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.

Tags: Guizhou, poverty, Sun Haibo, The Hump Bar

China coping with its third major disaster of 2008

Tuesday, 17th June 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

First came the great winter storm of 2008, then the devastating Wenchuan earthquake, whose official death toll now stands at nearly 70,000. Now China is coping with its third major natural disaster of the year as heavy rains and floods batter the country's south.

Continuing heavy rains in Yunnan and across southern China since June 6 have led to 57 deaths and 1.27 million people fleeing their homes, with more rain expected throughout the region over the coming days. According to Xinhua reports more than 17 million people have been affected by the flooding with more than 10.6 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in damage incurred so far.

The rains have led to the swelling of rivers in China's south, with key manufacturing province Guangdong experiencing its worst flooding in 50 years. On Monday, Guangdong's provincial flood control bureau ordered local governments in Guangzhou and eight other cities to reinforce river embankments and make evacuation preparations.

Although damage in Yunnan has been relatively light compared to Guangdong and other lower-lying areas including Jiangxi, Guizhou and Hunan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rains here are a major concern as many of the flooding rivers – including Guangdong's Pearl River – have their headwaters in Yunnan.

China's National Meteorological Center is forecasting more rains in southern parts of the country - including Yunnan - over the next few days.

Image: Xinhua

Tags: flooding, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guangzhou, Guizhou, Hunan, Pearl River, Wenchuan earthquake, winter storm

China's Ministry of Commerce to participate in Kunming Fair

Wednesday, 28th May 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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

Tags: ASEAN, Britney Spears, business, Chengdu, Chongqing, foreign trade, GMS, Guangxi, Guizhou, Kunming Fair, Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Ce, Ministry of Commerce, Myanmar Cyclone, Paula Abdul, Sichuan, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Sun Xiaohong, Tibet, Wenchuan earthquake

Quake victims receiving treatment in Kunming

Thursday, 22nd May 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

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

Tags: Chongqing, Guangdong, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Wenchuan earthquake

Yunnan-Guizhou rail project to get World Bank funds

Thursday, 1st February 2007 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

Last week the World Bank approved a US$200 million loan to Beijing for expanding capacity and improving efficiency of the main rail link between Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. The loan will go toward improving the 254-kilometer Liu-Zhan line at the end of the Shanghai-Kunming rail corridor, a US$1.1 billion project under China's Third National Railway Project.

Improvements planned for the section of rail connecting Yunnan and Guizhou include realignment of the tracks to facilitate train speed increases and double-tracking the single-track section of the Guiyang-Kunming line linking Liupanshui in western Guizhou with Zhanyi in northeast Yunnan. Remodeling the Liupanshui terminal area is also part of the project.

Once the project is completed, the Liu-Zhan line will have quadrupled its capacity, transit times will be halved, and container trains will be able to be double-stacked for the first time. Currently the line is operating at near capacity and is unable to meet projected future transport demands as western China continues to grow.

Tags: Guiyang, Guizhou, trains, transportation, World Bank