Yunnan Fast Fact

Situated on a plateau in the Southwest of China, Yunnan is the eighth largest province in China. It has an area of 394,000 square kilometers (152,000 square miles) with a total population of more than 41 million people. Yunnan borders on Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhang Ethnic Minority Autonomous Region to the east, Chongqing and Sichuan to the north, Tibet Autonomous Region to the northwest, Myanmar to the west, Laos and Vietnam to the south. It is a frontier land with vast area of mountains and abundant rivers. The mountainous area has created beautiful scenery, while the river basin area has nourished generations of civilization.

Yunnan is well known for its magnificent natural scenery and colorful ethnic culture. Formed with the rising of the Himalayas from the ancient sea, Yunnan has very complex topography. The terrain descends like a ladder from north to south with the highest point about 6,740 meters (4.2 miles) in the north and the lowest place about 76.4 meters (83.5 yards) in the south. The eastern section of Yunnan is the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau with an average elevation of 2,000 meters (1.2 miles) and many small lakes, while western section of Yunnan is filled with mountains, rivers, and valleys. The complexity of the topography also results in the sharp difference of the climate throughout Yunnan. As a result, Yunnan has developed a widely diverse agricultural industry. The abundant water resources in basin river areas have fostered human civilization for many different people. . It also provided links to the other part of China, and the other Asian countries.