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.

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.

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.

Bus accident leaves 21 dead
The highway between Kunming and Chuxiong was the scene of a fatal collision between a tourist bus and a truck full of watermelons on Saturday. Nineteen people died on Saturday and two more on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 21, according to a Xinhua report.

The watermelon truck reportedly crashed into the back of a tour bus carrying tourists from Beijing, Shanxi and Hunan at 6:40 Saturday morning. Both vehicles lost control and veered off the road. Twenty people were also injured in the accident, all of whom are no longer in critical condition, according to a Yunnan government spokesperson.

Bangladesh, Yunnan discussing rail link
Bangladesh Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain met with Yunnan government officials last Thursday to discuss a proposed rail line between Kunming and its sister city in Bangladesh, the port city of Chittagong, according to Bangladeshi media reports.

In recent years the Yunnan government and China's central government have expressed their desire to have transport links to Chittagong, which lies on the Bay of Bengal. Port access in the Bay of Bengal would reduce Chinese reliance upon the Malacca Strait, which occasionally has piracy problems. The Malacca Strait is also patrolled by the US and its allies, which adds to Beijing's uneasiness.

A rail line connecting Chittagong with Kunming would pass through mountainous northern Myanmar. In his visit to China, Hossain also met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to seek technical and financial assistance for the project.

Kunming Nanchang rail line to launch tomorrow
Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces will finally be connected directly by rail with tomorrow's launch of the 1235/6 train between Kunming and Jiangxi provincial capital Nanchang, according to a Sohu report citing Jiangxi railway officials.

The new line will feature 20 stops between Kunming and Nanchang. In addition to stops in Yunnan and Jiangxi, the line will also pass through cities in Guizhou and Hunan provinces.

Accident image: news.xinhuanet.com

An endangered monkey that is one of Yunnan's iconic animals is bouncing back from near extinction, according to media reports citing Yunnan park officials.

More than 25 years after the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (滇金丝猴) in the Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture had dwindled to a population of 500. There are now 1,300 of the monkeys living in the reserve and a total of about 2,000 in northwest Yunnan and eastern Tibet.

Reserve official Xie Hongfang attributed the increase in the monkey population – which has averaged growth of 30 to 40 percent annually – to improvements in the local environment and a government crackdown on poaching. The monkey is on China's list of most protected animals.

China is home to three types of snub-nosed monkeys: Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.

The Yunnan variety lives at a higher altitude than any non-human primate. It was the mascot of the 1999 World Horticultural Expo, held in Kunming.

China's Ministry of Health reported two new cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in southwest China in recent days, including the country's fifth death from the illness this year, according to a Reuters report.

An 18-year-old man died at a hospital in Yulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. The Ministry of Health said he had come into contact with dead poultry prior to exhibiting symptoms of bird flu.

The Ministry also announced that a 29-year old man in had fallen ill with bird flu in Guizhou province. The man was reported to be in stable condition.

H5N1 is still primarily a threat to birds, but some experts warn of mutant strains which could become easily transmissible among humans – especially in urban areas in which people are raising poultry or 'wet markets' in which the birds are kept and slaughtered prior to or upon sale.

According to the Reuters report, concern is growing over the role of vaccines among China's poultry:


Of the 34 cases of bird flu reported among humans in China to date, 23 of them have been fatal, according to statistics by the World Health Organization.

A feasibility study is underway for a new high-speed rail line between Shanghai and Kunming, construction of which is expected to begin in 2009, according to Kunming media reports.

The new rail line, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015 – around the same time that the rail network linking Kunming and Singapore is hoped to be completed – will shorten the travel time between Shanghai and Kunming from 37 hours to less than nine hours.

The Shanghai-Kunming passenger line (沪昆客运专线) will connect Shanghai and Kunming via the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan, passing through the major cities of Hangzhou, Nanchang and Changsha. Its target speed is reportedly 350 km/hr – compare to France's TGV and Japan's Shinkansen aka 'Bullet Train' which currently operate at 320 and 300 km/hr, respectively.

The cross-country line is part of a nationwide rail upgrade that has allocated 500 million yuan (US$73.2 million) in funds for Yunnan province alone.

According to China Rail Ministry plans, Yunnan will not only be on the receiving end of improved rail connectivity with central and eastern China over the next six to seven years, it will also improve its regional and internal rail network. Kunming Rail Ministry officials told local media that the following projects have also been approved:

• Lijiang to Shangri-la (Zhongdian): schedule yet to be made public

• Yunnan to Guilin – construction to start next year and finish in 2015

• A rail line around Dianchi Lake: scheduled for completion in 2010

• Guangtong to Dali: schedule yet to be made public

• Kunming to Yuxi: construction to start next year and finish in 2015

It is high season for moving in Kunming right now, with many people moving into the city for the first time and many others moving out of the city or upgrading their living situation from the previous year. One of the main discoveries one makes when moving house is how much stuff one accumulates over time – especially clothes.

Throwing away unwanted clothing that is still wearable is wasteful anywhere in the world, but especially in Yunnan, which despite having increasingly wealthy urban centers still has millions of rural poor who could use new clothing.

Since last December, The Hump Group – which runs the Hump Bar in Jinma Biji Fang – has been accepting unwanted clothing for distribution to Yunnan's rural poor, especially in the Nujiang area, near the border with Myanmar. The first delivery of clothing – more than 7,000 items – made it to the Nujiang area just weeks before one of China's worst winters in decades.

Since then, General Manager of the Hump Group Sun Haibo has been working to expand the donated clothing network's reach throughout Yunnan via a donor network of restaurants and guesthouses around the province. Donations now come from as far away as Zhejiang and Beijing.

On the village end of things, the Christian Association of Yunnan was one of the organizations that has been crucial to the program's success – with their numerous churches, they had a ready network that could identify villages in need and help deliver the clothes.

So far over 15 tons of clothes have been delivered to villages all over Nujiang, as well as other places like Zhaotong in northeast Yunnan and even a few villages in neighboring Guizhou province. It has become fairly common for a mysterious package of clothes to show up at the Hump Bar, or some of the clientele to drop a few pieces of unwanted clothes off.

In exchange for their generosity, donors get a sticker showing two clasping hands and the words 'I helped' in Chinese and English. The motto for the campaign is: 'We don't want your money. We just want your clothes.'

If you want to contribute, all clothing must be clean and wearable – any kind of clothing for any season is welcome. Donations can be dropped off at The Hump Bar, call 3646229 for more information.