Kunming and much of the rest of Yunnan have been enjoying idyllic cloudless days for most of the last five months, but the azure skies have concealed an increasingly dire issue: Yunnan is running out of water.

In November of last year, Kunming officials were asserting that should Kunming not receive any precipitation this winter, there would still be enough water in the city's reservoirs to provide the city with water until late spring 2010.

Fast-forward to today, and the government's no-need-to-worry tone has given way to grim statistics that underscore the severity of the current drought, the worst the province has seen in 60 years.

What's the damage looking like at this point? Nearly five million people are having difficulty accessing drinking water, forest fires are up 600 percent and hydropower generation has been halved. Estimates of drought-related agricultural losses are currently at 6.5 billion yuan (US$952 million).

Aside from Kunming, areas suffering most from the drought include Lincang, Pu'er, Jianshui, Yuxi, Chuxiong, Dali and Baoshan, where 300,000 people lack access to enough drinking water. The drought is also causing water prices to skyrocket. In Wenshan one cubic meter of drinking water is reportedly selling for as much as 100 yuan.

In some of Yunnan's more remote areas, villagers have to walk to other villages and towns up to 20 kilometers away in order to buy water at high prices, then carry the water home on their backs.

The provincial government has set aside 389 million yuan for drought relief, which will be allocated for distributing drinking water to the areas most in need and irrigating more than 700,000 of the 2 million hectares of crops affected by the drought.

Officials estimate that more than 500,000 hectares of crops have already been destroyed by lack of water. Yunnan is also expected to produce 40 percent less grain during this summer's growing season. Farmers are also struggling to provide water for 3.3 million large livestock.

To make matters worse, the drought is fueling an increase in forest fires before the rainy season begins in late spring. Firefighters around the province have battled about 59 blazes in the past five weeks, according to Xinhua Net, though most have been small enough to have been successfully extinguished in one day. There is now a jumbo helicopter stationed at Kunming Wujiaba International airport to assist in firefighting.

Several fires have burned in the areas around Kunming recently, including on Qipan Mountain to the west, forests near Shuanglong in the northeast, and Changchong Mountain in the north.

We followed up our recent bicycle trip to Chongchang Mountain with a visit to survey the fire damage over the weekend. Though the mountain retains its verdant, forested slopes and panoramic views of Kunming, it has lost some of its charm: the summit is a mass of rock and black charred grass and smells strongly of smoke.

The timing for the drought conditions couldn't be much worse, as Chinese New Year approaches and people around the province stock up on fireworks to set off in celebration of spring's arrival. In light of the drought and superdry conditions, the Kunming municipal government has shortened the 25-day fireworks sales season to 12 days, with sales ending February 19.

Update: Fireworks sales are now banned after February 16.

Crop image: CCTV

Government-funded gay bar in Dali finally opens
A "gay bar" in Dali that was funded with local government money finally opened after a three week delay, opening its doors on Sunday to a few dozen visitors who were given free condoms and advice on how to practice safe sex.

The bar, which does not sell alcoholic beverages, is run by the Dali HIV/AIDS prevention and health association, which received 120,000 yuan (US$17,600) in local government funds to address the local HIV/AIDS problem.

The bar was originally scheduled to open on December 1, World AIDS Day, but local volunteers working at the bar did not show up for the opening out of fear of the media attention – both local and international – that the bar had attracted.

Kunming police attempt to dispel detainee death doubts
Kunming police have gone on a public relations offensive in recent days, trying to explain the mysterious death of detainee Xing Kun (邢鲲), who died – allegedly by hanging himself with a bootlace – in an interrogation room on December 12.

Reaction to the police explanation of Xing's death across the Chinese internet has been skeptical. Kunming police say Xing hanged himself with a bootlace out of sight of the room's surveillance camera after using a banknote to unlock his handcuffs.

According to police assertions made in a QQ report bootlaces can support up to 75 kilograms of weight and the handcuffs used by Kunming police can be picked with paper bills.

Kunyang child dead, police say he hanged himself
A 12-year-old boy died in a school dormitory in Kunming's Kunyang County on Wednesday, with local police claiming that he hung himself with a scarf, according to a report on en.kunming.cn.

