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.

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).

Last Friday while much of the world was nursing the hangover of a decade of war and terrorism, economic turmoil and environmental degradation, China and its Southeast Asian neighbors took a big step toward regional integration with the launch of a new free trade area (FTA). The long term implications for Yunnan are massive.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have now entered the first phase of an FTA, eliminating tariffs on around 7,000 items including fruits, vegetables, textiles and machinery. These goods represent roughly 90 percent of trade in the new economic bloc, which is the world's largest in terms of population and third-largest after the EU and NAFTA in terms of GDP.

The first phase includes China and the more developed ASEAN members: Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. On Friday these countries also launched the first phase of an FTA within ASEAN itself. The remaining members – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – will join the ASEAN China FTA in 2015.

Although it does not directly border any of the first phase countries, Yunnan has much to gain from the FTA's launch. It has water, air and highway connections to Thailand plus air links to Malaysia and Singapore, all of which are expected to become even busier trade routes. The launch of the FTA has long been viewed as a major milepost in the rise of Yunnan as China's gateway to Southeast Asia.

As some observers note, the FTA is more than just a step toward trade integration, it is also a major strategic achievement for China, whose political power in Southeast Asia already greatly surpasses that of regional rival India and is also seriously challenging American influence in the region.

China's soft power in Southeast Asia will undoubtedly grow in step with trade within the FTA, and much of this influence will be projected from Yunnan.

In the coming decade, China and Southeast Asia will become increasingly connected by a vast network of highways and rail which will provide cities in Yunnan with cheap overland access to markets in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Seated at the northern end of this transport web, Yunnan is poised to become an increasingly important international trade hub.

The initiation of the ASEAN China FTA is a modern revival of the ancient tea and horse caravan routes from centuries ago known as the South Silk Road, which linked China with Southeast Asian markets as well as Tibet and India.

Total trade between China and Southeast Asia was US$100 billion in 2004 and US$231 billion in 2008, but this is just the beginning. Bilateral trade – much of which will be passing through Yunnan – is expected to double over the next decade.

Difficult as it may be to imagine, Yunnan's days as an economic and political backwater are officially over.

Beginning this coming January 1, direct rail service between Kunming and Lijiang will be available, connecting Yunnan's capital and most populous city with its most popular tourist destination.

Direct rail access from Kunming to Lijiang not only offers a new and relatively hassle-free way to get to Lijiang's old town, it also provides increased access to other popular destinations including Shuhe, Yulong Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Lugu Lake.

The new train line will operate twice daily, with the day train leaving for Kunming at 8:20 am and arriving at Lijiang East Station at 7:30 pm for a total of more than 11 and a half hours plus a faster night train that leaves Kunming at 10:00 pm and arrives just under nine hours later at 6:55 am.

Ticket prices for the train will range from 130 yuan to 614 yuan.

Deteriorating relations between Thailand and Cambodia have brought the fate of the eastern line of the proposed Trans-Asian railway which would link Kunming with Singapore into doubt, according to a Phnom Penh Post report citing Thai and Cambodian sources.

A six-kilometer section of track that would link Aranyaphrathet in Thailand with Sisophon in Cambodia may not be built, which would be a major blow to the 5,300 kilometer regional rail network. It is this section that would act as a linchpin, connecting all existing railway networks in the vicinity.

The never-easy relationship between Thailand and Cambodia has become increasingly tense in recent weeks.

In November Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen angered the current Thai government by offering deposed Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra a home and an economic advisor post in the Cambodian government after refusing an extradition request by Bangkok, where he is supposed to serve two years in prison for corruption. The Thai government under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has interpreted this as criticism of its judicial system.

Since Cambodia's refusal to extradite Shinawatra, both countries have recalled their ambassadors from each other's capitals and a Thai citizen has been arrested in Cambodia for spying.

This is the lowest point in relations between the two countries since Shinawatra's days in power in 2003, when rumors that a Thai actress had claimed that Cambodian icon Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand resulted in mob violence aimed at the Thai embassy and Thai-owned businesses in Phnom Penh.

One day later the Cambodian embassy was damaged in an attack by a crowd in Bangkok. Diplomatic relations between the countries were suspended for three months afterward.

Adding to the drama is the fact that Shinawatra still holds much influence on the Thai side of the border, where he is still popular in rural regions. On top of that, consummate political survivor Hun Sen, who has been a mainstay of Cambodian politics since the days of the Khmer Rouge, is much more adept at political brinkmanship than Thailand's Vejjajiva.

There has been no word from Bangkok or Phnom Penh that either country has decided to scrap plans for the Aranyaprathet-Sisophon link. Were one country to withdraw from the plan, the rail link between Cambodia and Vietnam – and the rest of the rail network – would become unviable to governments and lenders, according to experts familiar with the project.

Southwest China rail network to be upgraded
Rail lines linking Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Chongqing will be upgraded "at an early date" according to Yan Hexiang, deputy director of the Ministry of Railways' development planning department.

