Landlocked at the crossroads of China, Southeast Asia and South Asia, Kunming first gained international attention as the terminus of an ambitious French rail project connecting French Indochina with Yunnan.

Back then it might not have been difficult to imagine a pan-Asian rail network centered upon the city, but the turbulence of the 20th Century fragmented the continent, impeding the flow of people and goods across borders.

In recent decades relations among Asian countries have experienced a general thawing and once again, rail transport is bringing Kunming's crossroads status into international focus. But this time around it is high-speed rail rather than the locomotive that will drive Kunming's resurgence as a transport hub.

Within a decade, Kunming will be at the center of a high-speed rail network that extends westward across India and Pakistan to Iran, southward to Singapore on the South China Sea, eastward to Xiamen and Shanghai on the Chinese coast and northward to Chengdu – if Beijing has its way.

After India's decision last year to pull out of the plan to rebuild the Stilwell Road connecting northeast India with Kunming, it may be surprising to learn that Beijing and New Delhi are discussing a Chinese-built high-speed rail line crossing. The Hindu reports:


It appears that the long-planned rail network connecting Kunming with Singapore via cities in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia will also be a high-speed rail network, according to Chinese media.

Since beginning to develop its domestic high-speed rail network, China has begun to market its growing prowess in the industry to other countries. State-owned Chinese companies are already involved in projects in Venezuela and Turkey and Chinese companies plan on bidding for upcoming high-speed rail project tenders in the United States.

China recently announced its intention to build a high-speed rail link between Beijing and London. Chinese officials are predicting the completion of a China-built Eurasian high-speed rail network by as early as 2025.

On the domestic front, a new dedicated high-speed passenger line from Kunming to Shanghai is under construction and expected to be completed by 2015. The new route, which will run through provincial capitals Guiyang, Changsha, Nanchang and Hangzhou, will cut travel time from about 37 hours to around 10 hours.

Plans also exist to upgrade existing tracks between Kunming and Chengdu and build a new direct line to Chongqing that will deliver passengers from Kunming in about three hours instead of the current 19-plus hours.

Finally, construction commenced on a high-speed line from Kunming to Nanning last December. There has been some recent speculation that this line will eventually extend to Xiamen, and even Taiwan via tunnel.

China plans on having 42 high-speed rail lines by 2012, covering 13,000 kilometers, which would make it the world's largest rail network of its kind. The new lines will use China's homegrown high-speed rail system, which is a mix of foreign locomotive and carriage technology and domestically designed switching and control systems that is capable of speeds up to 350 km/hour (217 mph).

Kunming facing garbage crisis
Reuters is reporting that Kunming is facing a garbage crunch, with the city's main west and east garbage dumps "fully saturated" and facing closure before the end of this year. It is estimated that Kunming produces 1.3 million tons of trash annually.

Kunming has a plan to bring three new garbage processing facilities similar to the new Wuhuan Incineration Plant online in the coming years. Using a chemical process, the plant is reportedly capable of producing electricity while processing garbage.

Schools, buses on heightened H1N1 alert
Classes at Kunming University of Science and Technology's Oxbridge campus have been temporarily canceled due to a recent outbreak of H1N1 virus (aka swine flu), in which 34 students have been confirmed to be carrying the virus and "around 200 or 300" students have been quarantined on campus. The school is home to 5,000 students.

Concerns of a large-scale H1N1 breakout have also led to Kunming's bus companies increasing hygiene precautions on the city's 3,200 buses. Buses now get a preliminary cleaning after the completion of each route in addition to daily disinfections.

Indian media: It's time to connect with Kunming
Indian newspaper The Times of India is calling on the Indian government to reconsider its decision to not rebuild the Stilwell Road, an old World War II supply route that once connected Kunming with Ledo in northeast India's Assam State via northern Myanmar. According to writer Saibal Dasgupta, India's concerns about China's growing regional influence is feeding into behavior that only amplifies India's increasingly weak regional position:


Marianas Islands courting Kunming tourists
The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a group of Pacific islands administered by the United States, is hosting Kunming television media this week with the goal of luring increasingly wealthy Kunmingers. A local television crew producing travel shows for Kunming TV will film in Saipan and Tinian, according to a Saipan Tribune report.

Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) officials have high hopes for the upcoming CNMI travel special, which is expected to be viewed in around one million Kunming households in early December.

"We welcome additional Chinese tourists; their contribution to the NMI economy is significant and necessary," said MVA managing director Perry Tenorio.

Kunming garbage dump image: Reuters

Local and international residents of Kunming and Dali are mourning the tragic passing of Arun Veembur, a young Indian writer who died from injuries sustained after falling during a solo hike in Dali.

Veembur, 28, was hiking alone in Dali's Cangshan mountain range on Monday when he fell and sustained serious injuries. He was not located by a search team until Tuesday night, by which time it was too late, according to friends and family cited in a report on The Hindu.

Veembur was born and raised in Bangalore, where he first took interest in writing before becoming disenchanted with the constraints of conventional journalism. Prior to coming to China, he worked as a reporter for the Deccan Herald.

While on holiday in northeast India's Assam state, Veembur learned the story of the Stilwell Road, the World War II supply route connecting Ledo in Assam with Kunming via northern Myanmar.

Veembur's obsession with the road compelled him to travel its full 1,600 kilometer length, including unstable regions of Myanmar, for a travel history book project. He ended up staying at backpacker hostel The Hump before getting a job working for the Yunnan provincial commerce department for two years. He was a welcoming face for many Indian businesspeople and journalists visiting Kunming.

After his government stint, Arun joined the management of The Hump Group, owners of the hostel that was his first home in Yunnan. The Hump Group recently opened a hostel in Dali and in late August, Arun launched dalichina.info, an English-language website focusing on Dali prefecture. He wrote nine articles for the site prior to his passing.

Known among his friends for his big smile, sharp intellect and unique brand of humor, Arun described himself as a "half-baked journalist and much-less-baked writer" on his dalichina.info bio. In addition to enjoying travel and a good party, he was also active in the promotion and organization of the Hump Group's charitable ventures.

Arrangements to return Arun's body to his family home are being made.

All of GoKunming's staff knew Arun personally and will miss him. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and close friends.

Image: The Hindu

The most significant confidence-building exercise between neighbors China and India – the annual joint military training operation known as 'Hand in Hand' which was to be held in China later this year – will not take place, suggesting that while economic exchanges between the two countries continue to grow, the political relationship could continue to lag in the short term.

"We have not held any meetings to plan out the drill," a senior Indian army officer involved in the exercises told the Kolkata-based Telegraph. "It is unlikely that there will be an episode of the exercise this year when our soldiers would have been expected to visit China since they were here last year."

The first 'Hand in Hand' exercise between the two countries' armies was held in 2007 with the Indian army's 15 Jammu and Kashmir Light infantry joining Chinese counterparts for eight days of war games as well as drinking and dancing in the mountains outside of Kunming.

Last year, a 130-strong contingent from the People's Liberation Army conducted drills with the 8 Maratha Light Infantry in Belgaum, a city in southwest India's Karnataka state.

The reason for the early demise of the confidence-building exercises between the militaries of the world's two most populous countries – which went to war in 1962 – is not fully clear.

Complaints by a senior Indian military official to the Telegraph about the high costs of the exercise hint that maybe there was not enough mutual interest in continuing Hand in Hand to justify the expenditures involved. But it is also possible that a recent cooling in the political relationship between China and India is a factor.

China is India's largest trading partner and India one of China's larger trading partners – bilateral trade between the two reached a new high of US$51 billion last year – but the 3,500 kilometer border separating the two rapidly growing economies has yet to be fully demarcated.

This year there have also been several reports, some confirmed and some unconfirmed, of recent border tensions. Earlier this month Indian general Deepak Kapoor announced that China had been active in areas claimed by India, with a Chinese helicopter landing in disputed territory. India's national government has played down the border issue and has aggressively refuted Indian media reports that shots were exchanged over the border in July.

In August of this year, much to the chagrin of politicians in India's ethnically diverse northeast, New Delhi decided to scrap its plans to rebuild the Indian section of the Stilwell Road, a World War II supply route connecting Assam state with Kunming via northern Myanmar. Some Indian politicians viewed the renovated road as the most viable option for injecting dynamism into the laggard economy of the country's northeast.

