Kunming

Kunming has been inhabited for 2000 years. The town was a remote Chinese outpost until the 8th century when the kingdom of Nanzhao captured it and made it a secondary capital. In the 14th century, the Ming Dynasty set up shop, building a walled town in Yunnanfu, as Kunming was then known. The middle of the 19th century saw the intrusion of the West into Kunming from British Burma and French Indochina. In 1910 the French Indochina railway was completed, linking the city with Hanoi. The new train line allowed the French to exploit the region’s copper, tin, and timberresources.Celebrated as the "Spring City," Kunming has neither severe winters nor extremely hot summers and can be visited at any time of the year.