The last city on our study trip was to Kunming (昆明). 昆明 is the capital of Yunnan Province and is the biggest city. Even though we didn't have anything planned for our time in 昆明 we still found plenty to do.
昆明 is commonly referred to as "Spring City” because of the temperature. Year round it feels like spring weather. Fun fact about 昆明 is that during WWII it was a military center for China. 昆明 is also the home to many of China’s ethnic minorities. China has 56 ethnicities. 55 of the 56 ethnicities are minorities. There are over 5 million people living in the city of 昆明. Over 4 million are Han Chinese, the main ethnicity in China. The most prominent minority in 昆明 is the Yi people. However, there are also Hui, Bai, Miao, Dai, Naxi, Manchu, Mongol, and Tibetan people living in 昆明 just to name a few. It was very cool to get to see some of these ethnic minorities at the Ethnic Minorities Park.
The Ethnic Minorities Park or Yunnan Ethnic Villages was probably one of my favorite things that we saw on the whole study trip. The park is very comparable to a theme park. There are over 25 ethnic minorities represented in the park. The park displays their architecture and folklore. We walked around and visited a couple of villages. My favorite village was the Mosuo Village because the Mosuo people were dancing and having a show. We were allowed to go in and dance with them. It was very fun and definitely a highlight of the trip. Each village showcased the diverse, local ethnic culture. They displayed a variety of buildings, lifestyles, and religious beliefs of the various people in Yunnan. It’s a place that I would love to go to again since we only saw about half of the villages. If you ever find yourself in 昆明 you should definitely check out the park.
At the end of the day we had one last group dinner before returning to Beijing (北京). It was a good way to end a great study trip to Yunnan. I learned so much during the trip and was able to do so many things that I never thought I would get a chance to do. I’m so thankful that I was able to go on this trip.
再见
马乐
