The news was updated on October 10, 2019.
The 19th China-Myanmar Paukphaw Carnival kicked off in Ruili, a Chinese city located along the China-Myanmar borderline on October 3.
Various activities were held during the carnival, including a grand parade, China-Myanmar Sepak Takraw Game, beer music festival, China-Myanmar Cuisine Festival.
First held in the year of 2000, the China Myanmar Paukphaw Carnival has played an important role in deepening friendship between people from the two countries and in promoting bilateral exchanges and cooperation.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/sights_1010/17889.html
The news was updated on Ocotber 10, 2019.
An embroidery scroll, which is 70 meters long, was finally completed in Chuxiong City, central Yunnan’s Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture on October 1 as people across the country are holding various activities to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China(PRC).
The scroll is named “Shenzhoujinxiu” which literally means “Splendid China”. Its length 70 meters symbolizes the 70th anniversary of the founding of PRC. The completion ceremony was held as part of the series activities of the “Silk Road, Colorful Yunnan” 2019 Ethnic Costumes Competition Cultural Festival opened on the same day.
Starting from this February in Yongren County of Chuxiong Prefecture, more than 1,000 embroiders from Yi ethnic group had participated in the creation of the artwork. During the completion ceremony, eight skilful embroidery women finished the last stitches.
The scroll has more than 40 patterns including ornamental columns, the Tian’anmen, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, landmarks of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. At its four corners, there are four pomegranate flowers, symbolizing all ethnic groups of China embracing each other as if they were the seeds of a pomegranate.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/ethnics_1010/17887.html
The news was updated on October 9, 2019.
Yunnan, sitting on the southwest border of China, is well-known for its mild and pleasant climate across the whole province. Long duration of sunshine and sufficient heat being ensured here provide an ideal environment for the growing of flowers nearly all year round. Flowers have made Yunnan a more beautiful place. They are a major attraction for tourists, and more importantly, the flower industry has become a strong impetus for the province’s economic growth, particularly in the fields of export and poverty alleviation.
The Ever-changing “flower ocean”
In Yunnan, flowers of innumerable kinds, shapes and colors often play as a single and independent source of attraction which brings hundreds of thousands of visitors from both home and abroad to this land each year. This is certainly something hard to be found elsewhere.
Take Luoping in northeast Yunnan’s Qujing city for instance, one after another groups of tourists would be seen flooding into its countryside between February and April to view the magnificent golden ocean of canola flowers scattering across the karst hills typical in this area. These bright yellow flowers start to glitter in the sunlight every day around 9 a.m. when the morning mist utterly disappears. Tourists can verily spend a whole day here, immersing themselves in this paradise of flowers and appreciating the blossom of rapeseeds. And later – after sunset – an alluring and somehow elusive picture of night would be unveiled, just like what appears in Van Gogh’s masterpieces.
While the florescence of canola flowers is about the end in late March, pear blossoms have already been enjoyed and celebrated on the Wanxichong Pear Blossom Festival that is held in Chenggong, Kunming, annually. This is definitely an ideal weekend destination for all citizens, as every white and crystal-like petal hanging in the tree is allowed to be appreciated from an incredibly close range. “I’m surprised that I can find such a beautiful place not far Kunming. And it is a great change get close to the nature,” said Yang Yang, a citizen of Kunming, while taking photos with his smart phone.
The best thing you can ever think of doing when summer comes is perhaps to go south, because this is the right time to see myriad green lotus leaves floating on the water at the Puzhehei National Wetland Park in southeast Yunnan’s Wenshan city. Standing among these giant leaves, you would be truly overwhelmed by their refreshing scent pervading in the air. And the greenness that surrounds you is indeed the most desired gift on any stuffy and wearing summer day.
And finally in December – when most of the country has been covered by ice and snow – thousands of oriental cherries in Nanjian county, the Dali autonomous prefecture of the Bai ethnic minority, are still in bloom notwithstanding the strong and freezing north wind. These tiny pink flowers look so adorable that no one can keep their eyes away from them. Wang Shaoji, the head of county, said: “Flower tourism has brought us with brand-new opportunities of development, and now we hope to achieve the goals of rural revitalization and poverty alleviation as soon as we can.”