At Fengzong Primary School, more than 30 classmates of the boy, Yu Qin (余勤), have been moved out of the dormitory where Yu died and are now sleeping in a classroom. Four female teachers have reportedly been moved into the school's girls dormitory.

Today is opening day for a government-funded "gay bar" in Dali whose stated goal is to create a "common room for partner education" for the local gay community in one of the areas of China with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates.

The 120,000 yuan (US$17,576) bar, located in Dali's old town, is managed by the NGO The Good Friend Center, according to a Global Times story.

Reaction across the Chinese Internet has ranged from praise to condemnation, to suspicion that the local government did the project to attract funds from international NGOs. Some commentators have said that the high-profile location is bound to doom the project due to the lingering stigma attached to homosexuality in China.

For the last three years, the main meeting area for homosexual men in the area had been in a wooded area just outside Dali's city wall, Kunming Information Hub reports.

On November 24, Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu said that homosexual sex accounted for 32 percent of the HIV/AIDS infections in China, adding that that proportion was likely to grow.

Government estimates put the current number of HIV/AIDS infections in China at about 650,000, while some epidemiologists say the number is more likely around 1.5 million. The Dali Health Bureau estimates there are 1,500 to 2,000 HIV-positive gay men in Dali.

The Bureau said the new bar it has funded will employ gay volunteers to attract customers.

Zhang Jianbo (张建波), the non-gay manager of the "bar", said that the bar was going to be less about the drinks and more about education and prevention.

"We might not even sell beverages in the bar. We will turn the bar into a tribune to offer lectures and training to gay people in order to reduce AIDS infections among them," he told the Beijing News.

Official data states that Yunnan province is home to more HIV/AIDS infections than any other administrative region in China. In addition to gay sex, unprotected sex among heterosexuals – especially involving prosititution – and intravenous drug use are major contributors to the number of transmissions each year.

Last year, a Tsinghua University study focused on the spread of HIV in Yunnan announced that in general intravenous drug users were being surpassed by women and gay men as the fastest growing HIV-positive gender demographics.

The Tsinghua report added that the virus' transmission rate among ethnic Han Chinese was quickening its pace, whereas in previous years it had been predominantly concentrated in ethnic minority populations.

Update I: Chinese news site ccvic.com is reporting that the Dali gay bar has already been closed down by local officials.

Update II: Zhang has been quoted in the People's Daily as saying the bar's opening was delayed due to public pressure.

"The bar will open, but maybe later. We are under a lot of pressure now and should eliminate the negative effect first. The other reason about the bar's delay is the over exposure of the bar which makes gay people afraid to come in," he said.

An American environmental activist evading the United States government was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday in Dali for manufacturing drugs, according to a New York Times report.

Former New Jersey resident Justin Franchi Solondz, 30, who had been living in Dali under the name Isaac Cox, was arrested in Dali in March of this year with illegal drugs and faked Canadian identification, the Times reported his parents as saying.

According to Solondz's father, police found more than 30 pounds of marijuana at the apartment he rented in Dali, where it was buried in the courtyard. The prosecutor for the case characterized the inside of the younger Solondz's home as a "drug laboratory", he said.

When finally brought before a court for trial in October, Solondz pleaded guilty to the drug charges he faced and requested deportation back to the US, which he was denied.

After finishing his Chinese prison sentence, Solondz will be deported to the United States where he awaits his arson-related charges.

On the other side of the Pacific, Solondz is on the FBI's wanted list for conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building, arson of property used in interstate commerce, use and carrying of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence and making unregistered destructive devices.

The FBI accuses Solondz of being involved with a splinter group of the Earth Liberation Front, a decentralized environmental activist group which the US government declared the top domestic terrorist threat in early 2001. He was indicted in absentia in 2006 for his alleged involvement in a three-state arson spree in the American west in 2005.

It is widely believed that the Chinese and American governments met regarding the case and that Solondz received a relatively mild sentence as a result of US diplomacy. In October of this year, UK citizen Akmal Shaikh was sentenced to death for dealing drugs in Xinjiang in northwestern China.

