Linked from Best of Kunming Awards 2018, this post is in need of an update. The convenience of KRT XiShan Park Station at end of Line 3 with the blossoming of traditional Yunnan eateries along the mouth of the entrance.

Reading and reading... waiting for the Stephen-King-esque horror to unfold. Thanks Pat for click-baiting your followers. No entrails spillin' out this time. lol

For regular seagull feeders, bring your empty bags to 100 meters up South Gate of Green Lake to fill up on free gull food pellets (鸥粮) provided by the city government. Monday - Friday around 9am. The avian "man-eaters" will be waiting.

What's your interpretation of progress & development?

66 million 农民 Chinese were lifted out of poverty within the last five years. 500 million within the last three decades.

Some would argue that is progress. The benefits of development.

Granted President Xi would be the first to admit mission is far from accomplished.

A bit of devil advocacy in the second half of my post.

Firstly, @mike's geological history is fascinating. It explains the eastward bending of the river system.

Yunnan only receives the tributaries, while the actual Yangtze River cuts through our northern provincial neighbors like Sichuan (e.g. Jiuzhaigou National Park) and snaking through Chongqing's central district.

The breadth of Yangtze is remarkable. Flowing down from Tanggula Mountain of Tibet at peak elevation of over 5,000 meters. This river not only has erected cities & civilizations like the flow of collective "tired and poor" hands of ruralites... but cultivated the ecology for forests and wild life prior to the dawn of humans.

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That said, it's promising that China is reducing coal-fired power plants with renewable hydropower energy in an effort to curb climate change. Yet when hydropower plants are excessively built to overcapacity for profit-driven energy exports at the expense of local ecology, the amount of oversight from Beijing comes to question.

Below is a simple chart showing "Share of global hydropower capacity, by country:"

www.theatlas.com/charts/Hka8gcGeQ

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Yes, China leads in hydropower capacity by a huge margin. A surplus over consumption for the time being. However, the bigger picture of greater precedence over peafowls is untold by above piece.

Neighboring nations facing power outages like Pakistan, Laos, Myanmar, and even Russia are in need of electricity imports from China.

China's State Grid adopts the UHV (ultra high-voltage) cable technology to transfer said electricity to energy deprived regions in not only Asia, but to Africa, and as far as Germany.

The State Grid's long-game is to deploy world's first "global electricity grid" standard. Potentially expanding regional power grids of clean energy to more remote corners, such as in South America and Africa. In an effort of consolidation, China has already invested heavily in numerous power utilities overseas. From Portugal to the Philippines.

This grand ambition is not only a win-win in tackling global warming while vying for industry dominance as offshore hydroelectric projects are built by the Chinese. But expanding access of clean energy to remote regions lacking in infrastructures also serves a global humanitarian purpose: the betterment of societies and lives.

The balancing acts between global warming & local environmental protection, and between profit and diplomacy. Unfortunately, peafowls won't have a say in all of this.

Not sure if Germany or UK subsidiaries of Airbus would embrace the idea their proprietary know-hows could potentially be reversed engineered by China's ambitious homegrown COMAC.