Construction on the rail line connecting Dali with Lijiang has been completed and will be running in time for the National Day holiday during the first week of October, according to a YunnanNet report. Construction on the rail line began in 2004.

The 164 kilometer rail line passes through some serious mountain country, with more than half of the trip made up of bridges or tunnels. Bridges account for 22 kilometers of the journey, with 78 kilometers passing through tunnels.

The Dali-Lijiang (大丽) line will begin at Dali East Station, traveling along the eastern shore of Erhai Lake with stops at Shangguan (上关), Xiyi (西邑) and Heqing (鹤庆) before arriving in Lijiang. At present, information about departure times and trip duration is unavailable.

Lijiang is one of China's most popular tourist destinations – in the first half of this year it was visited by 3.44 million tourists. The opening of a new rail connection with Dali and Kunming should translate to even more travelers visiting the city, which features attractions including its old town (a UNESCO World Heritage site), Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and the nearby Tiger Leaping Gorge.

The extension of the Kunming-Dali rail line to Lijiang brings a proposed Kunming-Lhasa rail line one step closer to reality. The line will next be extended to Shangri-la and then to Lhasa.

The Kunming-Lhasa rail link would make Yunnan's capital the third provincial capital in western China with a direct rail link to Tibet after Xining in Qinghai and Chengdu in Sichuan, which will begin construction on a Chengdu-Lhasa rail line this month.

Pu'er tea starting to catch on in the West?
Roughly a year after the bottom dropped out of the out-of-control pu'er tea market, this specialty tea is starting to get more attention overseas, particularly in the West, where Silicon Valley's tea-obsessed techies are tweeting and blogging about its virtues while frighteningly skinny Victoria Beckham is touting its weight-loss properties.

Time has published an article in which it compares the city of Pu'er (previously known as Simao) in Yunnan to other places around the world whose names have become synonymous with foods or beverages such as France's Champagne, Mexico's Tequila and Italy's Parma. The big question is whether Western palates can learn to love pu'er's earthy bouquet – we're not betting on it.

Stone Forest tickets to increase to 260 yuan
It appears all but certain that tickets for Kunming's only UNESCO World Heritage site, the Stone Forest will rise in price from their current 200 yuan to 260 yuan (US$38). In recent hearings held by the Stone Forest Scenic District Management Bureau, 95 percent of representatives were in favor of the 30 percent price hike, according to local media reports.

At 260 yuan per person, Stone Forest tickets would be one of the most expensive tickets among China's World Heritage sites, more than Fujian's Wuyi Mountain (250 yuan), Yellow Mountain in Anhui, Sichuan's Jiuzhaigou (220 yuan) and Zhangjiajie in Hunan (245 yuan).

Kunming bus passengers ask for help with pickpockets
Kunming public bus system is a cheap, convenient way to get around the city, but city buses are also popular places for pickpockets to practice their trade. Kunming bus passengers have suggested to local bus operators that they broadcast short video clips about how to prevent becoming another theft statistic, according to a Kunming Information Hub report.

Passengers also shared their strategies for minimizing the risk of pickpockets, including:

• Keeping an eye on people who move after the bus starts moving
• Moving to less crowded parts of the bus, should they exist
• Staying aware of one's pockets and bag

According to the Kunming Public Security Bureau, pickpockets tend to operate between 9 and 11 am and 5 and 8 pm. Bus routes with the highest rates of pickpocket activity include 107, 26, 61, 90, 118, 2, 10, 161, 31, K1 and 84.

From June 22 to 30 in Seville, Spain, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will review a list of hundreds of candidate sites proposed by countries around the world as part of the World Heritage Site selection process. In the end, only 20 or so sites will make the cut and be named World Heritage Sites, putting them firmly on global tourism's radar.

Each country submitting candidate sites must maintain a 'tentative' list of sites from which it can submit two candidates to the selection committee. This year, China's tentative list features 52 different sites, including three in Yunnan. China currently has 37 World Heritage Sites.

