New York Times mistakes dwarf park employees for Clinton, Chilean president
Kunming theme park Dwarf Empire has been receiving increasing attention from foreign media, even spurring ethical debates, but it is now part of a gaffe which may be in the running for one of the bigger blunders made by the New York Times.

Earlier this month, the Times ran a photo of two female Dwarf Empire employees dressed as angels, with the incorrect caption "Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet".

The error, which has since been corrected, was initially caught by the Times' rival The Washington Post and gained wide attention after being noted in the popular blog Boing Boing.

Report: China, Bangladesh to build Kunming - Chittagong transport corridor
China and Bangladesh are set to agree on a plan to develop a transport corridor between Kunming and port city Chittagong this week, according to Indian media reports.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh will meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this week seeking assistance for a US$8.7 billion deepwater port at Chittagong and accompanying rail and road links. Hasina arrives in Beijing tomorrow.

Also on the itinerary for Hasina's visit to China is a weekend stop in Kunming to examine the prospect of extending Yunnan's highway network into Bangladesh via Myanmar.

Indian media has taken interest in the development which, should it come to fruition, would be a significant Chinese foothold in the Bay of Bengal, which has traditionally been India's backyard.

In addition to its geostrategic ramifications, the transport corridor would make it easier for some goods shipped eastward to China to enter the mainland, avoiding the narrow Malacca Strait, home to pirates and US warships.

If rail links are built they would run through Myanmar and might eventually be part of the vast Eurasian rail network centered around Kunming that Beijing is currently promoting.

Kunming-Lhasa flights to resume this month
On March 28 China Eastern Airlines will resume flights from Kunming to Lhasa, Tibet, which were suspended in September of last year.

The daily flights will depart Kunming at 7:00 am and arrive in Lhasa at 10:35 after a stop in Zhongdian, according to the Beijing-based Global Times. Returning flights will retrace the same route and are scheduled to depart Lhasa at 11:25am and arrive in Kunming at 3:00pm.

Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up a four-day inspection tour of Yunnan on Tuesday in which ethnic unity and government concern for the development of western China were the primary messages, according to a Xinhua report.

President Hu's inspection tour, which was not covered in Chinese media until its conclusion yesterday, took him through Kunming, Chuxiong and Yao'an, the site of a 6.0 magnitude earthquake that injured hundreds and destroyed tens of thousands of homes earlier this month.

While in Kunming's Shuncheng neighborhood, Hu stressed the importance of ethnic unity to a group of minorities, urging them to "Improve the precious and hard-earned overall good ethnic unity in China and to make the flower of ethnic unity bloom even more brightly and beautifully."

Perhaps somewhat ironically, most of Shuncheng, downtown Kunming's old Muslim quarter, has fallen victim to the wrecking ball, displacing its former Hui and Uighur residents for major real estate projects including the Twin Towers, a soon-to-be finished high-end residential, commercial and office development on Dongfeng Xi Lu, west of the Jinri Tunnel.

While in Yao'an, Hu inspected rubble from this month's earthquake and met with local officials and homeless locals, offering words of encouragement and support.

"We are definitely able to cross this difficult junction and rebuild a beautiful home," Hu said.

While making the rounds in Yunnan, Hu also sent a personal greeting to US President Barack Obama during this week's China-US strategic and economic dialogue. During the talks, China and the US agreed to resume military ties, which had been suspended in fallout from riots in Tibet last year, and it was announced that Obama would visit China before the end of this year.

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.

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: 1902
Subject: First graduating class of Kunming's Wubei Xuetang (武备学堂)
Location: Present-day Jiangwutang (讲武堂), west side of Cuihu Park

Background:

The above photo is of 13 students from the first graduating class of the Wubei Xuetang (武备学堂), Kunming's first military academy, which was founded in 1899. The students, who completed three years of training, are centered around an unidentified teacher from the academy.

By the end of the 19th Century, a little over a decade before the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Kunming had become more than just a place to exile disgraced officials, it had become a strategically important outpost at the crossroads of China, Tibet and Southeast Asia. Creating a strong local military force had become a necessity, prompting the establishment of the Wubei Xuetang on the west side of present-day Cuihu Park.

The curriculum at the Wubei Xuetang featured four main subjects: Chinese language, mathematics, cannons and the military drill book (操典). The drill book used at the academy was a book of German military drills.

Shortly after the demise of the Qing, a new military academy, the Jiangwutang (讲武堂 – see right image), was built where the Wubei Xuetang had once been located. Today, the Jiangwutang is still standing. A large mustard yellow building from another era, the building is one of the most recognizable architectural works in Kunming.

Within the Jiangwutang is a vast, flat courtyard that was once used for military drills. The building's south wing contains a free museum which narrates the role the academy has played in Kunming and Yunnan's history.

