Yunnan Revisited

THERE is an indissoluble bond between Yunnan and me. I first went there in 1970 after graduating from university in the coastal metropolis of Shanghai. 1 left for Beijing eight years later, when the reform and opening-up policy was in its infancy. It was not until March 2006 that the opportunity arose to revisit Yunnan's rural areas. I was prepared for dramatic changes after my 28-year absence. Those that I saw in the provincial capital of Kunming were only to be expected, but I was totally unprepared for the transformation I witnessed in the rural areas isolated from Kunming by the Hengduan Mountains, most notably in Simao City where 1 embarked on my career. Some were beneficial, others less so. It was a journey of happy revelations tempered with a few misgivings.

Yunnan Revisited