South of the Clouds

The ideographs for the word China literally mean Middle Kingdom. The concept of China was that territory bounded on one side by an apparently limitless ocean and on the other sides by inhospitable terrain-steppes, deserts, high plateaux and lots of mountains-inhabited by people who were,in Han eyes,of inferior cultural achievements.The Chinese for centuries saw their homeland as the centre of the world.And as they expanded out of their Yellow River heartland,moving mostly south,they occupied similar alluvial plains until they ran into mountains formidable enough to contain their mass migration.As a result, although the Han re-side in every corner within the boundaries of contemporary China, they still mostly occupy a middle position-between the sea and the mountains.

In a sense there are two Chinas. One is the Middle Kingdom, the central and eastern provinces,the population almost wholly Han, heirs to thousands of years of history and tradition,the purveyors of a rich and re-fined culture.Its chief characteristics are recognisable from one end of this Middle Kingdom to another.

The other China is the Periphery,the borderlands where civilisations blend,peoples of different origins mix and Chinese influence is attenuated,modified to vary¬ing degrees by the indigenous differences. Among China's 56 recognised nationalities,the Han comprise 92% of the population. But the other 8% reside upon 60% of the land.For those seeking the attractions of multiple cultural exposure, the mingling of Han and non-Han. the survival (or revival) of customs and practices strange and fascinating, the Periphery is the pan of China to explore.

Of all the borderland provinces, indeed one could even say of all the provinces of China, none can boast of as much diversity and attractions-physical, cultural and ethnic-as the southwestern province of Yunnan. With 394,000 sq km it is the nation's sixth largest. For 4,061 km its western and southern boundaries are international borders-with Myanmar west and southwest, with Laos and Vietnam south. On its southeast side lies the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, while to its northeast is the province of Guizhou. The extreme northwest touches Tibet. but the rest of the northern boundary is with Sichuan. in the latter province rain and clouds domi¬nate the weather and supposedly when one of the Nanzhao princes of Dili visited the Tang court he told the emperor his land was south of the rainy weather. The Chinese Emperor then dubbed that territory Yunnan-South of the Clouds.

Yunnan does, in fact, enjoy better weather than its neighbours. Its position astride the Tropic of Capri-corn, along with its elevation and mountain chains, give it a temperate climate, free from extremes of heat or cold. Much of the province lies on hill-studded high plateaux averaging 2000 metres altitude. The snow peaks are in the west and northwest, while two ma(or ranges, the Ailao and Wuliang Mountains, run northwest to southeast right through the heart of the province. South of these ranges the landscape is tropical, in cultural and physical terms the northern rim of Southeast Asia. Yunnan is suhject to the annual monsoons from May through October. In other seasons days are often sunny. temperatures mild. with winters cold only in the highlands of the northwest and northeast.

It Is in this part of the province where most of the snow mountains stand. The highest is the Himalayan peak Meili Snow Mountain. near Degin, at 6740 metres. The lowest point is the southeastern town Hekou, on the Vietnam border, at 76 metres. Mountain ranges of vari¬ous sizes dominate nearly eery prefecture and are home to a great variety of plants and animals, On their slopes, and in the valleys among them, live 25 different ethnic minorities, with their own languages, customs, lifestyles, religions and environmental usage. One third of Yunnan's 41 million inhabitants are ethnic minorities, living on two thirds of the land. Despite modernisation a large proportion of them maintain their traditional lifestyles and customs. And minority women's fondness for their ethnic clothing and ornaments makes Yunnan China's most colourfully populated province.