As domestic and international travel to Yunnan increases, the province has been rapidly expanding its aviation infrastructure. What few know is that the foundation of the province's airport network was laid more than 70 years ago by Americans and Chinese working for an often-misunderstood Chinese/American-owned commercial airline known as China National Aviation Corporation, or CNAC.

Founded in 1929 by aircraft manufacturer Curtiss-Wright, CNAC – originally known as China Airways – ran into difficulties dealing with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government and was sold to Pan American Airways in 1933.

CNAC fared better in China under Pan Am management and began to service routes linking the US, Pan American's Pacific network, and China's major urban centers, first flying into Kunming in 1935. It was one of two commercial airlines operating in China in the 30s, the other being Lufthansa's JV with the Nationalists, Eurasia Airlines. Runways were hard to come by in China at the time, and CNAC had a competitive advantage with its several river planes, which often made water landings on the Yangtze and other waterways.

War was to quickly alter the fates of both Eurasia and CNAC. After the invasion of China by Nazi Germany's ally Japan, the Chinese military absorbed all the assets of Eurasia Airlines. By the end of 1941, CNAC was making evacuation flights as well as the dangerous supply runs between India and Kunming for which it became famous.

When the American Volunteer Group (AVG), aka the Flying Tigers, a group of volunteer fighter pilots flying for China, disbanded in July of 1942, the majority of its pilots joined CNAC rather than return to the US military. This blurred the lines between CNAC and the Flying Tigers as the 'original' Tigers were now seen in CNAC civilian uniforms.

American Diego Kusak, whose father Steve Kusak was a CNAC pilot, grew up on the Spanish island of Mallorca listening to stories about CNAC – and 1940s Kunming – told by many of the CNAC and original AVG pilots themselves. Kusak is bringing the CNAC story to Chinese museums for the first time in an exhibit featuring articles belonging to his father as well as local collector Gong Kangyi (龚康毅). 'CNAC over the Hump' is currently the featured exhibit at the Kunming Municipal Museum.

"This exhibit isn't about war, it's about the love of aviation that was behind the founding of CNAC," Kusak told GoKunming.

A major challenge for Kusak's exhibit is to clearly separate the histories of CNAC and the Flying Tigers, a name which was given to them by Kunmingers during the war, and the American military units that later came to fight and to transport over China. Most Chinese and Westerners are still unaware of the key differences between the commercial airline CNAC and the Flying Tigers, who flew missions against Japanese bombers and fighters from December 1941 to July 1942.

As Japanese forces gained ground in southern China and Burma (now Myanmar), Yunnan became a critical launching pad for both CNAC supply missions over the Himalayas - a route which became known as 'the Hump' – and AVG engagement with Japanese planes in south China and Burma. By 1942, when Allied forces came to join China in the war, Kunming became one of the major military air hubs of that time.

Kusak's exhibition is as much about the roots of aviation in Yunnan as it is about the turbulent history and politics of China and Asia in the 20th Century. Even while the Allies and the US military began to take control of most of the air routes over war torn China, CNAC managed to survive as a Chinese-owned, commercial and profitable airline. On one hand CNAC was flying under contract for the Allies, transporting weapons, soldiers, war materiel and medicines over the Hump.

On the other hand, CNAC was the only commercial airline taking passengers from Kunming into India and vice versa via the Hump route. At the time, no safer route existed out of China.

'CNAC Over The Hump' features dozens of photos plus film of China, Yunnan and Kunming in the 1930s and 40s. It will run at the Kunming Municipal Museum through the end of March. The museum is open daily from 9:30 am to 5 pm.

Plane images: CNAC Association

Steve Kusak image: Diego Kusak

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing 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
Subject: Jukui Lou (聚奎楼), aka Zhuangyuan Lou (状元楼)
Location: Present-day Tuodong Lu, adjacent to Kunming Museum

Background:

The above photo is of Jukui Lou, which at three stories high was one of the tallest man-built structures in Kunming at the beginning of the 20th Century. The building, which straddled the street today known as Tuodong Lu, was one of Kunming's better-known landmarks until its destruction in the 1950s.

In 1901, French General Consul Auguste François took the first photo of Jukui Lou, which featured one small tunnel that allowed traffic to pass through it. Years later as Kunming's traffic pressures grew, two more tunnels were added to the building's bottom floor. Eventually, as more motorized vehicles took to Kunming's streets, Jukui Lou and its tunnels were becoming a hindrance. In the 1950s, officials decided to destroy the building rather than try to preserve the landmark, which only two decades earlier had been featured on local currency.

