The Yunnan ProvinceFinding David Sneddon
Yunnan Province is a largely mountainous province bordering on Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. It is home to the richest variety of ethnic groups in China. Some of the ethnic groups include the Naxi, Yi, Bai, Zhuang, Dai, and Tibetan. Yunnan's 24 registered minorities account for 34% of the population and a high concentration of these groups is in the mountains of Northwest Yunnan province. For example, the city of Lijiang was originally Naxi and Shangri-La, estimated population of 120,000, has a famous Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Many of the villages surrounding Shangri-La are Tibetan.
Yunnan is rich in flora and fauna, and is home to half of all of China's plant and animal species. It has the nation's richest deposits of non-ferrous metals such as lead, zinc, and germanium and also the largest phosphorous reserves. Agricultural products include sugarcane, rubber, tobacco, and bananas. The capital of the Yunnan province is Kunming, nicknamed the "Spring City," with weather perhaps the best in China.