About Yunnan
A Brief Introduction to Yunnan
Red, yellow, blue, green…In people’s mind, Yunnan has long been a fantasy dotted with a riot of color. Yet you’ll find that everything comes in so rustic and unvarnished when stepping on this treasured place in the southwest frontier region of China.
Standing in northwestern Yunnan, the majestic Huyue Gorge has become a resort for the adventurers itching to challenge themselves. The rugged and splendid Jade Snow Mountain, Baha Snow Mountain and Meili Snow Mountain featuring unique, precipitous and steep peeks have attracted snow mountain explorers from home and abroad. In the peaceful Lijiang ancient town, visitors prefer to leisurely stay in the houses of the local people, immersing themselves in the Dongba culture and Naxi ancient music. Located in southwestern Yunnan, Xishuang Banna showcases its simple but graceful charm: the delicate peacocks bestow elegant temperament on the Dai girls; what the slender and simple skirts have to offer is a glamour of the Banna local lifestyle. Situated in southeastern Yunnan, Jianshui, crowned as “the village of documents”, has built its culture into every brick of the arches and eaves inside the ancient town. The terrace fields Yuanyang and Honghe where the Hani people dwell in range upon the range of hills. Every March, the golden rape flowers scatter all over the hills and dales just like a colossal carpet blotting out both the sky and the earth.
This is a colorful land where the Ni, Bai, Hani, Dai, Lisu, Naxi, Yao, Jingbo, Buyi, Shui and Dulong people (to name just a few, altogether 25 ethnic minorities) live in compact communities. Once you set foot on Yunnan, you’ll inadvertently expose yourself to a world of the Naxi Dongba culture, Dali Bai culture, Dai Yebei culture and Yi Beima culture—a world of such local customs as legends, songs, dances, paintings and ancient music.
The Tea and Horse Trail
Amongst the gorges of the Hengduan Mountain Range and the forests and wilderness in the juncture area of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet spirals a mysterious trackway—the Tea and Horse Trail. It’s the highest trackway in altitude that plays an important role in cultural communication.
The Tea and Horse Trail originated from the “tea and horse trading market” back in the Song Dynasty. Since Tibet is in the high and cold area with its altitude 3000-4000 meters above the sea level, tsamba, milk, butter, mutton and beef are the staple food of the local Tibetans. In the high and cold region, an intake of fat that’s high in calories is necessary. But chances are high that too much fat cannot be digested inside the human body as vegetables are in shortage and tsambas are too dry. Given this, the local Tibetans have formed the habit of drinking buttered tea over a long period of time in that tea helps digest the fat and prevent them from internal heat. However, tea is not produced in Tibet. In the old days, mules and horses were in great demand in the inland when the troops were in expedition, but the supply failed to meet such demand. Meanwhile, Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan were the places where excellent mules and horses were raised. All these gave rise to the tea and horse trading market, which was complementary to both sides of Tibet and inland. Since then, mules, horses, furs and herbs exported from Tibet and the frontier areas of Sichuan and Yunnan as well as tea, pieces of goods, salt and vessels for daily use exported from the inland Sichuan and Yunnan have been shuttling back and forth amongst the Hengduan Mountain Range. This trackway witnessed its prosperity as society and economy developed, and gradually became what is known as “the Tea and Horse Trial” today.
The route of the Tea and Horse Trail between Yunnan and Tibet is: Xishuang Banna-Pu’er-Dali-Deqin-Chayu-Bangda-Nyingchi-Lhasa. The tea arriving in Lhasa is transported to Calcutta, India through the Himalayas and then sold to Eurasia, which gradually makes it an international artery in the world. When the Chinese people were fighting against the Japanese aggression, it had a direct bearing on the destiny of the Chinese nation.
It is known to all that the Hump route was used for transporting martial goods and materials in the wartime. But as to the goods and materials for civilian use, they were mostly transported through the international Tea and Horse Trail. In other word, the Tea and Horse Trail made an indelible contribution to the final victory of the war of national liberation.
Yunnan—the Land of Flowers
Amongst all the gardens with hundreds of flowers all over the country, Yunnan has long been crowned as “the Kingdom of Plants”. As early as the 19th century, the European and American experts admired the abundant resources of flowers in Yunnan so much that they praised it as “the Paradise for Horticulturists”. Botanists from the U.K., France, the U.S., Austria, Germany, and Switzerland came to Yunnan one after another for collecting hortus siccus and gathering flower seeds. Today, such famous flowers as azalea, primrose, camellia, orchid and lily that many European and American countries have been enthusiastically cultivating are mostly coming from Yunnan. It’s no wonder that the Western Europeans say, “It takes the flowers from Yunnan to make a garden.”
The eight famous flowers in Yunnan are: camellia, azalea, magnolia, primrose, lily, gentian, meconopsis and orchid.