Kunming in the context of Dian Lake

Yunnan is an inland province in Southwestern China, spanning approximately 394,000 km (152,000 sq mi) and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, autonomous regions of Guangxi and Tibet, as well as Southeast Asian countries Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, and Laos. Yunnan is China's fourth least developed province based on disposable income per capita in 2014.

Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with high elevations in the Northwest and low elevations in the Southeast. Most of the population lives in the eastern part of the province. In the west, the altitude can vary from the mountain peaks to river valleys as much as 3,000 m (9,800 ft). Yunnan is rich in natural resources and has the largest diversity of plant life in China. Of the approximately 30,000 species of higher plants in China, Yunnan has perhaps 17,000 or more. Yunnan's reserves of aluminium, lead, zinc and tin are the largest in China, and there are also major reserves of copper and nickel. Historically, the southwestern Silk Road to Bhitargarh in Bangladesh passed through modern Yunnan.

The Japanese invasion of French Indochina (仏印進駐, Futsu-in shinchū) (French: Invasion japonaise de l'Indochine) was a short undeclared military confrontation between Japan and Vichy France in northern French Indochina. Fighting lasted from 22 to 26 September 1940; the same time as the Battle of South Guangxi in the Sino-Japanese War, which was the main objective as to why Japan occupied Vietnam during this time.

The main objective of the Japanese was to prevent China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina along the Kunming–Haiphong railway, from the Indochinese port of Haiphong, through the capital of Hanoi to the Chinese city of Kunming in Yunnan.

Vientiane (Lao: ວຽງຈັນ, romanized: Viang Chan, lit. 'sandalwood town', RTGS: Wiang Chan, pronounced [wíaŋ tɕàn]) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Situated on the banks of the Mekong River at the Thai border, it comprises the five urban districts of Vientiane Prefecture and had a population of 840,000 as of the 2023 Census. Established as the capital of the Kingdom of Lan Xang in 1563, Vientiane served as the administrative center during French rule and retains colonial-era architecture alongside Buddhist landmarks such as Pha That Luang, a national symbol of Buddhism, and Haw Phra Kaew, which once housed the Emerald Buddha until its 18th-century relocation to Thailand.

The city functions as Laos' political, economic and transportation hub, emphasizing regional connectivity through infrastructure projects like the Laos–China Railway (LCR). This railway, a component of China's Belt and Road Initiative, terminates in Vientiane after linking Kunming, China, and is slated to connect to Thailand’s rail network via the Mekong Railway Bridge.

Yuan Jiahua (simplified Chinese: 袁家骅; traditional Chinese: 袁家驊; pinyin: Yuán Jiāhuá, [ɥɛ̌n tɕjáxwǎ]; January 1903 – 4 September 1980) was a Chinese linguist and dialectologist from Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province. He graduated from the English Department of Peking University in 1932, worked as an editor in the North Shanghai New Books Office and as a teaching assistant at Peking University. In 1937, he went to Oxford University to major in Old English and Germanic languages. After returning to China, he held professorships in Kunming and Beijing. He has made significant contributions to the field of linguistics primarily in researching the languages of China's ethnic minorities and Chinese dialects.

24°49′31″N 103°19′25″E / 24.82528°N 103.32361°E / 24.82528; 103.32361

The Stone Forest or Shilin (Chinese: 石林; pinyin: Shílín) is a notable set of limestone formations about 500 km in area located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan province of China. The forest is approximately 90 km (56 mi) east of the provincial capital Kunming.

Kyaukphyu (Burmese: ကျောက်ဖြူမြို့ [tɕaʊʔpʰjù mjo̰]; also spelt Kyaukpyu) is a major town in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar and it is informally addressed to be the second capital of Rakhine State. It is located on the northwestern corner of Yanbye Island on Combermere Bay, and is 250 miles or 400 kilometres north-west of Yangon. It is the principal town of Kyaukphyu Township and Kyaukphyu District. The town is situated on a superb natural harbor which connects the rice trade between Calcutta and Yangon. The estimated population in 1983 was 19,456. The population of Kyaukphyu's urban area is 20,866 as of 2014, while Kyaukphyu Township's population is 165,352.

The town is home to several deep-water port projects, as well as the western end of the Sino-Myanmar pipelines the Kunming–Kyaukphyu Railway and natural gas pipelines.

Tengchong (Chinese: 騰衝; pinyin: Téngchōng) is a county-level city of Baoshan City, western Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. It is well known for its volcanic activity. The city is named after the town of Tengchong which serves as its political center, previously known as Tengyue (Chinese: 騰越; pinyin: Téngyuè) in Chinese. English language sources of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries use names such as Teng-Chung, Tingyueh, Teng Yueh, Momein and Momien.

It borders with Myanmar in the northwest for 151 km (94 mi). By road, it is 650 km (400 mi) west of the provincial capital, Kunming, and 170 km (110 mi) westward from Baoshan's urban area.

The Yunnan Nationalities Museum (Chinese: 云南民族博物馆; pinyin: Yúnnán Mínzú Bówùguǎn) is located on the east bank of Dian Lake in Kunming, Yunnan, China, next to the Yunnan Ethnic Village. Opened on 9 November 1995, it is a comprehensive ethnology museum. Covering an area of over 200 mu, the museum has a building area of 130,000 square metres (1,400,000 sq ft). It consists of various exhibition halls, office building, report hall, storage and workshops. The ecological environment, religious customs, culture and arts and relics of the ethnic groups of Yunnan are collected in it. The 120,000 items of objects fall into the 16 categories such as ethnic groups, dresses and personal adornment, technique, arts, ecology, ancient books, and strange stones etc.

Myllokunmingia is a genus of basal chordate from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shales of China 518 mya and is thought to be a vertebrate, although this is not conclusively supported. The type species M. fengjiaoa is 28 mm long and 6 mm high. It is among the oldest possible craniates, found in the lower Cambrian Chengjiang (518 million years ago). It appears to have a skull and skeletal structures made of cartilage. There is no sign of biomineralization of the skeletal elements. The holotype was found in the Yuanshan member of the Qiongzhusi Formation in the Eoredlichia Zone near Haikou at Ercaicun, Kunming City, Yunnan, China. Some researchers have considered the other primitive chordate Haikouichthys to be synonymous with this taxon, but subsequent studies led by the British paleontologist Simon Conway Morris identified both genera to be distinct, separate taxa on the basis of different gill arrangement, the absence of branchial rays in Myllokunmingia and the myomeres having a more acute shape in Haikouichthys.

The animal has a distinct head and trunk with a forward sail-like (1.5 mm) dorsal fin and a ventral finfold (probably paired) further back. The maximum height of M. fengjiaoa is at 6 mm. The maximum height point is located around 11 mm from the anterior. The head has five or six gill pouches with hemibranchs. In the trunk there are 25 segments (myomeres) with rearward-facing chevrons. There is a notochord, a pharynx and a digestive tract that may run all the way to the rear tip of the animal. The mouth cannot be clearly identified. There may be a pericardial cavity. There are no fin radials on M. fengjiaoa. There is only one specimen, which has the tip of the tail buried in sediment.