Yunnan has always stood apart from the rest of China, set
high on the empire's "barbarous and pestilential" southwestern
frontiers and shielded from the rest of the nation by the unruly,
mountainous provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou. Within this single
province, unmatched in the complexity and scope of its history,
landscape and peoples, you'll find a mix of geography, climates and
nationalities that elsewhere on Earth take entire continents to
express. This diversity makes Yunnan as difficult a place for the
modern traveller to come to grips with as it was for successive
dynasties to govern, and it's rare to feel that you've done more
than obtain the most superficial of impressions.
The northeast of the province is fairly flat and productive,
seat of the attractive capital, Kunming , whose mild climate
earned Yunnan its name, meaning literally "South of the Clouds".
Increasingly touristed, it's nonetheless a charming area, with
enjoyable day trips to nearby scenic marvels, and easy access to a
varied bag of little-visited sights southeast towards the border
with Vietnam , only recently opened up after a decade of
war.
West of Kunming, the Yunnan plateau rises to serrated, snowbound
peaks extending north to Tibet and surrounding the ancient
historic towns of Dali and Lijiang , while farther
over is subtropical Dehong , a busy trading region and
unlikely Chinese holiday destination on the central border with
Burma . Yunnan's deep south comprises a further isolated
stretch of this frontier, which reaches down to the tropical
forests and paddy fields of Xishuangbanna , a botanic,
zoological and ethnic cornucopia abutting Burma and Laos -
about as far from Han China as it's possible to be.
Moving amongst this blur of border markets, mountains, jungles,
lakes, temples, modern political intrigue and remains of vanished
kingdoms are 28 recognized ethnic groups , the greatest
number in any single province. Providing a quarter of the
population and a prime reason to visit Yunnan in themselves, the
indigenous list includes Dai and Bai, Wa, Lahu, Hani, Jingpo, Nu,
Naxi and Lisu, plus a host shared with other provinces or adjoining
nations. Though much of what you'll initially glean of their
cultures is put on for tourists, anyone with even a couple of days
to spare in Xishuangbanna or Lijiang can begin to flesh out this
image. With more time you can look for shyer, remoter groups
leading lives less influenced by the modern world.
Yunnan's scale makes travel very time-consuming, and, whatever
your usual preferences, it's tempting to fly occasionally.
Fortunately Yunnan Air is one of China's better airlines, and a
good excuse to avoid retracing a back-wrenching, four-day bus
journey. The state of country buses and roads is often
surprisingly good - Yunnan is currently ten years ahead of schedule
on its road building projects - and, whatever their condition, it's
an undeniable achievement that some routes exist at all. Make sure
you travel at least briefly along the famous Burma Road
between Kunming and the western border, built with incredible
determination during the 1930s. There's a limited rail
network inside Yunnan - one service down through the southeast
to the Vietnamese border, and a recently completed line to Xiaguan,
near Dali - though Kunming is well linked to the rest of the
country via Sichuan and Guizhou. The weather is generally
moderate throughout the year, though northern Yunnan has cold
winters and heavy snow up around the Tibetan border, while the
south is always warm, with a torrential summer wet season.
One factor confusing travel in the border regions is the
oscillating open status of various areas, although, technically,
almost all of the province is accessible to foreigners. The causes
for closures vary from dangerous roads to reported outbreaks of
plague, but it's often due to the army looking for illegal
cross-border traffic in cars, timber, gems and opiates .
Most of the world's heroin originates in Burma and is funnelled
through China to overseas markets, often with the help of local
authorities. Officially, the Yunnanese government is tough on the
drug trade, executing traffickers, forcibly rehabilitating addicts
and intercepting around twice the quantity of heroin netted by Thai
officials in any one year. All this means that, open or not, there
are military checkpoints on many rural roads, where you'll
have to show passports and can expect to have your luggage
rigorously searched, and it is possible that you may be fined and
turned around if you wander too far off-track. It pays to be
polite, but things are often easier if you avoid appearing fluent
in Chinese in these circumstances.