While photographing Jukui Lou, François took the opportunity to climb to the top of the building for a shot of Kunming from above. The photo below captures what was then the southern part of Kunming.

Today the Jukui Lou is generally known by its nickname, Zhuangyuan Lou (状元楼), named after the famous Yunnan economist Yuan Jiagu (袁嘉谷). The Jukui Lou became known by Kunmingers as Zhuangyuan Lou after a placard with characters written by Yuan was hung upon the building. The characters (大魁天下), which could be loosely translated as "it's a player's world", summed up his high profile in Kunming and Yunnan at that time.

Yuan, who was born in Shiping, was the first Yunnan native to attain zhuangyuan or "top scholar" status, and is still a source of intense local pride. His former Kunming residence on Cuihu Bei Lu became a source of public debate this summer when it was converted into a high-end restaurant, after which the Kunming municipal government announced that officially recognized protected historical buildings could no longer be converted into restaurants, hotels, etc. Unfortunately, there are very few old buildings left to benefit from the new rule. The photo below is of the Jukui Lou/Zhuangyuan Lou's former location as it looks today.

Currency image: 集草居的Blog

Related articles:

Auguste François, Yin Xiaojun and Kunming at the end of the Qing Dynasty

The White Pagoda: A young city's first sacrifice to traffic

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing 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: 1903
Subject: Gongyuan
Location: Present-day Yunnan University

Background:

Kunming's roots as an educational hub for Yunnan trace back to the Qing Dynasty, well before the Yundas, Shidas and Jingmao Daxues of today started cranking out graduates.

As Yunnan's administrative center, Kunming was where young men from around the province came to take China's notoriously difficult and stressful civil service examinations. Those who succeeded had the chance to go on to the national exams in Beijing, those who failed generally turned to drink or did the dignified thing and drowned themselves.

In Kunming, the provincial-level exams were administered at the current location of Yunnan University, at an educational institution known as Gongyuan (贡院).

Every three years 1,500 hopeful scholars who had passed their county/prefecture exams to become xiucai (秀才) would come to Gongyuan to take the provincial exam. The few candidates who passed the exam in Gongyuan would be designated as juren (举人) and would be allowed to proceed to the national exams. Those who passed the national level exams were designated jinshi (进士), after which they were eligible for high-level official positions.

The above photo by Auguste François - taken 19 years before the founding of Yunnan University - is of Gongyuan's front gate, which is strikingly bare compared to the lush front gate of Yunnan University today, pictured below.

Related article: Auguste François, Yin Xiaojun and Kunming at the end of the Qing Dynasty

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing 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: 1903
Subject: Unknown family
Location: Unknown location in Kunming

Background:

The above photograph was taken in 1903 and is one of Auguste François' last photos taken in Kunming. It features three generations of a Kunming aristocrat family in their own courtyard home. Less detailed than usual, François' Kunming journal did not mention the family's surname.

It is thought that the man in the center is the patriarch, the woman in the center his mother, the woman next to her his wife and the other women his concubines. This is one of the earliest family portraits taken in this part of the world.

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing 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: 1900
Subject: Eastern portion of Kunming's walled city
Location: Taken from top of Wuhua Shan, near present-day provincial government building

Background:

During his time in Kunming, French consul Auguste François focused on documenting the people and famous landmarks of Kunming and elsewhere in Yunnan. With what was then cutting edge-technology, François captured hundreds of vignettes of life and sights in Kunming at the beginning of the last century, but he took relatively few bird's eye shots of the city.

The above photo was taken in 1900 from the top of Wuhua Shan (五华山), or the 'mountain of the five glories'. Far from a mountain, this hill had one of the best views of Kunming when it was still a low-lying city with almost no architecture exceeding two stories in height.

In the foreground is the Lüshui ('Green Water') River (绿水河), which has been long drained. Behind the homes in the middle of the photo is the eastern portion of Kunming's city wall, with the main east gate aka Dadongmen (大东门) towering over the rest of the city on either side of the wall.

Kunming's city wall was demolished in 1952, three years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The eastern portion of the wall was converted into a road, named Qingnian Lu, or 'Youth Road', after the teams of local youth who demolished the wall.

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing 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: 1900
Subject: Biji Fang (碧鸡坊), or 'Emerald Chicken Gateway'
Location: Present-day Jinma Biji Fang (金马碧鸡坊), Jinbi Lu

Background:

This 108 year-old photo is taken facing westward toward Jinma Biji Fang, which is a popular place for tourists to take their photos with the two large paifang (牌坊, gateways), one named 'Golden Horse' (金马, jinma) the other 'Emerald Chicken' (碧鸡, biji) that are said to represent mountains to the east and west of the city, as well as sun and moon deities.

