Yunnan云南
▲Meili Snow Mountain, Diqing 梅里雪山·迪庆
▲Rape Fields, Qujing 油菜地·曲靖
Yunnan Province finds itself in Southwest China, on the southeastern extension of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The tropic of cancer traverses the southern Yunnan. With the maximum width of 864.9 kilometers and the maximum length of 990 kilometers, the area of Yunnan Province amounts to 394,000 square kilometers, claiming 4.1% of the total territory of China.
云南省位于中国西南，属青藏高原南延部分。北回归线横贯云南南部。全境东西最大横距864.9千米，南北最大纵距990千米，总面积39.4万平方千米，占中国陆地总面积的4.1%。
▲Baishui Flat, Diqing 白水台·迪庆
Yunnan is located in a low latitude plateau in the center of Southeast Asia. To the north, it has Asian Landmass as the background and to the south, it is close to the Indian and the Pacific Oceans. Thus, it is co-dominated by the southeastern, the southwestern monsoons, and by the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, Yunnan has a highly diversified environment and ecological systems. In terms of climate, it has the features of the low latitude, monsoon, and mountainous highland. It has 7 climate types, including the north tropics, the south sub-tropics, the mid sub-tropics, the north sub-tropics, the south temperate zone, the mid temperate zone and the high land climate zone.
云南省地处低纬度高原地区，北依亚洲大陆腹地，南近印度洋和太平洋，受东南和西南季风控制并受西藏高原区的影响，有着复杂多样的自然地理环境。气候兼具低纬、季风、高原等特点，有北热带、南亚热带、中亚热带、北亚热带、南温带、中温带和高原气候区７个气候类型。
▲Red Soil, Kunming 红土地·昆明
Yunnan is endowed with rich natural resources and enjoys the honor of Botany Kingdom, Zoology Kingdom, Kingdom of Nonferrous Metals, Hometown of Herbal Medicine, and Hometown of Flowers. The terrestrial eco-system of Yunnan nearly encompasses all the ecological types on the earth. It has 17,000 higher plant species, amounts to 62.9% of the total in China. Its 1,737 vertebrate animals, constitute 58.9% of the total in China. All this makes Yunnan a rare biological gene pool.
云南省自然资源丰富，享有“植物王国”、“动物王国”、“有色金属王国”、“药材之乡”、“花卉之乡”等美誉。云南的陆生生态系统几乎包括了地球上所有的生态系统类型，有高等植物1.7万种，占中国的62.9%；有脊椎动物1737种，占中国的58.9%，是世界罕见的生物基因库。
Yunnan is the province which have the most species of plants in China. Of China’s 30000 species of higher plants，Yunnan claims more than 60% of the total respectively. Of China’s 200 species of wild animals as the national pivot targets for special protection, Yunnan claims 59.4% of the total. Among them, 23 species are unique to Yunnan. Of the 151 rare and endangered plant species for national protection in CHina, Yunnan claims 42.6%.
云南是中国植物种类最多的省份，在全国3万种高等植物中，云南就占60%以上。中国重点保护的野生动物共有200种，云南占全国总数的59.4%，其中23种为云南独有。中国保护的151种珍稀濒危植物中，云南占42.6%。
▲Erhai Lake, Dali 洱海·大理
In terms of land, Yunnan has 84% of mountains, 10% of highland & hillocks, 6% of basins and river valleys. The altitude difference in the Province is great. The highest point is 6,740 meters above the sea level, while the lowest point is only 76.4 meters. The general topography is descending with 3 echelons from the northwest to the southeast. The first terrace is the northwestern highland. The second is the central mountains. The third is the hills, basins and valleys on the south, southeast and the southwest slopes. While in average, each kilometer descends about 6 meters, every terrace has its own drastic internal complexities.
云南省的土地面积中，山地约占84％，高原、丘陵约占10％，盆地、河谷约占6％。海拔相差很大，最高点海拔6740米，最低点仅76.4米。地势自西北向东南分三大阶梯递降。滇西北是地势最高的一级梯层，滇中高原为第二梯层，南部、东南和西南部为第三梯层，平均每千米递降6米，每一梯层内的地形地貌都十分复杂。
▲Cangshan Mountain, Dali 苍山·大理
▲Village in canyon, Diqing 峡谷村落·迪庆
More than 600 rivers, big and small, run freely in Yunnan. They belong to 6 major water systems respectively: the Jinsha River-Yangtze River, the Nanpan River-Pearl River, the Yuan River-Red River, the Lantsang River-Mekong River, the Nu River-Salween River, the Dulong River, Daying River and Ruili River-Irrawaddy River. They separately infuse into 3 seas (the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and the Andaman Sea) and 3 bays (the Gulf of Tokin, the Moktama Kwe and the Bay of Bengal), belonging to the Pacific and the Indian Oceans.
