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Kunming
Found in southwest China, Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province. Because of its year-round temperate climate, Kunming is often called the "Spring City" or "City of Eternal Spring". Centered on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Kunming is located at an altitude of 1,900 m above sea level and at a latitude just north of the Tropic of Cancer.
Historically the domain of Yunnan's earliest inhabitants and first civilization, Kunming long profited from its position on the caravan roads through to South-East Asia, India and Tibet. The Han Dynasty, seeking control over the Southern Silk Road running to Burma and India, brought much of Yunnan into China's orbit, though subsequent dynasties could do little to tame what was then a remote and wild borderland. The Mongol invasion reached southwest China in 1276, and founded the area Kunming County , becaming the provincial capital of Yunnan for the first time. Mongolian influence can still be seen today at the Bamboo temple.
Kunming was transformed into a modern city as a result of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. When the Japanese occupied French Indochina, the links of Kunming with the west, both via the newly constructed Burma Road and by air. Later on in the war, Kunming was targeted by the Imperial Japanese Air Force during their bombing campaigns, and when the Burma Road was lost to the Japanese, the American Volunteer Group, known as the "Flying Tigers", used Kunming as a base in 1941 and 1942 to fly in supplies over the Himalayas from British bases in India. The road from Kuning to Dali still follows the original Burma Road.
Today Kunming is the leading transportation hub in SW China, with a rail connection to Vietnam and road links to Burma and Laos. Kunming currently has a new international airport under development, which is slated to be the fourth largest international airport in China. To get to the spectacular scenery of Yunnan one must pass through Kunming.
From 2005 to 2010, the city of Kunming plans to nearly double in size, in terms of both population (to eight million people) and area, and it hopes to be one of the trade, transport, financial and cultural centers of Southeast Asia. Kunming's transport links around Asia are steadily expanding, with direct routes already existing to all major Chinese cities, most major Southeast Asian cities and some major cities in Japan and South Korea.
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