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Yunnan

2017-04-17

Situated in Southwestern China, Yunnan province is the 8th largest in China, and covers a total area of 394,000 square kilometers, accounting for 4.1% of China's total land territory. Respectively bordering Myanmar in the west and Laos and Vietnam in the south, Yunnan shares a boundary line of 4060 km with them.The population of Yunnan is 43 million, of which the 25 ethnic minorities take up over 15 million. Of all the ethnic minorities, the Yi people enjoys the largest population, at 4.7 million. Other ethnic minorities, namely the Bai, Hani, Zhuang and Dai, each has populations exceeding one million.

As a plateau and mountainous province, Yunnan belongs to the southward extension of the Tibetan Plateau. With an average elevation around 2000 meters, Yunnan enjoys huge elevation differences. With over 600 rivers and streams of different sizes in its territory, Yunnan has comparatively developed water systems. With exceptionally rich climatic resources, Yunnan belongs to the climatic type of sub-tropical plateau monsoon. "Four seasons can be found along the same mountain slope and different weather conditions can be witnessed over a short distance of 10 li (One li equals 500 meters)" is a vivid description of vertical and diversified climate in Yunnan.

Yunnan is the province with the richest variety of plants in China. Thus, Yunnan has always been dubbed as the Kingdom of Plants, Hometown of Spices, Natural Gardens, and Treasure-house of Medicinal Herbs. Yunnan is rich in mineral resources and has always been known as the Kingdom of Non-ferrous Metals.

The special geological and climatic conditions, numerous ethnic groups and long history and splendid culture have created exceptionally rich tourism resources in Yunnan.

In recent years, the economic power in Yunnan has been remarkably strengthened and the construction pace has been accelerated. The GDP of Yunnan province reached 1.38 trillion yuan in 2015. People's living standard has been further improved. New achievements were made in the development of social undertakings including science and technology, education, public health, social security and re-employment.