Apart from the economic realm, flowers have also been seen in a number of ceremonies and festivals across the province. In fact, many ethnic minorities in Yunnan, such the Yi, Bai and Miao, have traditions to celebrate their own flower-related festivals or events . Thus tourists who come to Yunnan are able to enjoy a great variety of blooming flowers while having a taste of its unique ethnic cultures.
Yunnan’s blooming “flower economy”
In the past a few decades, Yunnan has dedicated itself to the development of flower industry. Flower and flower-related businesses, undoubtedly, are becoming new propellers of the province’s economic growth. Vital changes have been observed no merely around flower cultivation and selling, but in the fields of agro-tourism and poverty alleviation. It can be said without much exaggeration that flowers are helping Yunnan turn into a land with enormous prosperity.
Setting off from the Linxiang district of Lincang, a tremendous ocean of flowers would appear on the horizon after some half an hour’s drive. Lavenders and prince’s feathers can be seen swaying gently in the wind with rhythms. What stand on the slope behind the flower fields are several folk houses with red roof tiles and white walls. It is called Tenglong village.
Before, the villagers here had no choice but to depend on the growing of several traditional crops. Their sources of revenue, therefore, were very much limited. Yet since flowers were widely cultivated and agro-tourism was introduced, the income of local residents in Tenglong has increased substantially. More recently, a new business model – which integrates private enterprises, local agricultural cooperatives and individual farmers together – has created new chances for the further development of flower industry. Accesses to land and technologies needed are guaranteed to every flower grower in the village, and many residents find new jobs in newly-emerged service sectors, such as agro-tourism and agritainment. Flower industry has indeed ameliorated the villagers’ livelihood in Tenglong.
“Our village has been entirely changed after the development of tourist industry. My family, for example, recently moved into a new house and bought two motorcycles. And our household income can get higher than 70,000 yuan per year now,” said Tie Shibao, smiling and laughing. “We know that all these changes have to do with flowers, it is these beautiful flowers that make us richer and happier!”
Changes also happen in Lijiang, one of Yunnan’s most popular tourist destinations. In 2017, a recreational town themed love and roses was built up near Jinlong village, Lijiang city. It is the first town of this kind in whole Asia. However, Jinlong used to be a place where the locals had to constantly struggle with poverty.
“I worried about this project at first, and thought it might not benefit our life at all,” said Zhao Jiping, a resident of Jinlong. “But soon I changed my mind, because after it was open to the public, I saw thousands of tourists flooding the street of the town, and the hostel I run with relatives could bring over 10,000 yuan to my family every month.”
Now, the town is encouraging growers to gain additional values out of the flowers they grow. A number of flower-based products have already been developed, such cake, facial mask and essential oil.
Dounan: from local to global
When a day closes and every office worker heads back home, there is a place in Kunming lit up overnight. That’s the Dounan Flower Market – the largest floral marketplace in Asia. Staff here concentrate on sorting, trimming and packaging fresh flowers and make sure that these bundles would appear on the shelves of flowers stores in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and many more countries every single day.
According to statistics, there are about 8 to 10 million flowers kicking off their journey from Dounnan and being shipped to over 50 countries and regions on the globe each day. The prevalence of flower business has attracted a large number of wholesalers to come and work in Kunming. Yuan Fuwang, for example, would send tons of fresh flowers to her wife in Laos per week. “Around 80% of flowers available in Laos are actually from Dounan. Red roses and carnations are the most popular ones there,” said Yuan.
Dounan is a rather tiny dot on the east bank of Dianchi Lake, if you attempt to find it on Google Map. However, it is a legendary place where almost the entire flower business of China is centered. What has been formed in Dounan is a comprehensive modern production chain of flowers which comprises cultivation, storage, logistic services and production development. Its Network of selling has covered all South and Southeast Asian countries and parts of Europe, including Russia and Ukraine.
In 2018, Yunnan’s area for flower cultivation reached 1.7 million mu (equivalent to 113 thousand hectares), with an overall output value of 52.6 billion yuan. Yunnan has been the largest flower producer in China for the past 25 consecutive years, and the Dounan Flower Market could sale as many as 8.5 billion fresh flowers annually. These figures vividly demonstrate the boom of flower industry in Yunnan over decades.