While standing before judges at the intermediate court in Dali, Solondz praised Dali as a "paradise" and apologized to the people of China for his actions.

Justin Solondz 2002 photo: FBI via New York Times

Southwest China rail network to be upgraded
Rail lines linking Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Chongqing will be upgraded "at an early date" according to Yan Hexiang, deputy director of the Ministry of Railways' development planning department.

The ministry plans on adding more than 50,000 kilometers of new rail lines to China's less-developed west by 2020. Lines slated for improvement include the Kunming-Nanning, Chengdu-Guiyang, and Chongqing-Guiyang lines. China's west consists of more than 70 percent of the country's land area and is home to 370 million people.

Myanmar to build rail link to Yunnan
Myanmar will build a railroad connecting the border town of Muse with Yunnan's Jieguo, located near Ruili, according to Chinese media reports. The rail line is expected to boost the already flourishing trade between Myanmar and Yunnan, which is currently conducted with cars and trucks.

Since 1998, Myanmar has established five border trade areas with China, including Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti. The country is planning on adding a sixth in the Kokang region, where in August of this year the Myanmar army overran an ethnic Chinese militia, sending thousands of refugees into Yunnan.

The border trade area at Muse primarily sends agricultural products, seafood, timber and gems into Yunnan, with steel, construction materials, computers, farm machinery and other finished products flowing in from China.

Carbon credits helping Yunnan build wind power infrastructure
Yunnan is using the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to rapidly build up its wind power network with foreign investment, according to an AFP report. The CDM allows industrialized nations to fulfill some greenhouse gas reduction requirements by investing in clean energy technologies in developing nations.

The Zhemoshan wind farm in Dali – located at an altitude of 3,000 meters – is the highest wind farm in China. Carbon credits produced by the project, which has been funded by a US$45 million loan from the French Development Agency, will be purchased by Dutch bank Rabobank, according to a representative from Sinohydro, the Chinese company which manages the farm.

It is hoped that the Dali wind farm and others in Yunnan will make up for the winter dropoff in hydroelectric power generation by the province's extensive network of dams.

China has gone from little installed wind generation capacity five years ago to 12.2 gigawatts of installed capacity last year, making it the world's fourth-largest wind power producer, behind only the US, Germany and Spain.

Dali hit by 5.0 magnitude earthquake
At 5:07 this morning Binchuan County in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture was shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale. No injuries have been reported so far, but most homes in the area are suffering from severe cracking and many homes have collapsed.

Kunming hostage crisis resolved
Kunming police were busy early on Sunday morning when a man held a young woman hostage at a Citic Bank ATM on Beijing Lu. At 6:40 am migrant worker Wu Wenkai, 32, took Yang Lifeng, 23, hostage with a knife. Shortly afterward, police had sealed off the area, with a large group of passersby watching the hostage situation unfold through the glass of the ATM booth.

Police negotiated with Wu for eight hours before succeeding in ending the standoff without violence on Sunday afternoon. Wu reportedly said that he had resorted to taking a hostage to bring attention to his unpaid wages.

Qujing's roads filling up with motorized vehicles
As of October 20, the government of Qujing had registered 605,000 motorized vehicles, accounting for more than 10 percent of all of Yunnan's motorized vehicles.

Unlike Kunming, where automobiles make up the bulk of the more than one million registered motorized vehicles, the motorcycle is king in Qujing. According to government statistics, motorcycles account for 65 percent of the vehicles on Qujing's roads.

Qujing, Yunnan's second-largest city, is one of China's wealthiest cities in terms of purchasing power parity, primarily from its pillar industries of tobacco, pharmaceuticals and mining. However, Qujing's economy is slowly moving away from the large state-owned enterprise model, with the share of local GDP generated by retail and real estate growing rapidly in recent years.

Kunming to roll out free public bicycles
The Kunming municipal government has announced a plan to provide bicycles for free use by the public, according to a Dushi Shibao report. The report said the plan has been received by the public with approval, tempered with a skepticism that the bikes will all be stolen.

