Côn Minh

Understand

Kunming is one of the most important transport hubs of Southwest China. It is well connected to the rest of China by road, rail and air and also has good air links to Southeast Asia and a few outside the region.

Some historic routes no longer exist. The old French-built railway to Vietnam is no longer in service, but a new railway along a similar route (Kunming to Hekou North 河口北), with regular passenger service, has been opened to replace it. There are also buses along that route, and a new fast rail link link all the way toVientiane, with an extension to Singapore perennially under discussion. The Burma Road, which terminated in Kunming, no longer exists but there are newer and better roads over much of that route and rail over some of it.

The area is known for the Yí (彝) people, an ethnic minority prevalent in and around Kunming. Especially at popular tourist sites, you may see people dressed in traditional Yi garb and selling handicrafts or showing off local dances.

Get in

Kunming is well connected to anywhere in China or Southeast Asia and reasonably easy to reach from outside that region.

Get around

thumb|Main train station and the usual heavy traffic Kunming has generally good roads but they are often badly overloaded with traffic, and not only at peak times. By Western standards, the driving is often appalling; see Driving in China. For any journey by ground transport, a generous allowance for traffic delays is good planning.

Do

thumb|Zhigong Hall, Yunnan University

Buy

thumb|Golden Horse memorial Archway on Jinbi Road Top end international luxury goods can mostly be found at Plaza 66 next to Dongfeng Square.

Eat

thumb|Small pot rice noodles, a common breakfast for Kunming locals thumb|Over-the-Bridge Rice Noodles with more toppings Local specialties include: Over-the-Bridge Rice Noodles (过桥米线; guòqiáo mǐxiàn) is a typical Yunnan local flavor that could only be tasted in some parts of Yunnan. This famous dish consists of several courses and a big bowl of chicken soup with very thick oil on top to keep the heat for cooking the food items, including raw pork, cooked chicken pieces, pork liver, slices of squid and slices of carp for the first course to be dipped into the boiling hot soup. Vegetables are then added afterwards as the second course, and the rice noodles follow as the last course. It is a kind of snack food in Yunnan. The name supposedly comes from a husband who isolated himself in a garden for intensive study before his civil service exam; this is the dish his loving wife prepared, and carried over the bridge, to sustain him.