Yunnan drought damage intensifying
The rain and snow that fell across northern Yunnan last week was not nearly enough to relieve the record drought that has left Yunnan with countless water shortages, forest fires, and failed crops. Government projections now have the drought lasting into early summer.

Estimates now stand at almost six million people and 3.6 million livestock in Yunnan lacking normal access to water—including 1.8 million people in the Kunming area alone—along with 2.5 million hectares of cropland affected. The number of people lacking normal access to drinking water could rise to nearly eight million in March without further rain.

The drought is now also affecting shipping traffic on the Mekong River.

After years of Chinese civil engineering projects such as dredging channels and blasting shoals, the upper Mekong River, known in Yunnan as the Lancang River, has become a major freight conduit between China, Laos, and Thailand, carrying oil shipments and other cargo up and down the river.

Reuters is reporting that the river is at half of its usual level for this time of year and China has halted the operation of 21 Chinese boats and stopped issuing border crossing permits to cargo boats seeking to enter China from the south.

Additionally, the drought has hit Yunnan and neighboring Guangxi's sugar farmers hard, leading to a 12 percent decrease in national sugar production for this growing season compared to last year. This development could drive up national prices if China begins to import more sugar.

Kunming apartment rents rising fast
If it seems that your landlord is trying to bleed you dry when you re-sign your lease this year, you might take consolation in the fact that other renters across Kunming are being similarly squeezed.

According to a Xinhua Net article, rental prices for small-sized family dwellings in the downtown area have increased by 10 to 15 percent in recent weeks as a surge of outside workers return to Kunming from Spring Festival vacations and a new crop of college graduates begins to flood the rental market.

The increase comes on the heels of rising prices last year.

Viewing China's stimulus package through Chenggong
A Financial Times article that appeared on Sunday used the example of Kunming's Chenggong new area to examine whether rapid development, China's economic stimulus package, and property speculation have caused a national property bubble.

The article focuses on the breakneck pace of residential construction in Chenggong, which for the moment is home to row upon row of mostly uninhabited apartment blocks and other buildings.

Kunming, however, has a rapidly growing population and very little space remaining around the original city center. With government offices and universities preparing to relocate there, it is difficult to imagine Chenggong remaining a ghost town for long.

Image: Sina News

Kunming's Second Ring Road open to traffic
After one year of demolition and reconstruction, Kunming's second ring road (二环) is now open to test traffic and will officially open to the public on Wednesday.

Local media is gushing about the completion of the ring road, which will serve as the linchpin in the city's "four rings, 17 spokes" traffic plan, in which expansion of the city's traffic system from two ring roads centered around Green Lake Park to four ring roads – the fourth encircling Dianchi Lake – will shift the center of the city's traffic structure southward, coinciding with the development of "New Kunming" in Chenggong.

According to government traffic officials, once on the second ring road, it will be possible for cars to reach destinations including Chenggong, Anning, Jinning, Kunyang, Haikou, and Songming. Travel time from to Yiliang, Luquan, Shilin and Xundian will be reduced to one hour.

Dali – Lijiang rail line open to public tomorrow
Beginning tomorrow, the new Dali-Lijiang rail line (大丽铁路) will officially open to the public, linking the two popular tourist destinations by rail for the first time.

The Dali-Lijiang passenger line will operate daily, with hard seats on the L9016/7 (Dali to Lijiang) and the L9018/5 (Lijiang to Dali) costing 34 yuan. Total time for the journey is approximately three hours and 45 minutes.

The L9016/7 Leaves Dali at 9:26 am, stops for two minutes at Shangguan at 10:51 and arrives at Lijiang at 1:12 pm. The L9018/5 leaves Lijiang East Station at 1:45 pm, stops in Shangguan for two minutes at 3:59 pm and arrives in Dali at 5:26 pm.

Southwest China's first IMAX theater to open in Kunming
At the end of this month Kunming will become the first city in Southwest China with an IMAX Theater, according to government-run BBS clzg.cn.

The theater, which features a 12 meters high by 21 meters wide screen, is located in the new Shuncheng Shopping Center on Dongfeng Xi Lu. The shopping center, which will also be home to retail outlets including Zara and Papa John's, is built on the old Shuncheng Muslim quarter, which prior to its demolition in 2004 was a dilapidated but vibrant neighborhood filled with Hui and Uighur restaurants.

Image: news.kunming.cn

Despite construction work having already begun, it is now official: Kunming will soon have its own urban light rail network.

The city's light rail system was approved by the State Council in Beijing on June 8th of this year and construction is formally set to begin in August, although China Railway Construction Construction signs have been surrounding construction sites around Kunming for the last several weeks and some work is already underway.

