The results are in for the annual ranking of China's top universities by 21st Century HR Report (21世纪人才报) and once again Yunnan's top universities lag behind much of the rest of the country.

For the third year in a row, Beijing's Peking University topped the list, followed by Tsinghua University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai. The top five were rounded out by Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Yunnan, China's ninth-largest province in terms of population, only had two universities make the top 100 this year. Yunnan University slipped two places from its 2009 ranking to number 64 this year and Kunming University of Science and Technology barely made it in at the 100 spot.

Compared to its neighbors in southwest China, Yunnan fared better than Guizhou and Guangxi, who had one university each, with Guizhou University placing 89th and Guangxi University 95th.

Sichuan and Chongqing had much stronger showings, with Sichuan University ranking 12th and Chongqing University 31st. Sichuan was represented by an additional three universities in the top 100 and Chongqing's Southwest University ranked 50th.

The comparatively high quality of university graduates in both Chengdu and Chongqing is one of the main reasons that the two cities have eclipsed the rest of southwest Chinese cities in the race for domestic and foreign investment.

Yunnan University Party Secretary Liu Shaohuai (刘绍怀) told local media that slight ranking fluctuations were a normal phenomenon.

Liu said that one organization's rankings shouldn't be the basis for assessing an academic institution, adding that Yunnan University would do everything it can to be in the top 50 within a decade.

A woman in Chengdu's Jinniu district set herself on fire last month in protest the demolition of her house. ChinaSMACK has the story and netizen reactions, and China Geeks gives more details about this sad case.

Find out all you ever wanted to know (and a little more) about the life of a migrant worker and his workmates in Hainan in this post translated by China Hush.

What are the vital ingredients for a successful Chinese pop song? Albert at Laowai Chinese reckons he has the answer: by stuffing in as many cliched words as you can.

As if Chongqing's skyline needs more madness, Shanghaiist has some pictures and news of a new wobbly skyscraper to be built in Sichuan's neighboring city by MAD Architecture.

If stories about China leading the way in all things green and environmentally friendly has you raising an eyebrow, you're not alone. Adam Minter on Shanghai Scrap also takes a skeptical view in this post on controlling pollution and carbon emissions in China.

China is set to experience a total solar eclipse (日全食) tomorrow morning. The shadow cast by the Moon will track across China from West to East, allowing viewers in Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang to observe totality. This total eclipse has the longest duration of any in the 21st century, and is likely to be the one observable by the most people.

To see the total eclipse in Yunnan, you'll need to be North of Diqing, near to Yunnan's border with Tibet or Sichuan. Viewers there can expect around four and a half minutes of totality, starting at around 9am Beijing time. In downtown Kunming, there'll be no total eclipse, but the partial eclipse (日偏食) will reach around 85% obscuration at around 9:08am.

For lots of eclipse data, take a look here. If you're reading from Sichuan, check out Jane's great post on GoChengdoo.

Kunming explorer finishes Sahara expedition
Kunming native and famous Chinese explorer/adventurer Jin Feibao completed his crossing of Africa's Sahara Desert last week.

Jin and geologist Fei Xuan spent 80 days crossing the desert by various modes of transportation from Ghana's Atlantic coast to Cairo on the Red Sea in an expedition that aimed to raise China's exploration credentials and study the effects of desertification.

During the course of their travels, Jin and Fei fell out of contact with their Kunming operations base, with Xinhua erroneously reporting that the two had disappeared and may have been abducted by "terrorists".

Visa problems became an issue when the two travelers were briefly arrested in Algeria for overstaying their visas while waiting for Egyptian visas after getting denied Libyan visas. Jin and Fei had to fly from Algiers to Beijing to Cairo, skipping Libya and thus being unable to traverse the Sahara without interruption.

The Yunnan Provincial Museum will hold an exhibition of Jin's photos from his Sahara expedition from July 8 through 13. A preview of some of the photos can be found on Jin's English-language blog.

Kunming rail station a 'drug control frontier'
As expected, recent upgrades in transport connectivity with Southeast Asia have helped boost Yunnan's foreign trade and regional influence. Also not surprisingly, it has led to increased inflows of illegal drugs.

The Kunming railway station has become a major jumpoff point for illegal drugs from Southeast Asia to make their way to other parts of China, so much so that China's Ministry of Railways is calling the station a "drug control frontier" according to a Xinhua report.

In the first five months of this year, police at Kunming's train station confiscated 31 kilograms of illegal drugs connected to 242 criminal cases in which 283 individuals were detained.

Pepsi to open 'green' plant in Kunming
PepsiCo Inc announced last Friday that it will build a 'green' bottling plant in Kunming and four other cities in China in the coming two years, according to a Reuters report.

The announcement comes after the world's second-largest soft drink producer announced the opening of a new facility in Chongqing that satisfies the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, which employ water- and energy-saving systems.

In addition to a plant in Kunming – where rival Coca-Cola Co already has a bottling facility – PepsiCo said it will open plants in the cities of Zhengzhou, Quanzhou, Lanzhou and Nanchang.