The ministry plans on adding more than 50,000 kilometers of new rail lines to China's less-developed west by 2020. Lines slated for improvement include the Kunming-Nanning, Chengdu-Guiyang, and Chongqing-Guiyang lines. China's west consists of more than 70 percent of the country's land area and is home to 370 million people.

Myanmar to build rail link to Yunnan
Myanmar will build a railroad connecting the border town of Muse with Yunnan's Jieguo, located near Ruili, according to Chinese media reports. The rail line is expected to boost the already flourishing trade between Myanmar and Yunnan, which is currently conducted with cars and trucks.

Since 1998, Myanmar has established five border trade areas with China, including Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti. The country is planning on adding a sixth in the Kokang region, where in August of this year the Myanmar army overran an ethnic Chinese militia, sending thousands of refugees into Yunnan.

The border trade area at Muse primarily sends agricultural products, seafood, timber and gems into Yunnan, with steel, construction materials, computers, farm machinery and other finished products flowing in from China.

Carbon credits helping Yunnan build wind power infrastructure
Yunnan is using the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to rapidly build up its wind power network with foreign investment, according to an AFP report. The CDM allows industrialized nations to fulfill some greenhouse gas reduction requirements by investing in clean energy technologies in developing nations.

The Zhemoshan wind farm in Dali – located at an altitude of 3,000 meters – is the highest wind farm in China. Carbon credits produced by the project, which has been funded by a US$45 million loan from the French Development Agency, will be purchased by Dutch bank Rabobank, according to a representative from Sinohydro, the Chinese company which manages the farm.

It is hoped that the Dali wind farm and others in Yunnan will make up for the winter dropoff in hydroelectric power generation by the province's extensive network of dams.

China has gone from little installed wind generation capacity five years ago to 12.2 gigawatts of installed capacity last year, making it the world's fourth-largest wind power producer, behind only the US, Germany and Spain.

Kunming's Second Ring Road open to traffic
After one year of demolition and reconstruction, Kunming's second ring road (二环) is now open to test traffic and will officially open to the public on Wednesday.

Local media is gushing about the completion of the ring road, which will serve as the linchpin in the city's "four rings, 17 spokes" traffic plan, in which expansion of the city's traffic system from two ring roads centered around Green Lake Park to four ring roads – the fourth encircling Dianchi Lake – will shift the center of the city's traffic structure southward, coinciding with the development of "New Kunming" in Chenggong.

According to government traffic officials, once on the second ring road, it will be possible for cars to reach destinations including Chenggong, Anning, Jinning, Kunyang, Haikou, and Songming. Travel time from to Yiliang, Luquan, Shilin and Xundian will be reduced to one hour.

Dali – Lijiang rail line open to public tomorrow
Beginning tomorrow, the new Dali-Lijiang rail line (大丽铁路) will officially open to the public, linking the two popular tourist destinations by rail for the first time.

The Dali-Lijiang passenger line will operate daily, with hard seats on the L9016/7 (Dali to Lijiang) and the L9018/5 (Lijiang to Dali) costing 34 yuan. Total time for the journey is approximately three hours and 45 minutes.

The L9016/7 Leaves Dali at 9:26 am, stops for two minutes at Shangguan at 10:51 and arrives at Lijiang at 1:12 pm. The L9018/5 leaves Lijiang East Station at 1:45 pm, stops in Shangguan for two minutes at 3:59 pm and arrives in Dali at 5:26 pm.

Southwest China's first IMAX theater to open in Kunming
At the end of this month Kunming will become the first city in Southwest China with an IMAX Theater, according to government-run BBS clzg.cn.

The theater, which features a 12 meters high by 21 meters wide screen, is located in the new Shuncheng Shopping Center on Dongfeng Xi Lu. The shopping center, which will also be home to retail outlets including Zara and Papa John's, is built on the old Shuncheng Muslim quarter, which prior to its demolition in 2004 was a dilapidated but vibrant neighborhood filled with Hui and Uighur restaurants.

Image: news.kunming.cn

Yunnan prides itself in being a little weirder than the rest of China, as exemplified by its "18 oddities" (云南十八怪), a list of some of the stranger phenomena found in the province, such as eggs at the market being packaged with rope, the popularity of smoking tobacco out of bongs and the renowned slowness of the province's trains.

Cords of eggs can still be found in rural markets around the province, and bongs have yet to go out of style, but in the coming years, Yunnan's rail network will no longer stick out because of its slowness.

Yesterday Dali's vice governor Li Hongwei (李红卫) told reporters yesterday that construction will begin at the end of this year on a new high-speed rail line linking Dali with Kunming via Chuxiong. The new rail line will reduce travel time between Kunming and Dali by train to two hours, more than three times faster than the current seven hours.

Li said passenger trains on the new line, which will take three and a half years to complete, will have an average speed of 200 kilometers per hour. No cost estimates for the project were provided.

The Kunming-Dali high-speed rail line is the second high-speed rail project in Yunnan announced in the last year. Plans for a Kunming-Shanghai high-speed rail line were announced in December 2008. The line will have a target speed of 350 kilometers per hour, shortening the travel time between the two cities from 37 hours to 10 hours.