For some Kunming businesspeople, political and military tensions need not get in the way of expanding China-India business ties. Guo Hongbo, leader of a 12-member trade delegation from Kunming visiting Kolkata, Bangalore and New Delhi last week, told Express India while in Kolkata that business was the only thing on the delegation's mind.


Despite a large Chinese population in Kolkata and the Indian city's only direct air link to China being direct flights to Kunming, Guo's delegation was unable to meet with any high-ranking officials from the government of West Bengal, of which Kolkata is the capital. The same delegation also had a lukewarm reception in Bangalore, where it was attempting to attract Indian IT investment in Kunming.

India's national government has decided not to go forward with plans to rebuild the Stilwell Road connecting northeast India's Assam State with Yunnan in China, according to a BBC report.

The decision follows a continuing impasse regarding the long-disputed border shared by China and India. Recent talks between the two countries ended with no resolution of border issues and a promise to talk more in the future.

The Stilwell Road is a former World War II supply route built in 1944 under the supervision of US General 'Vinegar' Joe Stilwell. The 1,700-kilometer (1,000-mile) road once connected Kunming with the city of Ledo in Assam state, with most of the road passing through northern Myanmar's Kachin state.

Several prominent officials in Assam state had been pressing for the reopening of the Stilwell Road in recent years, which they had viewed as being a potential source of economic growth which could stabilize India's occasionally restive northeast.

In 2006, more than 10,000 demonstrators demanded that the government reopen the road. Some analysts have estimated that as much as one-fifth of bilateral trade between China and India could pass through a revived Stilwell Road.

In addition to New Delhi's reluctance to reopen the Stilwell Road, the government of Myanmar has been cool to the idea of an international highway passing through Kachin state, much of which is controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, which has had a ceasefire with Myanmar's ruling junta since 1994.

The Chinese portion of the road, which heads westward from Kunming, has been completed for several years. Progress in Myanmar, where more than half of the road is located, has been slow. In 2007, India became the last of the three countries to start work on the road.

The Indian government's reversal of its decision to rebuild the Stilwell Road suggests that despite recent diplomatic breakthroughs between the two Asian powers, there are concerns bubbling beneath the surface. These concerns are likely to include Indian worries about China diverting the Brahmaputra River, Chinese involvement in the arms trade around Assam and China's stance toward Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls 'South Tibet'.

Nazeeb Arif, a native of Assam state and former secretary-general of the Indian Chamber of Commerce who is a major proponent of rebuilding the Stilwell Road, told the BBC that trade with China would be a boon to the region's economy, which lags behind much of the rest of the country:


Although New Delhi's unwillingness to rebuild its portion of the Stilwell Road is a major setback to pan-Asian transport integration, China will likely continue to increase its connectivity with the rest of South Asia, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Earlier this week, the Nepalese government recently approved the launch of direct flights between Kathmandu and Kunming. The thrice-weekly flights will be plied by China Eastern Airlines and will make Kunming the third mainland city after Beijing and Guangzhou to have direct air links with the Nepalese capital.

In recent years, the relationship between Asian giants China and India has gradually shifted from vocal distrust to guarded optimism. With the political thaw between the two countries, an economic relationship has grown rapidly – in 2002 bilateral trade was a mere US$2 billion, last year that number surpassed US$51 billion.

As China and India continue to open up to each other, the lack of sufficient transportation links is hampering trade and tourism. With both countries eager to increase interconnectivity, Kunming is emerging as China's de facto gateway to India.

Beginning in June, China Eastern Airlines will increase its flight services between Kunming and Kolkata, capital of eastern India's West Bengal state, from four to seven flights weekly, according to Indian media reports.

Li Ji, general manager of China Eastern's Kolkata operations, told reporters in India that more flights will be added to the Shanghai-New Delhi route, which currently has only three flights weekly.

Li said increasing tourism between the two countries was the driving force behind the decision to increase flight services. At present, China Eastern flights between the two countries have full occupancy, he added.

Local politics in India, particularly the country's occasionally restive northeast, are also beginning to focus on increasing connectivity with Kunming. MP and parliamentary election candidate Sarbananda Sonowal, from Assam state's Dibrugarh constituency in the Lok Sabha (LS) – India's directly elected lower house of parliament – has become one of India's most vocal proponents of a road to Kunming.

Sonowal has been arguing for a reopening of the Stilwell Road, a former World War II supply route built in 1944 under the supervision of US General Joe Stilwell. The 1,700-kilometer (1,000-mile) road once connected Kunming with the city of Ledo in Assam state, with most of the road passing through northern Myanmar.

Rather than serving as a military supply road, Sonowal imagines a resuscitated Stilwell Road as becoming a new channel for trade between India and China. China's portion of the road – all of it located in Yunnan – has already been upgraded to a modern six-lane expressway.

The main obstacles to the road's revival have been the fact that it passes through Myanmar's politically volatile north, plus a general reluctance by the Indian government, which has voiced security and drug trafficking concerns about the road in the recent past.

"The reopening of Stilwell Road is important not only for people of ... Dibrugarh LS constituency, but also for entire (Indian) northeast, as it would re-establish this region's old trade links with China and other countries in Southeast Asia," Sonowal recently told Indian reporters.

Goods transported between India and China via a new Stilwell Road would take two days to make the trip. At present, sea cargo between the two countries must pass south of Singapore and through the Malacca Strait. Reopening the Stilwell Road would cut the distance between China and India by 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).

The end of the year is a special time in which editors and writers around the world recycle content from the previous twelve months and repackage it as new content. We at GoKunming are not above this practice, so here's our look at the people and events that shaped 2007 in Kunming and Yunnan.

January
Internet access in Kunming and around Asia was severely limited after a late-December earthquake in Taiwan severed some rather important undersea cables to North America. Normal or near-normal access was quickly restored to China's coast and elsewhere around Asia, but more remote places such as Yunnan province were forced to wait until February for normal internet access to be restored.

Kunming native Jin Feibao hiked to the South Pole, only to discover that it was already an American city.

Yunnan First People's Provincial Hospital and the Xishan Public Security Bureau opened China's first drunk tank for foreigners, citing increased numbers of 'drunken incidents' involving foreigners.

February
The popular American pseudo-Chinese restaurant chain PF Chang's Chinese Bistro launched a special 'Flavors of Yunnan' menu that ran from Chinese New Year to September at more than 130 locations across the US. Although it was difficult to not be critical of the menu's lack of authenticity, it seemed to be a promising indicator that the unique dishes and cooking styles found in Yunnan were beginning to be noticed by the outside world.

A down-on-his-luck businessman in Fumin County near Kunming got his 15 minutes of fame for painting a mountain green in order to improve the mountain's fengshui with the hope of improving his personal fortunes as well. The mountain which had been quarried for 20 years was covered with nearly half a billion yuan's worth of bright green paint over 45 days.

Yunnan province was singled out for praise by UK medical journal The Lancet for its efforts in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. In terms of HIV/AIDS infections, Yunnan has been one of the more harder-hit regions of China and is where China's first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in 1985. The Lancet said that Yunnan "has shown strong support for implementation and advocacy of harm-reduction strategies that reduce HIV transmission in its many drug users".

March
A great place for hiking, biking and navel gazing, the sleepy town of Dali inched a little bit closer to Kunming with the completion of the new Kunming-Dali highway. The new road reduced travel time between Kunming and Dali to around four hours – not much longer than the total time required for someone living in downtown Kunming to fly to Dali.

Following in the footsteps of the town of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan – which was officially renamed 'Shangri-la', the city of Simao was renamed Pu'er with the hope of cashing in on the boom in interest in pu'er tea. Unfortunately, Pu'er was hit by a major earthquake a few months later.

April
The Mekong River, which flows out of China via Yunnan, was drying up in its lower reaches in Southeast Asia. Water levels as low as one meter on the border of Laos and Thailand made river travel or transport all but impossible for much of April. The low levels were attributed to a combination of an intense dry season and the completion of two dams – Manwan and Dachaoshan – on the Lancang River, as the Mekong is known in Yunnan.

Yunfest 2007, perhaps the best documentary festival in China, was cancelled under a shroud of rumor and confusion. GoKunming hopes to see the festival back in Kunming in 2009.

Kunming's re-emergence as the center of Asia made progress as India began rebuilding its section of the Stilwell Road and overland transport agreements between China and Vietnam streamlined the movement of goods and people between Yunnan and Vietnam. Border wars with India in 1962 and Vietnam in 1979 led to long periods of icy relations between the two countries and China. With the return of relative political and economic stability to most of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, Yunnan appears poised to become a hub for commerce, politics and transport between the three dynamic regions.