云南省江河纵横，全省共有大小河流600多条，分别属于六大水系：金沙江—长江，南盘江—珠江，元江—红河，澜沧江—湄公河，怒江—萨尔温江，独龙江、大盈江、瑞丽江—伊洛瓦底江；分别注入三海和三湾：东海、南海、安达曼海，北部湾、莫踏马湾、孟加拉湾；分别归属太平洋和印度洋。
▲The first bend of Yangtze River, Lijiang 长江第一湾·丽江
The landscape of parallel 3 rivers finds its location in the Valleys of the Hengduan Mountain as an Southward extension of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The Nu, the Lantsang and the Upper Yangtze are pressed into a narrow stripe of 4 mountain ridges. The area of this breathtaking landscape is the pivot of the East Asia, the South Asia & the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, occupying 41,000 square kilometers. As an typical area of high mountain landform and its evolution, it is not only an area with most abundant bio-species, but also the home of unusually diversified ethnic groups, languages, religious beliefs and social customs. For this reason, it entered the UNESCO List of the World Legacies in 2003.
“三江并流”位于青藏高原南延横断山纵谷地区，由怒江、澜沧江、金沙江及其流域内的山脉组成，整个区域达4.1万平方千米。它地处东亚、南亚和青藏高原三大地理区域的交汇处，是世界上罕见的高山地貌及其演化的代表地区，也是世界上生物物种最丰富的地区之一。同时，该地区也是世界上罕见的多民族、多语言、多种宗教信仰和多种风俗习惯并存的地区。2003年，“三江并流”被列入联合国教科文组织公布的《世界遗产名录》。
▲Ruili River, Dehong 瑞丽江·德宏
▲A fishing village beside Erhai Lake, Dali 洱海渔村·大理
Yunnan is one of the provinces which have the most plateau lakes. More than 40 of its lakes are over 1 square kilometers. The total lake surface of Yunnan amounts to about 1,066 square kilometers. The total catchment area is 9,000 square kilometers and the total water storage is 30 billion cubic meters. The most famous of them include the Dianchi, the Fuxian, the Erhai and the Yilong, etc. Among them, the Dianchi is the largest in Yunnan and the Fuxian is the second deepest fresh water lake in China.
云南是中国高原湖泊最多的省份之一。面积在1平方千米以上的湖泊共40多个，湖泊总面积约1066平方千米，集水面积9000平方千米，总蓄水量约300亿立方米。主要湖泊有滇池、抚仙湖、洱海、异龙湖等。滇池是云南最大的湖泊。抚仙湖是中国第二深的淡水湖。
Early in the prehistoric time, Yunnan was the home of 3 major ethnic groups as the forebears of the peoples in Yunnan: the Qiang, the Pu and the Yue. In the time of Qin and Han Dynasties, they were generally called the Southwestern Foreigner. Through the following nearly 1,500 years of migration, differentiation, evolution and convergence, their framework of distribution and characteristics took shape and became stabilized.
早在史前时期，云南就生活着羌、濮、越三大族群，他们是云南最早的先民，秦汉时期总称为“西南夷”。后经不断迁徙、分化、演变和融合，到了明、清时期，各民族的分布和特点趋于稳定。
▲A performance of Yi people, Kunming 彝族歌舞表演·昆明
The Bronze Age of Yunnan started in 12th Century B.C. and ended in 1st Century A.D., roughly correspondent with the Late Shang to the Late Han Dynasties. Up to now, cultural relics of the Bronze Age have been found in more than 300 sites in over 100 counties in Yunnan Province. Over 40 of them are clusters of tombs. About 15,000 pieces of bronze wares have been excavated in near 2,000 excavated tombs. The Bronze Culture of Yunnan forms a striking contrast with its counterpart from the Central China, a strong indicator that the owners of Yunnan Bronze Cultures were local ethnic minorities in stead of the Han.
As an essential component of the Yunnan Bronze Culture, Bronze Drum has been regarded as the symbol of wealth and power. It is still alive in the local ethnic minority customs, such groups as the Zhuang, Yi, Wa, Miao and Yao.