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

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In the last several weeks the tragedies of the Myanmar Cyclone and Wenchuan earthquake have shaken Kunming residents into giving what they can to help their neighbors who have fallen victims to natural disaster.

Seeing how impoverished many of these areas were prior to their respective disasters is a reminder of how many areas in this geographically varied and ethnically diverse part of Asia are in need of all kinds of assistance – even without disasters.

This Friday night at The Hump Bar, a free evening of music will be held to benefit the only school in the small Tibetan village of Jiabe (佳碧). The benefit show was organized by Kunming resident Matthieu Lelievre, who first visited Jiabe – his fiancée's hometown - four years ago.

Located in a Tibetan area of northwest Yunnan, Jiabe has a population of 130, with 30 primary school students. Remote and impoverished, the town is located near the Lancang Jiang, the headwaters of the Mekong River.

"The village used to be the county seat of Yunling until 25 years ago - they had all the facilities there," Lelievre said. "Then there was a flood which destroyed much of the village, especially government buildings."

"There was no damage to the one school in the village, but the government moved to another village, and the school hasn't changed since then - it's a 30-year-old building in pretty bad condition. When I saw it, me and my fiancée thought it would be nice to do something so that the children get a better study environment."

The benefit party at The Hump Bar is aimed at not only raising cash to renovate the school, but to also recruit volunteers to teach Chinese and English to the students of Jiabe village, Lelievre added.

Starting at 9 pm, the benefit show will begin with a Tibetan musical performance featuring performers from Makye Ame Tibetan restaurant. Afterward, entertainment will include a performance by The Tribal Moons plus DJ sets by Fan (formerly known as DJ Christian) and Lumberjack Jon.

All performers will donate their normal remuneration to the school and The Hump Bar has pledged to donate 30 percent of bar sales from the evening. A donation box will also be present for those who want to donate directly. Admission to the benefit show is free. For more information, call Matthieu Lelievre at 13708732507.

Update: Matthieu Lelievre contacted GoKunming and said the benefit raised 5,000 yuan for Jiabe's school He also requests that anyone willing to teach Chinese or English at the school contacts him at 13708732507 as teachers are urgently needed there.

Related article:

Earthquake benefit raises more than 10,000 yuan

China is home to an estimated 85,000 dams nationwide, more than 40 percent of the world's total. A large portion of those are in southwest China, especially Sichuan and Yunnan, whose rivers have their headwaters in neighboring Tibet.

Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake in northern Sichuan province highlights one of the vulnerabilities and inherent risks of China's prolific dambuilding in its southwest. Major rivers include the Jinsha, Nu and Lancang rivers, the headwaters of the Yangtze, Salween and Mekong rivers, respectively.

Sichuan's Tulong and Zipingpu reservoirs suffered damage from the quake, endangering the downstream city of Dujiangyan and its 500,000 residents, according to a Reuters report citing a local official.

According to the report, Sichuan's Yuzui levee, the linchpin of the Dujiangyan system, has also sustained damage from the quake, with cracks appearing. China's Ministry of Water Resources said the cracks were not serious.

In addition to Sichuan, the ministry has sent teams to the regions of Yunnan, Chongqing, Gansu and Shaanxi to assess earthquake-related damage to local dams. The majority of Yunnan's dams are far from Kunming and other major metropolitan areas within the province.

Xinhua quoted Water Resources Minister Chen Lei as saying that "local governments should monitor (dam) projects, to discover and repair damage as soon as possible. In case of danger, make sure to transport people to safer places."

Newer dam projects are tending to be larger than before, such as the Xiluodu Power Station, a dam that is being built on the Jinsha River between Sichuan and Yunnan. The hydropower project is scheduled for completion in 2015 and will be China's second-largest dam after the Three Gorges project.

Image: biaoshu.com

Related article:

China's second-largest hydropower project enters construction phase

Yunnan native and internationally-renowned dancer Yang Liping (杨丽萍) is returning to the stage with the follow-up to her successful music and dance production Dynamic Yunnan (云南映象), which enjoyed a long run at the Kunming Theater and sold out theaters across China.

Yang's new production Tibetan Riddle (藏谜) looks beyond Yunnan to neighboring Tibet for its inspiration. The show features more than 80 performers and is set to debut in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on August 24.

Yang, a member of the Bai ethnicity who studied dance in southern Yunnan's Xishuangbanna region, first rose to prominence in China in 1986 after winning a national dance contest with her interpretation of the Dai peacock dance. Yang will costar with Tibetan singer Rongzhongerjia (容中尔甲) in Tibetan Riddle, in which she will perform two dance solos.

No informatioin has been released regarding if/when Tibetan Riddle will come to Kunming or Yunnan.