Yunnan
is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in
the far south of the country spanning approximately 394,000
square kilometers (152,000 square miles). The capital of the
province is Kunming. The province borders Myanmar, Laos, and
Vietnam.
The province is known to be one of
the most ethnically diverse in China. 36 of China's 56 officially
recognized ethnic groups - many of them indigenous to the
area and speaking non-Sinitic languages, reside in Yunnan
- making it a cultural mosaic.
The Yuanmou Man, a Homo erectus fossil unearthed by railway
engineers in the 1960s, has been determined to be the oldest
known hominid fossil in China. By the Neolithic period,
there were human settlements in the area of Lake Dian. These
people used stone tools and constructed simple wooden structures.
Around the third century BC, the
central area of Yunnan around present day Kunming was known
as Dian. The Chu general Zhuang Qiao entered the region
from the upper Yangtze River and set himself up as "King
of Dian". He and his followers brought into Yunnan
an influx of Chinese influence, the start of a long history
of migration and cultural expansion.
Bronze sculpture of the Dian Kingdom, 3rd century BCE.In
221 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified China and extended his authority
south. Commanderies and counties were established in Yunnan.
An existing road in Sichuan – the "Five Foot
Way" – was extended south to around present day
Qujing, in eastern Yunnan. In 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent General
Guo Chang south to Yunnan, establishing Yizhou commandery
and 24 subordinate counties. The commandery seat was at
Dianchi county (present day Jinning). Another county was
called "Yunnan", probably the first use of the
name. To expand the burgeoning trade with Burma and India,
Emperor Wu also sent Tang Meng to maintain and expand the
Five Foot Way, renaming it "Southwest Barbarian Way".
By this time, agricultural technology in Yunnan had improved
markedly. The local people used bronze tools, plows and
kept a variety of livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep,
goats, pigs and dogs. Anthropologists have determined that
these people were related to the people now known as the
Tai. They lived in tribal congregations, sometimes led by
exile Chinese.
Yunnan is the most southwestern province in China, with
the Tropic of Cancer running through its southern part.
The province has an area of 394,000 square km, 4.1% of the
nation's total. The northern part of the province forms
part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The province borders
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province in
the east, Sichuan Province in the north, and Tibet Autonomous
Region in the northwest. It shares a border of 4,060 km
with Burma in the west, Laos in the south, and Vietnam in
the southeast.
