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Kunming
Kunming is located between 24°23´
and 26°22´N, and 102°10´and 103°40´E,
with a total area of 21,600 square km. Its widest stretch
from the east to the west amounts to 140 km and its largest
expansion from the north to the south amounts to 220 km.
Its highest point is Mazong Ridge of the Jiaozi Mountain
in Luquan with an elevation of 4,247 m, and its lowest point
is the joint of the Xiaojiang River and the Jinsha River
in Dongchuan District, with an elevation of 695 m. Its downtown
area is 1,891 m above sea level. Kunming is the political,
economic and cultural center of Yunnan Province as well
as the gateway of China to the Southeast Asian countries.
Kunming is free from bitter cold in
winter and torried heat in summer with an average temperature
of 9°C in winter and 23°C in summer. It has an annual
average temperature of 15.1°C and an annual temperature
range from approximately 12°C to 13°C. "Climate
remains like that of February and March, and flowers blossom
throughout the year" vividly depicts its climate of
perennial spring. Furthermore, in Kunming dry and rainy
seasons are clearly marked, with the period from May to
October as the rainy season and the rest as the dry season.
The city has a mean annual rainfall of 1,000 mm, with an
annual sunshine period of 2,250 hours and an annual frost-free
period of 230 days.
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Kunming has a total population of
more than 4.55 million. In its population, there are 26
nationalities with a total ethnic minority population accounting
for 12.55% of the total population of the whole city. Of
its ethnic groups, those with more than 4,000 members are
the Yis, the Huis, the Bais, the Miaos, the Lisus, the Zhuangs,
the Dais, the Hanis, and the Naxis. Throughout the ages,
people of different nationalities have developed their own
peculiar life styles, customs, institutions, traditional
festivals, cultures and art forms all of which constitute
a gorgeous picture of varied ethnicity.
Kunming is well-known for its beautiful
landscape, agreeable climate and fresh flowers blooming
throughout the year. Here more than 400 types of flowers
are blossoming and competing with each other for beauty
and fascination. Of these flowers, camellia, yulan magnolia,
azalea, fairy primrose,lily and orchid are known as the
six famous flowers of city and camellia was confirmed by
the Standing Committee of the Municipal NPC of Kunming as
its city flower in 1983.
Kunming has a long history. Its present
name "Kunming" was the sound of the title of an
ethnic group residing in southwest China in ancient times.
This group lived a nomadic life in west Yunnan and moved
to settle in the area around the Dianchi Lake during the
period from the Han to the Tang dynasties. At the outset
of the Yuan Dynasty, the administration "Kunming Two
Thousand Households" was established near the lake
and the title of the group was first used to designate the
place, a tradition which has lasted up to now.
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Kunming is a hub of communications
of Yunnan and a gateway of China to Southeast Asia. Kunming
Airport is a national airport and also one of the five international
airports of China. Nowadays, it has eight regional and international
air routes to Rangoon, Bankok, Chiengmai, Vientiane, Singapore,
Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and more than 40 home
routes. From it, there are airways to Hekou, Cuiyang,Chengdu,
Nanning, Yuxi and other cities or places.Meanwhile it has
a complicated system of roads leading in all directions
of which those to Wanding, Daluo and Hekou also lead to
Burma, Laos and Vietnam, and thus serve as gateways of Southwest
China to Southeast Asia and South Asia. Furthermore, from
here there are such main roads as Yunnan-Tibet, Yunnan-Guizhou,
Kunming-Baise which lead to other provinces. Now all the
main roads within the area 200 km from Kunming have been
improved and of these lines those to Songming and Yuxi are
expressways.
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