Covering an area of 15,561square
kilometers, Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, is the center of
politics, economy, culture, transportation and communication in the province. Endowed
with many historical relics, Kunming is an international tourist city in the
Southeast Asia as well as the South Asia.
Lying in the central part of Yannan Province, 4 districts, namely Panlong,
Wuhua, Guandu and Xishan; one city, namely Anning City, and
7 counties, namely Chenggong, Jinning, Fumin, Yiliang, Songming, Lunan, and Luquan,
are under direct administration of Kunming. Situated in the north of the
Dianchi Basin, Kunming stands at an altitude of 1,891 meters with an annual
average temperature of 15.1¡æ. The northern part of Kunming is higher than the southern part. It
has 2,400 hours of sunshine and 950mm of precipitation yearly on the average.
Renowned for its perennially pleasant weather, intriguing highland scenes and
sights, and venerated history, Kunming got the sobriquet of the "Spring
City.
Kunming abounds in natural resources. Major
mineral products are phosphorus, salt, iron, titanium, bauxite, silica, among
which, phosphorus, salt and titanium have the largest production. The storage of
phosphorus in Kunming ranks the first of the country. The total reserve of salt
here is more than 10 billion tons. What's more, titanium and bauxite are both
have high reserves here.
Kunming is one of the ten key tourist cities
of China. The most famous scenic spots are the Stone Forest, and the Dianchi
Pool. As one of the birthplaces of the southwest civilization, Kunming has a lot
of historical relics, such as the Grand View Mansion and the Temple of the
Buddha's Warrior Attendants.
In recent years, the rapid growth of the
tourist industry in Kunming made great contribution to the all-round development
of Yunnan Province. The success of the 1999 International Horticultural
Exposition gained Kunming an international fame and made itself a hot spot of
Kunming's tourist industry.
Special industries with Kunming characteristics
have further developed. For example, Kunming has such manufacturing
industries as precision numerical controlled machine tools, jig boring
machines, wires and cables, optical instruments, Yunnan White-Drug-Powder,
Yunnan chess, rice-flour noodles, rose cabbage, and various cakes
and candies. Some of them have been exported to Europe, the USA, Japan, Hong
Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions.