Hongyun Group and Honghe Group, two of Yunnan province's largest tobacco companies intend to merge, a move that will form China's largest and the world's fourth-largest cigarette producer by volume, according to Chinese media reports.

The planned merger, which is still awaiting regulatory approval, suggests a move towards consolidation in China's highly fragmented tobacco industry. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of cigarettes, with a market of more than 300 million smokers, a market that is still growing.

If the merger goes through, the new company is expected to be the world's fourth-largest cigarette producer after Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Inc.

Yet in terms of revenue, the two companies' combined 2007 revenues are less than 30 percent of the revenue of current number four Imperial Tobacco Plc, partially because cigarettes in China are some of the cheapest in the world. According to their websites, in 2007 Hongyun Group posted 29 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) in revenue and Honghe took 16 billion yuan.

The proposed company would be named Hongyun Honghe Tobacco Group Company Limited (红云红河烟草集团有限责任公司) and would have production facilities in Kunming, Qujing, Honghe, Zhaotong, Huize in Yunnan province, plus facilities in Xinjiang.

After the merger, the company would produce several of China's larger cigarette brands, including Yunyan, Honghe, Hongshancha, Shilin and Lesser Panda.

Related article: Kunming: Bong city, PRC

Tags: business, health, Honghe, Honghe Group, Hongshancha, Hongyun Group, Lesser Panda, Shilin, tobacco, Yunyan

Editor's note: Every week for the remainder of 2008 GoKunming will publish photos from the collection of Auguste François (1857-1935), who served as French consul in south China between 1896 and 1904, during which he spent several years in Kunming. The photos have been provided by Kunming resident and private collector Yin Xiaojun (殷晓俊). GoKunming thanks Yin Xiaojun for providing us a glimpse of Yunnan at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Year: 1901-1902
Subject: Yunnan's ethnic minorities
Location: Southern Yunnan

Background:

In addition to the time he spent as French consul in Kunming, Auguste François also spent time traveling in southern Yunnan, where France was building a railroad from Vietnam to Kunming. In the course of his travels, he had the opportunity to photograph some of Yunnan's smaller ethnic groups for the first time.

Spending most of his time around the ruling Manchu of the Qing government and the majority Han, it seems that Yunnan's other ethnic groups piqued François' interest.

The Yi slave

The above photo is of an ethnic Yi (彝族) man. The man is a slave and a member of the White Yi (白彝) branch of the Yi people, who were not typically enslaved, unlike their unfortunate cousins the Black Yi (黑彝), who were considered a slave race. Note the man's Manchu-style braid.

A Catholic girl in Honghe


The girl in the above photo was a resident of southern Yunnan's Honghe prefecture (红河州). François noted in his journal that the girl, who is believed to be from the Hani ethnic group (哈尼族), was Catholic – a result of French missionaries venturing into Yunnan in the 1860s. The Hani, who today are concentrated primarily between the Lancang and Yuan Rivers, share ancestral roots with the Yi.

Today the French missionaries' legacy is still palpable in Yunnan, with several old churches dotting the province, plus thriving coffee and wine industries that owe their origins to beans and grapes introduced by the missionaries as they traveled the province.

Miao girls in Mengzi


The above image is of three young women belonging to the Miao ethnic group (苗族), also known as Hmong. François took the photo while in Mengzi (蒙自) in southeastern Yunnan. This photo sticks out within François' photos of China for having a more anthropological feel.

The Miao originally lived in southern China but eventually began migrating into the northern regions of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the 1700s for political and economic reasons. The Miao that stayed in Yunnan moved up into the mountains as more Han Chinese moved into the region. This isolation led to cultural and linguistic fragmentation of the Miao.

Tags: Auguste François, Catholic, coffee, ethnic minorities, Hani, Hmong, Honghe, Mengzi, Miao, missionaries, wine, Yi, Yin Xiaojun

The Yunnan Provincial Hygiene Department announced that as of noon on Monday, 113 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) had been diagnosed in Yunnan, apparently caused by intestinal virus Enterovirus 71 (EV71). The announcement comes one day after Kunming announced that all Kindergarten students would be checked for the disease.

59 of the reported cases, more than half of the provincial total, were diagnosed in Kunming. Other affected areas include Chuxiong (19 cases), Yuxi (13), Baoshan (12), Dali (5), Honghe (3) and Zhaotong and Lincang, which reported one case each. No deaths have been reported.

Although highly contagious among children, HFMD has a low fatality rate and is expected to be contained well before the Olympics. With SARS still in people's minds and the Olympics around the corner, the Chinese government has shown a greater degree of openness and transparency at both the central and local levels than with previous outbreaks.

As Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei puts it:

"Despite foreign cable news reports screaming about a 'deadly' virus, the virus is treatable and not that deadly. On the other hand, Xinhua and CCTV have not shied away from reporting about the disease, a welcome change from the days of SARS in 2003, when a disease outbreak was treated as something to be ashamed of and covered up."

Related article:

Kindergartens to check for hand, foot and mouth disease

Tags: Baoshan, children, Chuxiong, Dali, EV71, health, HFMD, Honghe, Lincang, Zhaotong