Xishuangbanna
Xishuangbanna is located at the extreme southern tip of Yunnan province in People’s Republic of China. It is bordered with Myanmar in its west and Laos to south. Xishuangbanna is not only renowned as the kingdom of animals, but has earned the name “pearl on the crown of the kingdom of plants”. It occupies an area of some 19700 square kilometers, including 1 city (Jinghing) and 2 counties (Menghai and Mengla). There are 13 ethnic minorities such as Dai, Hani, Bulang, Jinuo, etc, with a total static population of 830,000. In Dai language, Xishuang means twelve; Banna is one thousand pieces of land, which is how it got its name.
Xishuangbanna lies just below the Tropic of Cancer and the land is hilly with a few mountains and valleys. India Ocean monsoons bring in humid air and it is often windless. The climate is ideal for plants and animals. One quarter of China’s faunal species and one sixth of its plant species are living and growing in this virgin forest. There are over 5000 species of woody and herbbaceous plants, ranging from huge arbors to primitive ferns. Rare and precious animals and birds thrive in the relative safety of the dense tropical jungles. There are only two seasons here, dry and humid. So here people for generations have never seen snow. Most of places in China are the world of ice and snow, but here, it is green and luxuriant all year long.
For centuries, Xishuangbanna had been a hidden land and it was almost inaccessible. In 2001, Mekong River golden waterway was opened to Laos and Thailand by boat. In 2010 international highway from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, to Bangkok via Xishuangbanna was opened. There is an international airport with airlines to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Laos. Xishuangbanna has become a gate of China that is widely opened to Southeast Asia Countries.