It is fair to say that flower is now the synonym of Yunnan. Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, the cooperation between Yunnan and its neighboring countries have been further enhanced these years. Yunnan’s flowers have also gone from local to regional, and then global.
“Let there be flowers everywhere.”This must be an essential part of Yunnan dream – if there is any.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/travel_1009/17866.html
The news was updated on October 8, 2019.
The Napa Lake is one of the biggest draws for visitors to Shangri-La, Yunnan province.
Arro Khampa boutique hotel is located in Dukezong town in Yunnan province’s Shangri-La. Its founder, 49-year-old ethnic Tibetan Dakpa Kelden, and his team ceremoniously greet guests with khata－silk scarves traditionally presented to visitors－to the soundtrack of a xianzi (a two-stringed bowed instrument) strummed by one of the employees.
The hosts start singing and dancing long before their guests arrive. It’s natural in Tibetan communities, where a saying goes: “If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance.”
It’s so commonplace that outsiders often join in without reservation, even though they don’t know the lyrics or moves, he says.
Dakpa Kelden is positioned between tradition and modernity in every sense. His hotel is located in an ancient quarter of the town (known as Dhokar Dzong in Tibetan)－an area that has been rebuilt in its original style after a 2014 fire incinerated several city blocks－while he wears a suit jacket over Tibetan attire, contrasting with his long hair and leather riding boots.
But he also stands at another crossroads－one where international cultures intersect.
He was born in India in 1970 and lived there until he relocated to Shangri-La at age 17. He later studied in Austria and the United States. Dakpa Kelden speaks Mandarin, Tibetan, English, Hindi, Urdu and Nepali.
This helps him to realize his mission of guiding people from various places and backgrounds around the scenic settlement named after the paradise British author James Hilton describes in his book, The Lost Horizon.
Dakpa Kelden’s hotel is located in the ancient quarter of Dukezong town in Shangri-La, Yunnan province.
An early mover
Dakpa Kelden started guiding foreigners around Shangri-La’s Tibetan villages and natural landscapes in the 1990s, long before it became a tourism hot spot.
His foreign clients later helped him get to Salzburg, Austria, to study hotel and tourism management, and then to the US to take classes on small-business management.
These experiences not only helped him learn more about other cultures but also his own.
“When I was learning about foreign cultures abroad, I realized how precious my own culture is and became even more interested in knowing more about it,” he says.
He left the US before finishing his studies, but he retained connections with stateside travel agencies.
After he returned to Yunnan in 2001, he began to arrange trips for foreigners to Shangri-La and the nearby Meili Snow Mountains, Lijiang and the Hutiao Gorge in the Yangtze River’s upper reaches.
He once guided a group of seven for a weeklong trip and earned 100,000 yuan ($14,100)－a small fortune back then.
Dakpa Kelden has honed his formula over the past two decades. He brings travelers to villagers’ homes, enables them to sample local food, and takes them hiking and camping.
His guests, in turn, have taught him lessons, such as the importance of environmental protection. Some Japanese visitors, he says, carry all their garbage with them as they travel.
In addition to his boutique hotels in Shangri-La and Lijiang, Dakpa Kelden has also turned his old residence, a three-story Tibetan-style house surrounded by grassland, into a hostel in partnership with travel writer Zhang Jinpeng.
“I saw the yaks and snowy mountains in the distance from the balcony of the third floor and decided to start the hostel with him,” Zhang recalls. “It reminds me of A Lai’s novel, Settling Dust.”
Guests enjoy a meal in the yard of Dakpa Kelden’s home in the countryside of Shangri-La.
Social contributions
Dakpa Kelden, who’s the descendant of a former ladho (muleteer) on the Tea Horse Road, views his hotels as contemporary versions of netsang (lodgings) that dotted the ancient route.
His father told him that relationships between ladho and people running netsang were based on mutual trust. Netsang operators would warn ladho to leave if there were risks, such as robbers or avalanches, even though the lodge owners would lose money when their guests departed.
Dakpa Kelden’s father, who used to spend months traveling between Shangri-La, Lhasa in the Tibet autonomous region and Kalimpong in India in the 1940s, dreamed of becoming a jindha. Jindha were successful caravan operators in charge of regional guilds, whose wealth and status enabled them to make such social contributions as improving business environments, caring for the elderly, and building healthcare facilities and temples.
