Edutainment > Yunnan Province - Home of Yunnan Art School

Yunnan is the South-Western province of China. It is the homeland for one of the best known and most successful contemporary Chinese art movements - the Yunnan Art School.

We received this article and the images from our consignment partner in China. It was adopted from an official Chinese government presentation. The article gives an overview on the geography of the homeland of Yunnan Art School, where famous artists like Hao Ping and Shi Yi were born, live and work.

Yunnan - Land of Beauty and Mystery

Yunnan, on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the Southwest of China lies right below the Tibetan Plateau. Its neighbors are Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. Yunnan is a mysterious land of great natural beauty. It covers an area of 394,000 square kilometers and has a population of 40 million.

Even today many Chinese think of it as a frontier province.

Yunnan - Snow-Capped Glaciers and Elephants

In few provinces of China you can find such a great diversity of natural conditions and cultures as in region. Yunnan has an unique array of fascinating ecotourist resources, including mountains, snow-capped glaciers, lakes and hot springs, alpine landscapes, primeval temperate woodland and tropical rain forests where elephants and monkeys roam.

Forests, totaling nearly 10 million hectares, or eight percent of the nations total forests, cover 24.9 percent of the land.

Yunnan - Forests, Plants and Animals

Yunnan is Chinas haven for plants and animals. More than half of Chinas 30,000 kinds of high-grade plants can be found in Yunnan, which is also home to 3,000-plus kinds of rare animals (55 percent of the national total), 31 kinds of birds (64 percent of the national total), and 130 kinds of reptiles (42 percent of the national total).

Scenic Landscapes

Meili Snow Mountain with an elevation of 6740 meters, magnificent and precipitous, has not been conquered yet by men. The Lunan Karst topography covers an area of 350 square kilometers and forms the first wonder of the world - the Stone Forest. The Tiger Leaping Gorge measures 3.200 meters from the cliffs' edge to the water surface of the Golden Sand River. More than 40 lakes are scattered around the mountains, which from the air look like they were decorated with pearls.

Many rare and endangered species of plants and animals live in Xishuangbanna. The flowers around Kunming, the City of Spring, bloom through all four seasons. Cut off by precipitous mountains from easy communication with the outside world, Shangri-la, referred to in James Miltons Lost Horizon, may be the last virgin land where one can observe cultures whose layers go back for thousands of years into the past.

Picturesque Lijiang, listed as a World Cultural Heritage City by UNESCO, is a region of gorges, lakes and active horse breeding. The Naxi people who live here, still use hieroglyphic writing and wear sheepskin capes.

26 Ethnic Minorities

Yunnan is an area of many different national cultures. 26 ethnic minority groups give a rich patina of diversity and color to the Yunnan scene, contributing with their colorful ethnic costumes, their traditional songs and dances, to the attractive life of the cities, the villages, the fairs and the festivals. The Water Splashing Festival of the Dai people, the March Fair of the Bai people, the Torch Festival of the Yi people, keep the traveler so entranced - he never wants to leave.

Cradle of Humanity?

Yunnan is also one of the cradles of human civilization. The bones of a primitive hominid 1.7 million-years-old have been found in Yuanmou, dinosaur fossils in Lufeng County. From Dali, capital of the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom to the Golden Temple, Black Dragon Pool and many other ancient temples most of which are amazingly intact, Yunnan is a wonderland, with a long history and a deep culture.

Yunnan is a place of never-ending fascination. The stone drums, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the worship not of gods but of the sky, the earth, and the mountains; languages whose origins are lost in the mists of antiquity; and the Burma Road which once provided a gateway of American supplies and aid to war-time China in World War II.

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