云南青铜时代始于商代末期，终于西汉晚期，约相当于公元前12－公元1世纪。迄今为止，在云南全省100多个县300多个地点发现青铜时代文物，其中有40余处青铜时代墓葬群。目前已发掘墓葬近2000座，出土约1.5万件青铜器。因为云南青铜文化的创造者是少数民族先民，云南青铜文化与中原青铜文化有极大差异。
铜鼓是云南青铜文化的重要组成部分，曾被视为财富和权力的象征，至今仍“活”在云南少数民族的生活中，壮族、彝族、佤族、苗族、瑶族等少数民族至今仍然使用铜鼓。
▲Miao people’s dance, Zhaotong 苗族芦笙舞·昭通
From the ancient time, Yunnan has been a major window and door open to the Southeast and South Asia. The borderline in Yunnan is as long as 4,061 kilometers, or 1/5 of the total borderline of China on land. Yunnan has 12 first class and 8 second class national border ports, open directly to Myanma, Viet Nam and Laos. The Lantsang-Mekong water way connects Yunnan with Thailand and Cambodia. Yunnan is also close to Malaysia, Singapore, India, Bangladesh, etc. In short, Yunnan is a province of China with the longest borderline that borders with most neighboring countries.
Over 2,000 years ago, Yunnan has become a major outlet of China for carrying out friendly communication and commercial trade. An ancient caravan route from early time has connected Yunnan and Sichuan with Myanma, India and further to Western Countries. During the WWII, the famous Stilwell High Way and the Hump Flight Course were opened in Yunnan, which contributed enormously to the victory of the anti-fascists war.
云南自古就是中国通往东南亚、南亚的窗口和门户。国境线长达4061千米，占中国陆地边界的1/5，拥有国家一类口岸12个、二类口岸8个，与缅甸、越南、老挝3国接壤，与泰国和柬埔寨通过澜沧江－湄公河相连，并与马来西亚、新加坡、印度、孟加拉等国邻近，是中国毗邻周边国家最多、边境线最长的省份之一。
早在2000多年前，云南就已成为中国与印度和东南亚友好交往和开展贸易往来的重要通道。这条被称为“南方丝绸之路”的古道从四川至云南，然后通达缅甸、印度和西方国家。二战时期经云南开通了著名的史迪威公路和驼峰航线，为赢得反法西斯战争的胜利发挥了重要作用。
▲Water-splashing Day of Dai people, Xishuangbanna傣族泼水节·西双版纳
As a multi-ethnic Province, Yunnan by all means is a miniature of China as a big multi-ethnic family. It has all the ethnic elements of China. Among them, 26 are native groups, each has a population more than 5,000. Moreover, 15 of them are unique to Yunnan. The ethnic minority population in Yunnan is 14.7 million, constituting 1/3 of 44 million as the total Provincial population. In terms of administration, Yunnan has 8 ethnic autonomous prefectures, and 29 ethnic autonomous counties. The ethnic autonomous regions are as many as 78, amounting to 60.47% of 129 counties and cities in Yunnan. In terms of territory, the ethnic autonomous area claims 70.2% of the total and in terms of population, over 48% are in the autonomous area. Besides, Yunnan once had also 197 ethnic townships.
云南是中国多民族大家庭的缩影。全省共有56种民族成分，其中5000人以上的世居民族26个，云南特有民族15个，少数民族人口达1470多万人，占全省4400多万总人口的1/3。全省有8个民族自治州，29个民族自治县，民族自治地方共78个县（市），占全省129个县（市、区）的60.47%。民族自治地方面积占全省总面积的70.2%，人口占全省总人口的48.08%。此外，云南还先后建立了197个民族乡。
In the long history, ethnic groups in Yunnan have developed a great variety of colorful cultures with rich ethnic contents and have made substantial contribution to the Chinese culture and world civilization. Today, diversified ethnic cultures are developing harmoniously in Yunnan.Various ethnic languages, scripts, religions, architectures, customs, rituals, songs, dances, sports, clothes and medicines, together with the long lists of the natural, cultural legacies of the world and intangible cultural legacies of China, all achieve celebrity from home and abroad.
在漫长的历史长河中，云南各民族创造了各具特色、内涵深厚的民族文化，为中华民族传统文化的形成和世界文明的发展作出了重要贡献。多样性的民族文化在云南和谐发展，多样性的民族语言、文字、宗教、建筑、风俗礼仪、节庆、歌舞、体育、服饰和医药……以及一大批世界自然遗产、文化遗产和国家级非物质文化遗产等，均享誉海内外。
