Our next stop after Kunming and the Western Mountains was Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. It is the southern most part of Yunnan, bordering with Burma and Laos. Quite different from other areas of China, the Han Chinese are not the majority in the area, the largest ethnic group being the Dai, and it feels like you have entered a new country that is half Chinese, half Thai. The name of Xishuangbanna was established in 1570 during the Ming Dynasty, at which time the area was divided into 12 sub-districts, or "Xishuang" (meaning 12 in the Dai language), for the purpose of collecting taxes. In the Dai language, a "Banna" is one thousand Mu, a unit of measurement in Chinese similar to an acre.
From Kunming we took a 10 hour ride on a sleeper bus (I didn't fit in my bunk) to Jinghong, the capital city of Xishuangbanna, which by Chinese standards feels like a little town. There is nothing much going on in the city itself, but it is a hub for travellers looking to explore the surrounding countryside. We simply sat around in a foreigner friendly cafe and met other people who were looking to share the cost of hiring a driver for the day.
From Kunming we took a 10 hour ride on a sleeper bus (I didn't fit in my bunk) to Jinghong, the capital city of Xishuangbanna, which by Chinese standards feels like a little town. There is nothing much going on in the city itself, but it is a hub for travellers looking to explore the surrounding countryside. We simply sat around in a foreigner friendly cafe and met other people who were looking to share the cost of hiring a driver for the day.
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