonder of the world ” the Stone Forest. The Tiger Leaping Gorge , 3,200 meters height from the cliff’s edge to the water surface of the Golden Sand River, where the massive cliffs overhang swirling rapid currents. More than 40 lakes are scattered around the mountains, which from the air look like they are strewn with pearls.

Many rare and endangered species of plants and animals live in Xishuangbanna. The flowers around Kunming, the City of Spring, bloom through all four seasons. Cut off by precipitous mountains from easy communication with the outside world, Shangri-la, referred to in James Milton’s Lost Horizon, may be the last virgin land where one can observe cultures whose layers go back for thousands of years into the past. Picturesque Lijiang, listed as a “World Cultural Heritage City” by UNESCO, is a region of gorges, lakes and active horse breeding.

The Naxi people who live here still use hieroglyphic writing and wear sheepskin capes.Yunnan is an area of many different national cultures. 26 ethnic minority groups give a rich patina of diversity and color to the Yunnan scene, contributing with their colorful ethnic costumes, their traditional songs and dances, to the attractive life of the cities, the villages, the fairs and the festivals. The Water Splashing Festival of the Dai people, the March Fair of the Bai people, the Torch Festival of the Yi people, keep the traveler so entranced he never wants to leave.

Yunnan is also one of the cradles of human civilization. The bones of a primitive hominid 1.7 million-years-old have been found in Yuanmou, dinosaur fossils in Lufeng County. From Dali, capital of the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom to the Golden Temple, Black Dragon Pool and many other ancient temples most of which are amazingly intact, Yunnan is a wonderland, with a long history and a deep culture.

Yunnan is a place of neverending fascination. The stone drums, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the worship not of gods but of the sky, the earth, and the mountains; languages whose origins are lost in the mists of antiquity; and the Burma Road which once provided a gateway of American supplies and aid to war-time China in World War II.