According to city planning officials, Kunming's light rail network will consist of a total of six lines made up of three main lines (lines one through three) and three auxiliary lines (four through six). The three main lines will combine to cover 62.6 kilometers, serving a total of 47 stations. All told, the six lines will cover 162.6 kilometers.

The first phase of construction, which will include lines one and two, is scheduled for completion at the end of 2012.

Here's a rough summary of the different lines:

One: will span 34 kilometers, connecting downtown Kunming with Chenggong new city

Two: will connect north and south Kunming.

Three: will connect east and west Kunming primarily via Dongfeng Lu and Renmin Lu

Four and Five: will serve as feeder lines for the main lines

Six: will connect Kunming's new airport, currently under construction, with the city

In addition to relieving pressure on Kunming's notoriously inefficient road network, the subway and elevated rail stations are expected to have a positive effect on nearby residential and commercial property values.

Kunming's South Railway Station has long been the city's most important passenger train station, but its days appear to be numbered with the announcement of plans to build a new south station – in Chenggong.

In addition to becoming the new passenger rail station for Kunming, the new south station in Chenggong (呈贡) will also be connected to the urban railway network that is already under construction. In addition it will serve as the main hub for long-distance bus services in and out of the city.

Times are changing for both Kunming and Chenggong, with most municipal offices and major universities in Kunming moving to new facilities in Chenggong by the end of this year. Chenggong is also being built up into a logistics hub aimed at facilitating rail transport between China and Southeast Asian countries.

As with Kunming's new airport – also currently under construction – the new south rail station in Chenggong may also include involvement with foreign companies. According to officials in the Kunming municipal government, companies from France and the US as well as domestic Chinese companies have been involved in bidding for the project.

The Chenggong station may also end up becoming Kunming's second transport link to Taiwan, after the recent launch of direct flights to Taipei. Speaking at the National People's Congress earlier this month, Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun said Beijing is "actively planning" a cross-strait rail line connecting mainland China with Taiwan.

The planned rail link between the mainland and Taiwan will be centered in coastal Fujian province and will reportedly include a line connecting Beijing and Taipei. According to officials cited in Chinese media reports, the cross-strait rail network may be expanded to include Hefei, capital of Anhui province in eastern China, as well as Kunming.

Concrete details on how Taiwan would be linked to mainland China via rail have not been released, but it is thought by some that a combination of underwater tunnels and island hopping across the Taiwan Strait is possible.

On August 3, the Kunming government released a comprehensive development plan for the city over the next 12 years.

In the course of the next dozen years, three core areas will be built up:

1. The main urban area (主城), consisting of the Guandu, Panlong, Wuhua and Xishan urban districts;

2. Chenggong new city (呈贡新城), located approximately 25 kilometers southeast of the main urban area;

3. The new airport economic zone (空港经济区), which will be northeast of the main urban area.

Kunming will expand primarily to the northeast and southeast, with this phase of growth supported by the construction of the city's first urban rail network.

Road connectivity between the main urban area and outlying towns including Haikou, Kunyang and Jinning will be upgraded to create a transportation network that encircles Dianchi Lake.

Within the main urban area, an 'urban ecological control belt' (城市生态控制带) will be established, consisting of Xishan and Dianchi National Scenic Area. Outside of the city, the Qiaozi Snow Mountain scenic area, Xundian Red Tourism Scenic Area, Jiuxiang National Scenic Area, Stone Forest National Scenic Area, Yangzonghai Tourism and Holiday area and other tourist areas within Kunming municipality will be administered as 'urban ecological scenic controlled areas' (城市生态景观控制区).

Five 'functional zones' within the main urban area will be created, with the area within the second ring road as the center of four other areas to the north, east, south and west. This is what the city plans for each zone:

Center: Public services infrastructure and green space coverage will be improved and population density reduced.

North: Heavily polluting industrial operations will be gradually moved out.

West: Heavily polluting industrial operations will be gradually moved out.

South: With the pending retirement of Kunming Wujiaba International Airport, the area currently occupied by the airport will be redeveloped for urban use. The airport land plus the nearby exhibition halls and Baohai Park will serve as a secondary city center.

At the same time, Dianchi National Scenic Area, Caohai Ecological Park and Daguan Park will be built up into a sports, leisure and tourism area. There will also be extensive residential space in the area, as well as many municipal administrative offices and traffic infrastructure leading out of Kunming.

East: The layout and composition of the Kunming Economic Development Zone will be optimized so that it serves as a more streamlined industrial hub.

Its streets increasingly choked with traffic, its buses full and urban sprawl pushing development southward, Kunming is preparing to start construction on its first urban rail line, perhaps before the end of the year, according to local media reports citing Kunming Municipal Traffic Research Institute Director Lin Wei.