Dakpa Kelden has made his father’s dream his own.
In 2006, he set up a thangka (Tibetan Buddhist scroll painting) academy. Students of all ages and incomes receive free instruction, meals and accommodation. They can master the skills within four years sufficiently enough to earn a living practicing the art form.
Dakpa Kelden values thangka as carriers of Tibetan culture, religion and architecture, and says they also promote such concepts as environmental protection.
In 2017, he took over a struggling social enterprise dedicated to training local women living in poverty and people with disabilities to earn extra cash by sewing handicrafts.
His team provides raw materials and designs, invites teachers and develops sales channels. The local government sponsors the instruction.
The 30 or so regular participants keep half of the revenues of most products, says Tsering Drolma, who was devoted to traditional Tibetan culture’s preservation for 13 years before joining Dakpa Kelden in 2017 to run the social enterprise.
Dakpa Kelden plans to continue the business as long as it can make ends meet.
In April, he joined a friend in running a brand called Norlha that sells high-end yak-wool products made by herders in the Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gansu province. The goal is to improve their incomes and counter such challenges as grassland degradation, poor harvests and unexpected yak deaths.
Caravan spirit
Dakpa Kelden says he’s grateful for his major life decisions, including moving to Yunnan with his father in 1987, quitting a civil service position, becoming a tour guide for foreigners in the 1990s, studying abroad and starting his own businesses.
He’s building more boutique hotels along the Tea Horse Road and is planning to revive the traditional woodcarving craft he believes reflects Tibetan people’s depth of thought, creativity and sense of art.
A growing number of carpenters are abandoning the declining trade to work as drivers for tourists.
Dakpa Kelden recalls one foreign guest was so fascinated by the carving that he spent a whole week with practitioners in the 1990s.
Ultimately, he says, he hopes to follow his childhood dream to share the caravan spirit of the ancient trade route－an outlook characterized by trust, cooperation and harmony.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/travel_1008/17857.html
The news was updated on September 29, 2019.
Tile cats, known as “wamao” in Mandarin, are traditional clay roof ridge beasts prevailing in northwest Yunnan’s Dali area. The Bai people who dominate the local ethnic population, for long, believe that they are auspicious items which can bring households with enduring safeguard and wealth. Recently, these gargoyle-like statuettes have been made into souvenirs by Su Longxiang, a native-born clay sculptor, and enormous popularity has been gained among tourists ever since.
As a regional variation of many mythical ridge beasts that can be found across China, they – normally crouching on rooftops of those white folk houses typical in Dali – are characterized particularly by their round and staring eyes as well as huge and opening months. Despite of being regarded as a symbol of good luck, tile cats have gradually faded out from the public sight, for the dramatic urban renewal and transformation undergone in recent years. This is why Su determined to turn these seemingly outdated and sometimes even formidable objects into creative cultural products.
Born in Fengyi township of the Dali autonomous prefecture of the Bai minority, Su took over the job of making clay sculptures from his grandpa at a surprising age: 10. And now, he is recognized by the province as an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage.
Tile cat is definitely not a simple artifact to make. To begin with, wet clay has to be blended with some amount of sand to increase its viscosity. This could effectively prevent clay from being cracked in the oven later, and thus is considered an ideal method to make tile cats. Then, Su would take a big lump of clay and press it with palms and fingers until it gets completely flat – as the base for a statuette. Once this is done, the sculptor is able to work carefully on the limbs, eyes, mouth and other details of the cat. A quality and elegant tile cat is marked by the materials being employed, as well as its shape and style created by artist.
Now, Su’s works – all themed elements of tile cat – range from pen containers to tea sets, from incense burners to dolls. These artifacts drew considerable attention on the 2019 Creative Yunnan Culture Industries Expo being held in early August. “My pavilion was always surrounded by crowds during the expo, and I was totally impressed and encouraged by this,” said Su Longxiang. “Tile cats are not simply guardians for the Dai people’s courtyards; they can be accepted and loved by many more.”
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/craft_0929/17844.html
The news was updated on September 27, 2019.