This above photograph of the Biji gateway shows the original Biji structure, nearly half a century before it was destroyed, along with the Jinma gateway, in World War II. New gateways built to the same dimensions as the originals were built in the 1960s.

Aside from the original structures being destroyed, another major difference between now and then is that homes and shops were built right up to the gateways, whereas today the area around the gateways is a large commercial plaza (see image below) with a labyrinth of discos and clubs.

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing 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: 1900
Subject: Wenchang Gong
Location: Present-day intersection of Wenlin Jie and Jianshe Lu/Dongfeng Xi Lu

Background:

Today the intersection of Wenlin Jie and Jianshe Lu is bustling with buses, cars, bicycles, electric bikes and countless pedestrians. Most people passing through the intersection pay no mind to its northeast corner, a walled-off plot of land covered with advertisements for real estate developments.

More than a century ago, the corner was still a major intersection, just within the city's main west gate (大西门). It was also quite a hub of activity with a Daoist (Taoist) temple at its heart. The temple was called Wenchang Gong (文昌宫).

The photo above is of a miaohui (庙会), an annual temple festival. The Wenchang Gong miaohui was a special time for Kunming's women, who were normally restricted from going out in public as they pleased. The miaohui was an exception to this social norm.

Below is a photo of long-demolished Wenchang Gong's location in modern Kunming – where women can leave home and go out as they please.

Related article: Auguste François, Yin Xiaojun and Kunming at the end of the Qing Dynasty

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 Kunming at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Year: 1900
Subject: North gate (beichengmen, 北城门) of Kunming's old city wall
Location: Present-day Beimen Jie (北门街), just outside of Yunnan University's east gate, facing south

Background:

Built during the Ming Dynasty and demolished centuries later in 1952, Kunming's city wall is but a memory for those old enough to have seen it. For the rest of us, the wall lives on primarily in the form of street names.

Qingnian Lu, or 'Youth Road', was named after the youth who were hired to demolish the massive edifice. The wall was indeed an impressive architectural feat – it stood 13 meters high and contained an area roughly equivalent to that surrounded today by the first ring road.

The wall lives on today in more than just memory, even some laws and regulations are based upon the old wall. For example, sanlunche - the ubiquitous three-wheeled carts seen throughout Kunming and the rest of China – are not allowed to enter the area within the old city wall (chengnei, 城内) until after 6:00 pm.

As with many Chinese cities, the ancient practice of geomancy known as fengshui played a major role in Kunming's initial layout, and the city wall was a major part of that. Below is a highly detailed map drawn by French Consul Auguste François in 1900.

In this map of Kunming within the wall, certain Kunming landmarks still standing today are visible – Cuihu (Green Lake) is situated in the northwest quadrant, the opposing gates of Jinma Biji Fang are located just north of the south gate and the Dade Temple twin pagodas are located in the northeast quadrant.

With a little imagination, one can see the shape of a tortoise facing south – which is the idea behind the layout of Kunming and its wall. The photo at the top of this post is of the wall's north gate, which was supposed to be the tortoise's 'tail'.

Situated between what is now Yuanxi Lu and Yunnan University's east gate, the area to the left (east) of the gate in the photo is Yuantong Shan, where Yuantong Temple and the Kunming Zoo are located today. To the right (west) is present-day Yunnan University.

In 1900, the area outside of the north gate was much less pleasant than within the gate – the area primarily served as a dumping ground for garbage, as well as a burial ground.

The image below is a photograph taken in July, 2008 by GoKunming – 108 years after François recorded the north gate. The north gate is gone, replaced by the Yunnan Provincial Song and Dance Ensemble (云南省歌舞剧院). The only reminder that the imposing north gate once looked out from this hilltop is the name of the street - Beimen Jie, or 'North Gate Street'

Update: It turns out Kunming's old city wall is not 100% gone. There is a small, hard-to-find portion still standing behind the Yunnan University foreign students dormitory. Reader Xiefei comments:

"There is actually one last segment of the wall still intact. It stretches along the back of the restaurants in wenhua xiang that abut the Yunda foreign students dorm. The wall can be seen from some of those dorm rooms, and was visible from the street a few years ago when many of those restaurants were rebuilt."

We went behind the Yunda foreign students dorm today [July 31] and found what Xiefei was talking about, which definitely looked like an old city wall:

According to a security guard working nearby, it is indeed the old city wall. Thanks to Xiefei for pointing that out.

Related articles:

Auguste François, Yin Xiaojun and Kunming at the end of the Qing Dynasty

Yuantong Temple's secret colonial past

Old Kunming: Eastern and Western Pagodas