The Spring City of Yunnan — flower markets, Dianchi Lake and the gateway to Southeast Asia's hill tribes
Kunming is the capital of Yunnan Province, China's most ethnically diverse region and gateway to Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam — a city at 1,895m elevation with a year-round mild climate so pleasant it is called 'Spring City' (春城). The city itself has relatively few ancient monuments after successive wars and modernisation, but serves as the essential base for Yunnan's extraordinary hinterland: the Stone Forest (Shilin) karst landscape two hours away, the ancient town of Dali on Erhai Lake, the Tibetan-style city of Lijiang and its Naxi culture, the rice terraces of Yuanyang, and the tea-horse r…
Kunming was the capital of the ancient Dian Kingdom (278 BC–109 BC) and later absorbed into the Han Dynasty when the lake (then called Dianchi) was the centre of a sophisticated bronze-casting civilisation. The city became a major Silk Road junction in the Tang and Yuan dynasties and was the capital of the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms that preceded Mongol conquest in 1253 — when Kublai Khan swept through with an army and incorporated Yunnan into the empire. During WWII, Kunming was the terminus of the Burma Road supply line and home to the Flying Tigers (American Volunteer Group) airbase — criti…