Dali posts record holiday numbers
During this year's eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival 'Golden Week' holiday, Dali set new records for holiday visitors and tourist revenue, according to a Kunming Information Hub report.

Approximately 590,000 domestic and international tourists visited Dali in the first eight days of October, an increase of 44.9 percent over the same holidays one year ago. Revenue from tourism was 355 million yuan (US$52 million).

In addition to the traditional draws of Dali's old town and Three Pagodas, tourist visits to nearby Eryuan (洱源), Heqing (鹤庆) and Bingchuan (宾川) also reached new highs. Tourists driving their own vehicles – primarily from Kunming as well as Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi – accounted for more than 90,000 of the visitors to the Dali area over the holiday, the report said.

Yunnan banana joins Millennium Seed Bank
The Yunnan banana, aka Musa itinerans aka bajiao (芭蕉), has been added to Kew's Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanical Gardens in the UK. The bajiao seeds were provided to the seed bank by the Kunming Institute of Botany.

The addition of bajiao seeds from Yunnan also marked the 10 percent mark for the seed bank, which now has seeds of 24,200 species in its possession, with a goal of ultimately collecting seeds of 242,000 species. The seed bank is aiming to mitigate the possibility of extinction for the world's flowering plants, 70 percent of which are under threat.

The bajiao plant, which exists in an area spanning from Yunnan into Southeast Asia and India, is threatened by the increased clearing of jungle for agriculture. Despite not being a major crop for human consumption, it can be used to breed disease-resistant hybrid banana varieties. It is also a staple for the endangered Asian elephant and other animals in the region.

The bajiao seeds have been dried and are now being stored at -20 degrees Celsius in a US$131 million facility, located in Sussex. The seed bank estimates that as many as one quarter of the world's flowering plant species may be on the brink of extinction by the middle of this century.

In the last fifteen years, Yunnan has gone from being a best-kept secret to a must-visit travel destination. The old towns of Lijiang, Dali and Shangri-La have changed from rustic backwaters into highly commercialized versions of their former selves.

In wake of these tourism-driven changes, the search for new towns that preserve the cultural and architectural traditions of Yunnan's ethnic minorities is well under way, with Yunnan's 'second tier' destinations such as Shaxi, Tengchong and Lugu Lake all receiving more domestic and foreign travelers.

The small town of Xizhou (喜州) is another example of an increasingly popular 'off-the-beaten-path' stop for visitors to Yunnan. About 30 kilometers north of Dali, Xizhou has developed a reputation for its protected sites highlighting Bai architecture.

With full support from the local government, American couple Brian and Jeanee Linden, who have been splitting time between China and the US over the last two decades, have established the Linden Centre – a boutique hotel and cultural retreat – in one of Xizhou's protected sites. GoKunming spoke with Brian Linden to find out more about what's happening in one of Yunnan's up-and-coming travel destinations:

GoKunming: Why did you choose Xizhou as the location for your cultural retreat?

Brian Linden: Xizhou has historic prominence as one of the few villages with a population of less than 2,500 people and a cluster of over 100 protected buildings. We are proud to be among the first foreigner couples to take over a Type A Cultural Relic. This means our building is one of the most pristine examples of Bai traditional architecture and is protected at the same level as the Great Wall and Forbidden City.

We contacted various levels of government and felt that Yunnan was the ideal choice given its ethnic diversity, scenery, weather and architectural heritage. The local government and villagers in the Dali region were extremely supportive and welcoming.

Xizhou has a history of bringing in people of different cultures and ideas. It was a site for Yale in China during the 1940's and many writers and artists were living in Xizhou. The writer Lao She called Xizhou "The Cambridge of the East." We would like to renew this spirit of bringing together people of different cultures to learn from each other.

GK: What is the philosophy behind the Linden Centre in Xizhou?

BL: The inspiration for our Centre comes from both the miraculous results of China's recent economic achievements and our melancholic longing for the 'old' China that we experienced in the 1980s. China's changes have made the urban experience less than exotic to the experienced traveler. During our 25 years of traveling and doing business, we have had to go further afield to touch the older, more traditional China.

