The name of Yunnan, a mountainous province in southwest China, sounds familiar to many tourists. With beautiful natural scenery, colorful folk customs and a 4060-kilometer border shared with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, it attracts tourists from home and abroad.

         The whole province enjoys a delightfully warm climate without distinctive divisions between the four seasons, owing to its location on a mountainous plateau at a low latitude. The two most distinct seasons are quite obvious, though - the rainy and dry seasons.

         Kunming, the provincial capital, is the hub of tourism in Yunnan. The city's pleasant year-round warm weather wins it the distinctive nickname of "The Spring City." Around the city, there are charming hills and quiet lakes, as well as numerous ancient temples and other historical sites.

         The fact that 94 percent of Yunnan's geographical area is mountainous provides the province with imposing landscapes and varied, excellent photography opportunities. In the east are enchanting land formations of stone forests, earth forests and limestone caves with magnificent stalactites. In the Hengduan Mountains in the northwest, there are snow-capped mountains - the highest being 6740 meters - as well as rushing rivers and valleys as deep as 3000 meters. There are both volcanoes and ancient glaciers, a vast area of karst land forms and many other unusual, breathtaking geographic phenomena. Not surprisingly, such impressive natural conditions have been an ideal environment for an abundance of exotic flora and fauna. Yunnan possesses more species of plants than any other province in China, winning it the titles "The Kingdom of Plants" and "The Green Crown."

         Yunnan is also a good place to see various colorful ethnic groups and their unique, exotic customs in China. In this province, there lives 25 of the nation's 55 ethnic minority groups, more than in any other single province or autonomous region. Each of these hilltribes possess their own unique social structure, culture and language. A visitor to their remote villages can join in on jubilant celebrations, such as the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai, the Third Month Fair of the Bai, the Torch Festival of the Yi, and the Knife Pole Festival of the Lisu.

          Yunnan is also a home to the origins of Man. Fossils of Ramapithecus found in Lufeng and Kaiyuan indicate that "emerging man" appeared in central Yunnan 8 million years ago. The discovery of the remains of the Yuanmou Man proves that human beings began to live in Yunnan 1.7 million years ago. Fossils of the Kunming Man found in Chenggong reveals that the Dianchi Lake area became home to modern man some 30,000 years ago. There are traces of recent history too, with many Buddhist and Taoist temples, and ruins of the ancient kingdoms of Dian, Nanzhao and Dali.