Jin Feibao image: jinfeibao8844.com

Local party paper Kunming Daily is trumpeting the record amount of passenger traffic in the skies of Yunnan – the province's 12 airports now serve a total of 237 routes.

Breaking down the numbers a bit, Yunnan serves 204 domestic passenger air routes and 33 international routes. In terms of international flights, Kunming is connected to Southeast Asian destinations by 21 routes and South Asia by five routes.

This year Yunnan's airports, especially Kunming's, have been busy adding new passenger routes, in the first half of the year the following routes have been launched:

• Kunming-Yancheng-Harbin (China Eastern Airlines)
• Kunming-Tengchong (China Eastern)
• Kunming-Taipei (EVA Air)
• Kunming-Chongqing-Wuxi (China Eastern)
• Kunming-Chengdu-Kangding (China Eastern)

In addition to the above stable routes, the following temporary routes were launched earlier this year:

• Kunming-Chengdu-Beirut (China Eastern)
• Kunming-Phnom Penh-Nanning (China Eastern)

China Eastern is also preparing to launch direct passenger services between Kunming and Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, on July 17.

China's growing wealthy class has emerged as an important – and highly competitive - market for alcohol producers from around the world. These companies employ a variety of marketing tactics from 'beer girls' in branded miniskirts to interactive performances. Aspiring American rapper Eli Sweet just completed a stint performing as Captain Morgan in bars, clubs and KTVs around Yunnan, Sichuan and Chongqing. GoKunming chatted with Sweet to find out what it's like at the frontlines of booze marketing in southwest China.

GoKunming: How long did you work as Captain Morgan?
Eli Sweet: About six months in total. The first four were all in Kunming, The last two were split between Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, and Xichang. I think the ultimate goal was to move to a national launch, but those plans were put on hold due to economic factors.

GK: What did a typical night of work as the Captain involve?
ES: Well, we did a branded event called KTA- Keys to Adventure- and basically, it involves a sampling display manned by the Morganettes, and then, at about 11pm, a rousing visit by the Captain himself. When the Captain gets to the venue, they play the Captain's theme song, and he storms into the venue with his treasure chest, flanked on both sides by the Morganettes.

We all get on stage, and do a little dance, which is basically a ripoff of the Macarena. After the dance, the Captain gets on the mic and says a few things to hype up the crowd. Then one of the Morganettes takes the mic and explains how the Captain gets down- "he is going to go around to your table - especially if you have purchased a bottle of our Captain Morgans Private Stock - and play a game of rock, paper, scissors with you. If you beat the Captain, he will give you a key to his treasure chests, which you can go and open to receive a SPECIAL prize!"

Inside the chest there are hats and bandannas, eyepatches and fake mustaches. Part of the genius of the event is that by making people work to earn the prize- by beating the captain in rock paper scissors- it makes them appreciate the prize more, even though its ultimately a piece of crap that we are desperate to give them in the first place.

After I have made the rounds in the club for 30 to 45 minutes then I get back up on stage and invite people to come dance with me, or to have a drink. If the stage is big enough, then we pull people up there and do a limbo game, which is fun and can be a bit dangerous.

At one venue there was a stage surrounded by a bar, with a gap in between the stage and the bar for the bartenders to move around in, and when we invited people up to the stage for the limbo game, they would all step over the bar, thinking that they were going to land on the stage, and fall right into the gap, which was about four feet deep from the bar. And it happened with like eight people in a row. Each person gets up on the bar from a speaker, they're smiling at their friends, were yelling at them, watch out watch out, they step forward, then bam! They fall right into the gap, or they slam their shin on the edge of the stage. It was like lemmings.

GK: How are Chinese clubs and bars different from their Western counterparts?
ES: In the US, you can just go in and buy one drink. In Chinese clubs you usually have to buy a whole bottle, or a whole box of beers. That means you usually have to go with a group of friends, whereas in the states it's a lot easier to just go by yourself. Another way they differ is that all Chinese venues have an exclusive distribution contract with one liquor provider, whereas that is not the case in the states. So if you are at a Chivas club in China, you will never see J & B for sale, or vice versa.

The politics of the exclusive distribution rights means that the club owners have a lot of leverage over the foreign liquor companies that are competing for a share of the imported spirit market in China. Foreign spirits only comprise 5% of all spirits consumed in China. Basically Chinese people just drink baijiu. The only place that imported spirits have a significant presence is in the club.

GK: Why do you think drinking games are so popular in Chinese clubs and bars?
ES: Well part of it may be related to China's drinking culture and people feeling obligated to drink with people- especially higher status people- who offer them a drink, but I think mostly people just like to get drunk. Another reason could be that you usually can't hear shit in those clubs, so carrying on a real conversation is out of the question.

GK: What city have you found to be the wildest in terms of nightlife?
ES: Of the ones I've worked in, the nightlife doesn't differ very dramatically.