The Yunnan sites on China's tentative list include Dali Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake Scenic Spot, the Hani Terraces of Yuanyang and the lesser-known Chengjiang fossil lagerstätte at Maotian Mountain. While Dali, Yuanyang and Chengjiang are by no means unknown to travelers, being selected a World Heritage Site would bring new tourist revenue – and new developmental issues.

Yunnan is currently home to three World Heritage Sites: Old Town of Lijiang, Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas and South China Karst. Here's a quick look at the sites that could be selected in June:

Dali
Set between the towering Cangshan Mountains and the expansive waters of Erhai Lake, Dali has been a mainstay on the China backpacker circuit for more than a decade.

The agricultural know-how of the ethnic Bai people native to the area made Dali an important rice production base in dynastic times. This wealth fuelled the rise of the Nanzhao Kingdom, which was centered in Dali and at its height stretched from northern Laos, Thailand and Myanmar up into Chengdu and the Sichuan Basin before incurring the wrath of the Tang Dynasty.

Today Dali's old town is the most popular destination for travelers, but small guesthouses have also been popping up around Erhai Lake at Xizhou and Shuanglang. At the end of this year a new train line will link Dali and Lijiang.

Should Dali become a World Heritage Site, it would likely face many of the same development-versus-preservation problems that Lijiang has dealt with.

Yuanyang
Yuanyang and its rice terraces have long been an 'off the beaten track' option for travelers to Yunnan wishing for something different from the Dali-Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge route. With just a fraction of Dali's tourism, Yuanyang offers a much more "local" experience for travelers – there is very little tourism infrastructure, roads around the terraces are often quite rough, and dining options are rather limited.

In terms of scenery, the more than 13,000 hectares of rice terraces around Yuanyang offer some of the most stunning natural images to be found in China, especially at the beginning of the year when the terraces are filled with water creating a striking mirror effect.

For relatively poor Yuanyang, World Heritage Site status would be tantamount to winning the lottery. The main question would be how much of the incoming tourist revenue would make its way into the pockets of locals.

Chengjiang fossil lagerstätte
The least-known of the three Yunnan sites on the tentative list, Chengjiang's Lagerstätte – a sedimentary deposit rich in fossils – is centered around Maotian Shan, located just north of the city of Chengjiang and picturesque Fuxian Lake, one of China's deepest and cleanest lakes.

While it is ignored by travel guidebooks, Chengjiang and its Lagerstätte is quite famous among paleontologists for the fossilized sea life it contains, collectively referred to as 'Chengjiang Fauna'. Chengjiang Fauna is considered one of the 'Three faunas of the evolution of early life forms' along with Burgess Shale Fauna in western Canada and the Ediacaran Fauna of South Australia.

The Chengjiang Lagerstätte recently made news around the world when Yunnan and UK scientists announced that they had found the earliest example of collective behavior there in the form of 525 million-year-old crustacean fossils linked together.

Already a popular weekend getaway for wealthy Kunmingers, Chengjiang would likely experience a rapid increase in international travelers as well as Chinese from other parts of the country were it to be named a heritage site.

Chengjiang fossil image: Nature.com

Lao Airlines launched a new route connecting Kunming with UNESCO World Heritage site Luang Prabang on Saturday with an eye on the outbound Chinese tourism market, according to Chinese media reports.

Last year Luang Prabang province was visited by nearly 200,000 international visitors who contributed roughly US$80 million to the local economy, according to reports citing a Luang Prabang tourism official. The province and its ancient capital are expecting half a million tourists per year by 2010. Lao Airlines currently also operates four flights each week between the country's capital Vientiane and Kunming.

Although tourists are a primary reason for the new Kunming-Luang Prabang route, the growing importance of economic ties between Laos and China – especially Yunnan – should not be overlooked.

An example of this growing relationship is the announcement last week that Yunnan Copper Mining, Yunnan's second-'strongest' company according to recent rankings by the Yunnan Provincial Enterprise Association, will invest US$5 million in the construction of a five-star hotel in Luang Prabang province. Construction is scheduled to commence in August of this year.