Prince William, Britain’s Duke of Cambridge, visited the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center and fed Ranran a carrot in 2015.
Ranran, China’s first wild elephant rescued from the wild, gave birth to a female elephant on Sept 21 at the Wild Elephant Valley in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, Yunnan province.
Sources from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center said that the baby elephant is 83 centimeters tall and weighs 68.2 kilograms and is in good health.
Ranran was found injured in July 2005 and was rescued by the forest and wildlife protection authorities in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture.
She became a star in 2015, when Prince William, Britain’s Duke of Cambridge, visited the Wild Elephant Valley and fed her a carrot.
On Dec 21, 2017, 15-year-old Ranran successfully mated and became pregnant through human intervention. After 21 months of gestation, the baby elephant was born.
Ranran’s baby elephant is pictured suckling her mother.
It is the seventh baby elephant born at the center.
The center has accumulated valuable practical experience in the rescue, breeding and maintenance of Asian elephants.
It has participated in more than 20 wild rescues of Asian elephants, 11 of which are still receiving medical care and rehabilitation training. Currently, Ranran is 17 years old, 2.18 meters tall and weighs 2,200 kilograms.
Ranran is a star at the Wild Elephant Valley in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, Yunnan province.
The newborn baby elephant is pictured at the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/people_0927/17826.html
The news was updated on September 27, 2019.
All the dishes at Cravings originate from Xiao’s memories of his childhood in his hometown, Kunming, Yunnan province.
Beijing’s Longfusi area used to be famous for a snack street where you could sample many traditional treats, such as glutinous-rice rolls with sweet red-bean filling and pea-flour cakes.
The street has been gone for may years, and the area was redeveloped this year with restaurants and art museums. It has become a hangout for young people.
The Yunnan-cuisine restaurant, Cravings, with its industrial-style decor and home-style Yunnan dishes, is a popular eatery in the area.
There, chef Xiao Li’ang, who was born and raised in Kunming, Yunnan province, is bringing his memories of classic Yunnan dishes to diners in Beijing.
“The dishes on the menu are common in Yunnan-cuisine restaurants in Beijing, but each restaurant makes each dish differently. My goal is to just make some delicious Yunnan dishes,” the 28-year-old says.
One of the traditional snacks on the menu is fried potato chips, something Xiao used to share with his classmates after school.
“The fried potato chips used to sell for 0.5 yuan (7 cents) per portion and I try to replicate that flavor with a little twist,” he says.
The chips are fried twice to make them crisp, but the seasoning is the key. Here, Xiao uses a lot of chopped coriander and green onion to add a fresh flavor and a green tinge to the dish, and also to balance the heavy flavors of Yunnan fermented bean curd and chili sauce.
“Another secret is to use a lot of chopped fish mint. Mixing it with other seasoning will make the taste of the potato special,” he says.
Pork neck with mashed garlic is another example. Xiao uses the upper shoulder of the pig instead of the usual lower neck because it’s more tender.
Then Xiao pan-fries the pork and pairs it with a garlic sauce to which he adds vinegar from Japan and chili sauce from Yunnan. A layer of onion is placed between the meat and sauce.
Chef Xiao Li’ang plates a chicken dish with Yunnan-style seasoning.
“I want diners to enjoy the balanced flavors of this dish, so it’s not too dry or too wet, not too spicy or too plain.”
He boils aged chicken and ham from Yunnan for four hours to make soup broths.
For desserts, Xiao makes a traditional Yunnan drink which features dry bread soaked in coconut milk, fruit and sago. Xiao says he could not find bread from Yunnan in Beijing, so he uses baguettes instead.
There are just a few dozen dishes on the menu, as Xiao believes that Cravings is a place for simple meals. But he says he will update the menu with seasonal ingredients from Yunnan.
“I did not realize the charm of the cuisine until I actually left Yunnan. The variety is a treasure. The different geographic areas offer different ingredients and seasonings,” he says.
Xiao did not start off wanting to be a chef. In 2010, he went to the United Kingdom to study for a bachelor’s degree in fashion. But two years later, he found he was more interested in cooking, so he took a part-time job at a Western-cuisine restaurant.
Xiao is also a food stylist, who designs the plating of dishes and also uses food to create art. His studio joined an art show in July, where he used coffee grounds to create art.