According to Lin, the Kunming Municipal High-Speed Rail Transportation Network Plan has already been completed. The plan includes a total of six high-speed rail lines covering a total of 162 kilometers (100 miles).

Pending governmental approval, it is hoped that phase one of the project will begin before the end of this year. The first phase of the network, Line 1, will connect downtown Kunming with the university campuses in the south of Chenggong, a county that is technically part of Kunming Municipality.

Shortly after approval is obtained and construction begins on Line 1, work is expected to begin on Line 2, which will connect Kunming's northern suburbs with the northern shore of Dianchi Lake. The two areas boast some of the city's highest concentrations of wealth with the north shore of Dianchi to become more economically dynamic via developer Shui On Land's Caohai Urban North Shore project, which is expected to cover 87 hectares and feature commercial and residential space as well as museums, theaters, an amphitheater and an "artist's community".

Other proposed lines include:

Line 3: Ma Jie (west Kunming) to Liangmian Temple (east Kunming)

Line 4: High-tech Park (northwest Kunming) through downtown Kunming and Kunming ETDZ to Chenggong New Area Bailongtan

Line 5: World Horticultural Expo Gardens (northeastern Kunming) through downtown Kunming to Dianchi Holiday Area (southwestern Kunming)

Line 6: Downtown Kunming to New Airport

Construction of Line 1 is expected to cost as much as 32 billion yuan (US$4.5 billion), with each kilometer of above-ground light rail costing around 250 million yuan and each kilometer of underground subway expected to cost between 400 million and 800 million yuan. According to Lin Wei, all rail lines within Erhuan Lu – Kunming's second ring road – will be underground.

No time schedules were provided for completion of the lines and no companies were mentioned with regards to supplying or building the network.

Shanghai subway image: New York Times

Like many Chinese cities, Kunming's education sector is booming. Major universities are building massive new campuses in nearby Chenggong, English schools are heaving with students and a growing number of foreigners are coming to the city to study Chinese. If provincial education officials have their way, some of China's top universities will also reestablish a presence in Kunming, a city they fled to during World War II.

At Monday's meeting in Beijing of the National People's Congress, Yunnan's provincial education minister Luo Chongmin (罗崇敏) proposed the revival of National Southwestern Associated University (国立西南联合大学), a short-lived university that was comprised of staff and students from north China's top schools who fled China's war-ravaged east after open hostilities broke out between China and Japan in 1937.

The university was located on what today is the campus of Yunnan Normal University on Yieryi Dajie. There are several statues and a small pavilion commemorating the wartime university on the Yunnan Normal campus today (see image above).

This influx of professors and students from Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing and Nankai University in Tianjin had a profound effect upon Kunming's development as a city. After the war, the schools packed up and headed back to Beijing and Tianjin, but many of the intellectuals and other refugees that had come to Kunming had grown fond of the city and Yunnan and decided to stay.

This population from the north that adopted Kunming as their new home had a major demographic influence on the city – despite being one of China's southernmost cities, Kunming's local dialect is generally considered to be a 'northern' dialect.

Luo proposed on Monday that the new incarnation of National Southwestern Associated University be a collaborative effort between Tsinghua, Peking University, Nankai and Yunnan Normal University. Combining the educational resources of the four schools under preferential government policies would contribute greatly to the development of both Kunming and Yunnan, he argued. So far there has been no official response from the universities or any government organs.

Government meetings in China are not renowned for being interesting or dynamic. Often a meeting will consist of hours of officials reading pre-scripted speeches as other officials drink tea, smoke cigarettes and try to look interested.

Last week an investment official from Chenggong County – just south of Kunming on the eastern shores of Dianchi Lake – resigned from his post after being caught napping at a meeting attended by Qiu He (仇和), Kunming's top Communist Party official, according to Chinese media reports.

Chenggong is being built up as a new center of development and investment for Kunming and is expected to become one of southwestern China's most important logistics hubs as it will serve much of the booming trade between China and Southeast Asia.

Jiang Wenhui (蒋文辉), deputy director of Chenggong's Investment Promotion Bureau, resigned on Friday after being called out for sleeping in the front row by Qiu during a meeting on Wednesday. The outspoken Qiu reportedly woke Jiang up and criticized him thoroughly before the meeting's other attendees.

Not surprisingly, many Chinese netizens have criticized Jiang's inability to stay awake on the job. What is surprising is the amount of support for Jiang that has appeared in Chinese forums and elsewhere on the web. Many participants in forums and bulletin boards have defended Jiang with the argument that little of value is said during such meetings.

Xinhua quoted one commenter as saying "Speakers at many meetings just say big and empty words. It is no wonder that listeners sleep."