Update: According to the Kunming office of Lao Airlines, the new Kunming-Luang Prabang route operates on Mondays and Fridays: The Kunming - Luang Prabang flight departs at 20:10 Beijing time and arrives in Luang Prabang at 20:40 local time. The Luang Prabang - Kunming flight leaves at 17:00 local time in Laos and arrives in Kunming at 19:30 Beijing time. The flight takes approximately 90 minutes.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has expressed concern over the state of six Chinese sites inscribed on its World Heritage List - including two in Yunnan province - and is encouraging the Chinese government to take corrective measures.

The Yunnan sites - the old town of Lijiang and the Three Parallel Rivers Protected Areas - were designated by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee for 'examination'. Four other sites including the Potala Palace in Lhasa and Beijing's Summer Palace, Imperial Palace and Temple of Heaven were designated for 'noting'.

None of the six sites are in immediate danger of being de-listed, according to Western media reports, but the move by the World Heritage Committee underscores concerns about the effect of development upon heritage sites.

The committee is reportedly concerned about the effect of tourism upon Lijiang, which received four million visitors last year. It also mentioned dam projects on the rivers of the Three Parallel Rivers areas as a reason for designating the site for examination.

Related Links:

UNESCO to de-list Yunnan heritage site?

Stone Forest added to World Heritage list

The 'South China Karst' area, which includes Yunnan's Stone Forest (石林, shilin) and Karst formations in Guizhou, Chongqing and Guangxi was selected by the World Heritage Committee on Tuesday to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

South China Karst will join Madagascar's Rainforests of the Atsinanana and South Korea's Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes as the newest members of the list, which represent UNESCO's aim to "encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity."

UNESCO's decision to include South China Karst on the World Heritage List marks the third time that a site in Yunnan has been added to the list. Previously, Old Town of Lijiang and Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas were added to the list in 1997 and 2003, respectively.

Inscription on the list will likely boost domestic and international tourist visits to Stone Forest, but it is doubtful that Shilin will receive the significant influx of tourists that Lijiang has experienced since 1997. Protecting the area could lead to more discoveries - or rediscoveries - of rare flora and fauna such as the reappearance last year of Paraisometrum mileense aka mile jutai (弥勒苣苔), a yellow-flowered plant that only grows on Karst limestone formations and was last seen in 1906.

Looking at the other Yunnan inscribees on the list, The Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas have benefited from efforts by environmental NGO The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with the Chinese government to minimize the impact of development and increased tourism in the area. The Chinese government has placed enough importance upon the areas to name a 2,000-square kilometer portion known as Pudacao as China's first national park two days ago. The area's spectacular mountainous terrain is brimming with tourism potential and is expected to see major growth in tourist visits as nearby Lijiang is built into a regional air hub connecting secondary cities in Yunnan with Chinese and Southeast Asian cities.

Lijiang was visited by more than four million tourists last year, with more than one million of them coming from Beijing. Not surprisingly, daily direct charter flights connecting Beijing and Lijiang were launched on Monday.

Image: Virtual Tourist

A story in today's Sydney Morning Herald reports that United Nations cultural organization UNESCO has threatened to remove a 1.7 million hectare heritage site in northwest Yunnan from its World Heritage List if government development schemes for the region go ahead as planned.

Located in Lijiang, Diqing and Nujiang prefectures, the Three Parallel Rivers Protected Areas contain the north-south flowing Jinsha, Lancang and Nu Rivers, which are headwaters of the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween Rivers, respectively. The rivers pass through steep gorges reaching 3,000 meters in depth and are bordered by glaciated mountains reaching as high as 6,000 meters. The site is made up of eight protected geographic clusters and is considered one of the most biologically diverse temperate areas in the world.

Government plans to reduce the size of the protected site by 20 percent plus the addition of new dams and mines to the area are at the crux of UNESCO's threat to de-list the site. UNESCO advisors from the World Conservation Union are reported to have issued a report warning to China during a visit in April of this year.

On one hand, government officials would like to turn the site and northwest Yunnan in general into a popular ecotourism destination - which if managed well could potentially improve life for locals with tourism cash. On the other hand, the same officials seem intent on exploiting hydropower and mineral resources in the area. The choice seems clear: maintain the beauty of one of the last pristine areas in China, or send it down the path of development at any cost that the majority of the country has traveled. Guess which one sounds better to us?