Xiao earned a master’s degree in food design in Italy last year.
“Besides creating dishes for restaurants like Cravings, I also want to look at more possibilities with food.”
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/flavor_0927/17825.html
The news was updated on September 25, 2019.
In Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, Yi ethnic group’s embroidery is called “fingertip art” by local people. It is famous for its complicated embroidery art and delicate patterns.
In recent years, Miyilu National Costumes Co., Ltd. (referred to as Miyilu) took foot in Chuxiong Prefecture. While retaining the traditional style of the Yi people, it has boldly developed and innovated its products. By taking daily necessities as the carriers, it works out handicrafts like handbags, wallets, tea coasters, suitcases, etc. They are both beautiful and practical, and are loved greatly by consumers.
“A girl of Yi nationality can dance as soon as she begins to walk, and can embroider as soon as she begins to use the chopsticks.” In Chuxiong Prefecture, the Yi girls are very ingenious, good at various embroidery techniques, such as set needle embroidery, running embroidery, black stitch embroidery and so on. The main patterns are flowers, birds, oxen and sheep, showing the splendid Yi culture between the stitches and the lines.
According to Zhou Xiaomei, manager of Miyilu, the artistic value of Yi embroidery is extremely high, but it has been affected by modern textile technology. The traditional embroidery cannot adapt itself to market competition. It once faced the dilemma of being lost. In order to solve the problem, Luo Jun, an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage Yi embroidery of Chuxiong Prefecture, founded Miyilu, and through innovation, they have given new vitality to Yi embroidery.
It is reported that Miyilu has absorbed nearly 3,000 female Yi embroiders into the embroidery production with the cooperation mode of “Company + Cooperative + Farmer”. They have adopted the order-based production mode. The company offers unified solutions to product sales, solving the worries for embroiders.
After solving the production problems, on the basis of retaining the traditional characteristics of embroidery, Miyilu blended modern fashion elements into the embroidery while keeping the traditional features of Yi embroidery, making bold innovations and working out modern embroidery crafts that are both cultural and practical.
It is reported that Miyilu has developed dozens of modern embroidery crafts including suitcases, notebooks and wallets. Exquisite stitching, exaggerated colours, exquisite patterns… After innovation, the embroidery is shining with new vitality.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/craft_0925/17808.html
The news was updated on September 25, 2019.
This year’s first snowfall occurred at the Yulong Snow Mountain scenic area in Lijiang, northwest Yunnan on September 22, drawing in as many as 15,000 tourists that day.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/travel_0925/17803.html
The news was updated on September 10, 2019.
Foreign employees dance with children at Colorful Yunnan Paradise, a theme park in Kunming, Yunnan province.
Stebelskyi Nazarii from Ukraine enjoys his job at a theme park in Jinning district in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.
He mainly gives clarinet performances for visitors.
“I’ve been here for two years and I love my work,” Nazarii says.
“The place is cool, and people are very friendly.”
Nazarii is one of the 40 foreign employees at Colorful Yunnan Paradise, one of the biggest theme parks in Southwest China.
In addition to the international touch, the park has also integrated distinctive local customs, ethnic singing-and-dance performances, a float parade and other entertainment to diversify visitors’ experiences.
The park has packed in more than 2 million travelers since it opened in July 2018.
Involving an investment of 3 billion yuan ($418.7 million), the theme park is part of the Colorful Yunnan program, which is a joint effort by the Yunnan government and local company North Star to re-create the charm of the ancient Dian Kingdom (278-109 BC).
The ancient Dian Kingdom project features the elevation of Dian culture and folk customs alongside Yunnan’s history and culture coupled with a modern tourism service.
Since 2012, a series of projects, including a wetland park, a wharf and a hot spring villa have been completed.
“Yunnan’s economy is in the supply-side structural reform period, and the development and operations of the ancient Dian Kingdom program will help upgrade the local tourism and culture industries,” says Ren Huaican, founder of North Star.
At the international torchlight festival in early August, the fireworks show and bonfire dance attracted more than 100,000 visitors to Colorful Yunnan Paradise.
As of June this year, the project has recorded more than 7.3 million visits.
