Tel:+ 86 0 13568288803
Email: nimatour@gmail.com

It's population 3, 838,200. Of Kunming's total population, only a million or so inhabit the urban area. At most, minorities account for 6% of the city's population, although the farming areas in the outlying counties are home to some Yi, Hui and Miao groups. There are also a fair number of Vietnamese refugees turned immigrants from the Chinese Vietnamese wars and border clashes that started in 1977.
At an elevation of 1890m, Kunming has a milder climate than most other Chinese cities, and can be visited at any time of year. Lights clothes will usually be adequate, but it's wise to bring some woollies during the winter months when temperatures can suddenly drop, particularly in the evenings, there have even been a couple of light snowfalls in recent years. There's a fairly even spread of temperatures from April to September. Winter are short, sunny and dry. In summer from June to August Kunming offers cool respite, although rains is more prevalent.

History
The region of Kunming has been inhabited from 2000 years. Until the 8th century the town was a remote Chinese outpost, but the kingdom of Nanzhao, centre to the northwest of Kunming at Dali, captured it and made it a secondary capital. In 1274 the Mongolas came through, seeping all and sundry before them.
    In the 14th centry the Ming set up shop in Yunnanfu, as Kunming was the know, building a walled town of the present site. From the 17th century onwards , the history of this city becomes rather grisly. The last Ming resistance to the invading Manchu took place in Yunnan in the 1650s and was crushed by General Wu Sangui. Wu in turn rebelled against the king and held out until his death in 1678. His successor was overthrown by the Manchu emperor Kangxi and subsequently killed himself of Kunming in 1681.
    In the 19th century the city suffered several bloodbaths, as the rebel Muslim leader Du Wenxiu, the Sulta of Dali, attacked and besieged the city several times between 1858 and 1868; it was not until 1873 that the rebellion was finally and bloodily crushed.
The intrusion of the West into Kunming began in the middle of the 19th century when Britain took control of Burma(Myanmar)and France took control of Indochina, providing access to the city from the south. By 1900 Kunming, Hekou , Simao and Mengzi were opened to foreign trade. The French were keen on exploiting the region's copper, tin and timber resources and in 1910 their Indochina train, started in 1898 at Hanoi, reached the city.
   Kunming's expansion began with World War Two, when factories were established here and refugees fleeing the Japanese poured in from eastern China. In a bid to keep China from falling Japan, Anglo- American forces sent supplies to nationalist troops entrenched in Sichuan and Yunnan. Supplies came overland on a dirt road carved out of the mountain in 1937-1938 by 160,000 Chinese with virtually no equipment. This war the famous Burma Road, a 1000km haul from Lashio to Kunming. Today, the western extension of Kunming's Renmin Lu, leading in the direction of Helinpu, is the tail end of the road.
    In early 1942 the Japanese captured lashion, cutting the supply line. Kunming continued to handle most of the incoming aid during 1942-1945 when US planes flew the dangerous mission of crossing the " Hump", the towering 5000m mountain ranges between India and Yunnan. A black marketn sprang up and fair proportion of the medicines, canned food, petrol and other goods intended for the military and relief agencies were siphoned off into other hands.
    The face of Kunming has been radically altered since then, with streets widened and office building and hosing projects flung up. With the coming of the trains, industry has expanded rapidly and a surprising range of goods and machinery available in China now bears the " made in Yunnan" stamp. The city's produce includes steel, foodstuffs, trucks machine tools, electrical equipment, textiles, chemicals, building materials and plastics.

Orientation
The jurisdiction of Kunming covers 6200 sq km, encompassing four city districts and four rural cunties which supply the city with fruit and vegetables. The centre of the city is the traffic circle at the intersection of Zhengyi Lu and Dongfeng Xilu. Surprisingly, it is still possible to find a few rows of old wooden houses in nearby neighborhoods, although theses are being leveled with alarming regularity. Kunming's tree lined Jinbi Lu, the last bastion of original architecture, feel in its entirety to the wrecking ball in late 1997.
    East of the intersection is Kunming's major north-south road, Beijing Lu. At the southern end is the main train station, the long distance bus station and the Kunhu Fandian(Kunhu Hotel). At a bout the half way pint Beijing Lu is intersected by Dongfen Donglu.