GK: What's the wackiest thing you saw during your months as the Captain?
ES: I know this might sound strange, but nothing amazing ever happened. It was just a big routine. Dance, drink, plaster a smile on your face, and before I know it I'm back at my house drenched in sweat smelling like club smoke... I mean, things happened. People got drunk and harassed me, tried to pull my wig off. People threw up and burned me with cigarettes and sprayed snow foam in my face on Christmas. They tried to kiss me, and grabbed my junk, and spilled shit on me. But I never saw government officials snorting ketamine with a bunch of hookers in the back of Soho.

GK: What life skills do you feel you have acquired through this gig?
ES: Patience. Rock, paper, scissoring ability. Limbo skills! I am a much better limbo-er than my girth would suggest.

GK: With the recent upsurge of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean do you think now is the time for pirate hiphop?
ES: Well yes I am a rapper first, and I pirate second, but as far as combining the piracy and hiphop, Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew have beaten me to it.

GK: What advice would you give kids who want to do your job?
ES: Listen to the This American Life radio show episode called Plan B. It has a story about a person who worked for Cuervo as a "party catalyst," and his story is very similar to mine. And don't be afraid to take trivial things seriously.

When I started the gig I was trained by the international Captain, who is the man at the top of a pyramid of literally hundreds of Captain Morgan actors all over the world, and we were sipping cappuccinos in the lobby of the nicest hotel in Kunming talking about whether or not it would be appropriate for the Captain to say "Arrgh." I presumed it would be too cliché, but he did not rule it out.

Eli Sweet's blog about being a rum-slinging pirate can be found at elisweetisapirate.blogspot.com, samples of his music are available at reverbnation.

The 16th annual Kunming International Import and Export Commodities Fair - aka the Kunming Fair (昆交会) - will take place again this year at the Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center (昆明国际会展中心) from June 6 to June 10.

The Kunming Fair is a regional trade fair jointly sponsored by the governments of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Tibet, Chongqing and Chengdu. Last year's Kunming Fair saw 162 companies exhibit their products and more than US$158.5 million in completed deals over five days. The total reported value of contracts and agreements signed at the event exceeded 68.1 billion yuan (US$8.9 billion).

According to Kunming media reports, this year China's Ministry of Commerce will participate in hosting the fair for the first time with the stated goal of increasing the scale and quality of the fair.

Yunnan Commerce Bureau Director Sun Xiaohong (孙小虹) said this year the fair will feature 2,318 exhibits, adding that 2,148 exhibitors were already confirmed for the event. Sun said that exhibits by Burmese and Sichuanese enterprises will be slightly fewer in number than last year due to the recent Myanmar cyclone and Wenchuan earthquake, respectively.

Under orders from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the Kunming Fair will include a "Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Corridor Forum" (GMS经济走廊论坛) for the first time. The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) includes Yunnan Province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

For the third consecutive year the fair will also feature a 'China-South Asia Commerce Forum',(中国-南亚商务论坛) as well as the clumsily named 'ASEAN Chinese Business Investment Southwest Promotion Meeting and Asia-Pacific Chinese Business Forum' (东盟华商投资西南项目推介会 暨亚太华商论坛).

A preview of some of the products on offer can be found on the fair's official website. The website also features other information of less obvious value, including 'Britney Spears loses custody of children', 'Goal-driven achievers less prone to Alzheimers' and 'Abdul says she's straight up ready for a baby'.

The Kunming Fair runs from Friday, June 6 through Tuesday, June 10 from 8 am to 6 pm. GoKunming called the fair's office, which told us the admission fee had yet to be announced (last year tickets to the fair cost 30 yuan/day). For more information, call the fair at (0871) 6269886 or 3155519.

Image:

finance.sina.com

Related articles:

Yunnan-ASEAN trade continues to boom

Kunming hosting Asia-Pacific trade meeting

Kunming Fair breaks US$150 million mark

GMS agreement to facilitate regional transport

Today 243 people injured in last week's Wenchuan earthquake arrived in Kunming for medical treatment. As Sichuan's medical infrastructure feels the strain of tens of thousands of dead and hundreds of thousands of injured, the Chinese government is shifting 8,000 injured out of Sichuan to Chongqing, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Guangdong and Yunnan.

It is the largest shifting of injured since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 that killed a quarter of a million people.

Hospitals including Stone Forest Tianqi Hospital are preparing entire floors of beds for quake victims. The hospital said it had been preparing more than 200 beds taking up three floors since Monday.

Located on Sichuan's southern border and home to a large Sichuanese population, Yunnan has made significant contributions to the relief effort.

According to Kunming media, as of 2:00 pm on Wednesday the entire province had donated nearly 370 million yuan (US$53 million) in goods and more than 338 million yuan in cash to the cause. Yunnan schools are also accepting children from Sichuan whose schools were destroyed or damaged in the 8.0 magnitude quake.

Image: clzg.cn

Related article:

Earthquake benefit raises more than 10,000 yuan