Colorful Yunnan has also been added to the China Brand Files-an intangible-culture list of highly regarded Chinese enterprises with an influential brand image-which is supported by China Archives News affiliated with the China Archives Administration and the China Council for Brand Development.
The move is of great significance to boost Chinese brand development, says Ren.
More projects, such as ancient Dian tribes, will be coming down the pike soon, and a series of festivals and celebrations featuring elements of the ancient culture will be held.
The idea is to present a more colorful image of Yunnan to people from far and wide, according to Ren.
Performing for Chinese tourists has been quite a joy for Nazarii.
“Everyone around me is very understanding, and the environment here is nice,” he says.
“I will stay here and see what happens next.”
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/people_0910/17692.html
The news was updated on September 5, 2019.
Environmental protection staff in Shuanglang town remove debris from the lake.
Protecting the Erhai Lake has become a priority for the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture in Southwest China’s Yunnan province since President Xi Jinping’s visit there in January 2015.
In recent years, efforts have been made to transform tourism, more specifically the operation of guesthouses that were loosely regulated and had contributed to the eutrophication of water.
The closing of nearly 2,500 restaurants and guesthouses around the lake for 18 months beginning in April 2017 had caused controversy in the media.
However, 1,791 of the venues have since resumed business. Short-term pain is inevitable, but the sector has made progress when exploring alternative ways to develop tourism, says Gao Zhihong, Party secretary of the city of Dali.
In Shuanglang town, on the northeast shore of the lake, 485 restaurants and guesthouses reopened to capitalize on the first rush season of summer after the resumption of business late last year.
During the fallow 18 months, a sewage collection and treatment system was installed, telecommunication lines and solar water heaters were concealed, and roads and parking lots were improved-things that the local people didn’t have the time to do in the past. From January to July, the town received 1.19 million visits from Chinese and overseas guests, generating an income of more than 1 billion yuan ($139.8 million).
Zhao Yihai, president of the local inn industry association, says the visitor numbers are picking up, but business has not yet returned to its previous levels, because many potential visitors are not aware of the resumption of service. Since the first guesthouse opened in 2007, tourism has gradually grown to be one of the town’s main industries. A large number of residents work directly or indirectly in the field.
Zhao says the town’s economy was hit hard, but guesthouse operators have eventually overcome their aversions and have realized what a clean lake means to their life and business.
Jiang Cuocuo, enamored by the sunset and clouds there, started his guesthouse in 2013 and witnessed a spurt of visitors from 2014 to 2016.
The original drainage system was not sufficient to dispose of sewage generated by tourists. Fire engines had to be used to draw sewage out and take it to other places in the city of Dali for purification. The government had to encourage the operators to install sewage treatment facilities themselves, while investing on building a new sewage treatment plant and pipeline networks which have since been put into operation.
Jiang says he devoted his time to redesigning and renovating his guesthouse, and to reflect on how to improve client experience.
“Now I really cherish the opportunity to run a guesthouse here again,” he says.
“We stopped for a while, but the market and people’s demands keep growing,” Zhao says, adding that the local industry is cultivating cultural appeal based on the landscapes to make visitors stay longer and experience more of them.
Gao says the town has been inviting renowned artists to help cultivate a cultural tourism industry.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/people_0905/17655.html
The news was updated on September 4, 2019.
The annual Jianchuan Shibaoshan Song Festival was held in Shibao Mountain, Jianchuan County in west Yunnan’s Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture from August 27 to 29. And an American girl from the United States joined this year’s event and sang songs in Bai language.
The Shibaoshan Song Festival dates back to more than 1,000 years ago. It is the cradle of the folk music of Bai people, and a platform for folk art exchange and inheritance.
According to the American girl, when she first came to Jianchuan ten years ago, she was enchanted by the Bai language and music. So she decided to stay and learn from local artists. Now she can not only speak the Bai language, but also sing the Bai tune.
As a traditional celebration as well as a collective exhibition of the folk customs in west Yunnan, the Shibaoshan Song Festival was inscribed into China’s National Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2008. When the event comes, tens of thousands of people gather in Shibao Mountain, singing, dancing, making friends and praying for good fortune.
Source from http://english.yunnan.cn/html/2019/people_0904/17645.html
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