May
Kunming hosted China's 7th National Disabled Games, a major test for the city, which is keen to host more international events. In general the games were well-managed and inspiring to disabled and non-disabled attendees alike. One of the more popular events was blind soccer (football) - check out this video clip to see how they do it.

June
June was both a good and bad month for Kunming's image as the Kunming Fair totaled US$150 million in completed deals and Kunming was named China's 'Solar City' as well as one of China's 'rising urban stars'. Slightly less positive, nearby Dianchi Lake made an appearance in domestic and international media as its waters turned bright green from an algae outbreak.

July
Kunming became one of the first Chinese cities with a 'drive-thru' McDonald's. The old town of Lijiang began charging an 80 yuan entry fee as UNESCO warned China that some of its World heritage sites in Yunnan were designated for 'examination' due to concerns regarding development and tourism (Lijiang) and damming (Three Parallel Rivers Protected Areas).

Yunnan's rainy season inflicted heavy damage provincewide as dozens of people died and thousands were displaced by heavy rains and flooding.

August
Former Kunming Deputy Mayor Hu Xing was sentenced to life in prison for bribery after being extradited from Singapore to Kunming. Hu, who allegedly took more than 40 million yuan in bribes while in office, was in charge of Kunming's roads and highways for several years, which may partially explain the dismal state of Kunming traffic.

Food prices in Yunnan were rising quickly, causing concern for workers and business owners around the province, and pu'er tea was leading all luxury goods in China in terms of price growth.

September
Kunming held its first no-car day in which only buses and taxes were allowed to operate within the city center. The city later became China's first city with regular no-car days - although the no-car day on December 29 was apparently forgotten.

Starbucks announced that it would begin sourcing coffee beans from Yunnan amid rumors that Starbucks outlets would come to challenge Kunming's homegrown café scene in 2008.

October
China's rock godfather Cui Jian headlined the Lijiang Snow Mountain Music Festival just weeks before the first Kunming Outdoor Music Festival was held in Anning.

Yunnan announced major changes to its resident registration system, during 2008 it will be seen what impact the changes will have upon rural migrants moving to cities around the province.

November
While much of northwestern Yunnan was snowed under, Kunming hosted its first-ever international film festival as well as China's largest travel expo, and it was announced that Kunming would be the site of the first war games between the Chinese and Indian armies.

December
Kunming was hit by a major gasoline shortage which disrupted life for many city residents and companies. GoKunming readers selected their favorite places to eat, drink and play in Kunming in the Best of Kunming 2007 awards.

And as a nice year-end gesture, the Chinese government officially scrapped its plans to dam Tiger Leaping Gorge… more about that next year.

The GoKunming team thanks everyone who visited the site in 2007 and wishes all of its readers a happy, healthy and bountiful 2008.

India has commenced rebuilding its section of the Stilwell Road, a road that will link southwest China and northeast India and whose completion is expected to be a major boost to trade and tourism between the two Asian powers.

A former World War II supply route, the road is named after US General Joe Stilwell, who oversaw its construction in 1944. The 1,700-kilometer (1,000-mile) road once connected Kunming with the city of Ledo in Assam state, with most of the road passing through northern Myanmar. Only 61 kilometers of the road are in India, which had been reluctant to renovate the road out of security and drug trafficking concerns.

China has already completed renovations on its 600-kilometer segment, which has been upgraded to a six-lane expressway. China has also been assisting Myanmar with construction of its 1,000-kilometer segment of the road, which would be the first viable overland transport link between China and India.

In recent years China and India have emerged from decades of icy relations with a new to increase economic and governmental interaction. Progress has been made on some unresolved border issues and bilateral trade has rocketed from a paltry US$2 billion in 1999 to around US$18 billion in 2005.

Goods transported between the two countries via the renovated road would take two days to make the trip. At present, sea cargo between must pass south of Singapore and through the Malacca Strait. Reopening the Stilwell Road would cut the distance between China and India by 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).

The primary variable in the road's renovation is Myanmar. It is still unclear both how much in terms of resources Myanmar is willing to put into its segment of the road and how much China and India will step in to expedite completion. China is especially keen to see the road opened and will likely do all it can to open this backdoor to India sooner rather than later.