By 2004, we decided that we should try to establish a cultural retreat and sanctuary in a functioning old village to share the China that still survives under the cement and neon veneers of the major cities. Our goal was to source a historic complex and nurse it back into its dynastic glory. We were able to do this in the village of Xizhou.

GK: What are the challenges in running a boutique hotel in rural Yunnan?

BL: Personally, we feel very few challenges. This is a lifestyle decision, a project of passion. Once the basic necessities like water and electricity were addressed, we found the daily challenges to be surprisingly manageable.

GK: What makes Bai architecture distinct from that of the Yi or other minorities in Yunnan?

BL: Bai architecture, especially in Xizhou, displays a level of sophistication and grandeur seldom seen in a rural setting such as our small village. The traditional Bai style of building reached its zenith among the wealthy group of merchants who decided to settle in Xizhou.

Most Bai courtyards have gone beyond the mud brick and wood architecture of the other ethnic groups. Xizhou's location near the Dali marble quarries ensured that the complexes had ample stone for the structures and decorative marble for the unique architectural highlights.

GK: What kind of role does the Linden Centre play in Xizhou?

BL: In our own way, we want to set a precedent for sustainable cultural preservation. We have consistently been the staple of new ideas and fresh perspective in terms of our approach to the Centre's renovation with the additions of priceless antiques and artifacts from Yunnan.

More simply, we want to extend the idea of the Centre into the village itself, allowing the experience here to flow easily. This starts by showing great respect for the villagers and treating them like family. We have hired mostly local workers who often bring their family and young children into the Centre for our atmosphere and occasional fun. We teach weekly English corners to the villagers for nothing in return and help plan games and activities.

GK: Do you have a plan for more retreats in Yunnan or elsewhere in China?

BL: Yes. We aim to create environments in the region that honor the traditions of the past, helping develop sustainable models for restored historical complexes. We want to celebrate the artistic traditions of China and facilitate the sharing of these in a structured manner. Current concrete examples of this include our efforts to procure and restore the former Flying Tigers Radar Station and Village Library, which served as the educational center of Xizhou during Yale/Huazhong University's stay in the village.

In each case, we will develop museums that will trace the stories of the wartime efforts in the Dali valley. The Flying Tigers have left an incredible legacy for all American visitors in the region and, yet, there is no museum highlighting the efforts of the Chinese and Western military in the region. We will soon be looking for organizational support to pursue the two aforementioned projects.

We also own a second complex, one of the only Bai complexes to have Shanghai Deco elements - it was built by a Xizhou man who made his money in Shanghai and returned to build this complex. We are developing a refined Atelier for the study of the arts: specifically painting, writing, music and photography. This second complex is large enough to regularly host 4 artists-in-residence as well as a group of adult students. Younger students will use the Atelier for studio space and will be housed in a restored third courtyard.

GK: Xizhou is becoming an increasingly popular stop for tourists - what are the positives and negatives with regard to this trend?

BL: Xizhou, given its smaller size and later stage of development in the tourism marketplace, will always be different from the first wave of commercially developed destinations such as Dali and Lijiang.

Another increasingly known element of Xizhou that differs from normal tourism in Yunnan is the concentration of culturally significant estates built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Yet, just like most of developing China, many concrete buildings were introduced in the last 30 years. The more derelict ones are being replaced with fairly refined Bai-style structures to accommodate and cater to a more affluent tourist audience.

We certainly appreciate the greater levels of elegance and beauty the project of 'Ancient Xizhou' brings to the area. The roads are being restored to the times before mass concrete was poured. Waterways will be reopened. Cars will be prevented from driving in the inner town. Power lines will be buried. Many of the reasons we have fallen in love in Xizhou will be amplified with the greater attention to detail and quality, while all the more bringing consideration to the culturally immersive environment.

Unfortunately, larger amounts of people will inevitably inject a level of commercialization affecting the local customs and traditions. This is perhaps unavoidable, given the lucrative market size of domestic Chinese tourism. Our experience, however, with the Culture Bureau and government officials leads us to remain optimistic that Xizhou may be able to balance the ancient with some modernity to create a new and positive paradigm.