Kunming is the capital of Yunnan Province, located in the middle of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, built around the Dianchi Lake, no heat in winter, no severe cold in summer, all year round like spring, so it has the reputation of "Spring City".
Kunming has a long history, as early as 2200 years ago, the Chu general Zhuang Ji established the "Dian Kingdom" here, which is one of the first 24 historical and cultural cities in the country.
So, do you know the origin of the name "Kunming"?
The word Kunming did not originally refer to place names, and the famous historian Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty wrote in the "History of Southwest Yilie": "The west is east of Tongshi (present-day Baoshan) and north to Yeyu, named Yao, Kunming, all of which are woven and hairdried, and migrate with livestock, no place, no king, and the place can be thousands of miles." ”
Thus, Kunming originally referred to an ethnic minority living in western Yunnan. In fact, the origin of the place name Kunming is also related to this ethnic minority.
In the second year of Wude of the Tang Dynasty (619), the town of Dingdi in Sichuan was designated as Kunming County, because the town of Dingdi was close to the area where ethnic minorities gathered, so it got its name.
Later, during the Nanzhao and Dali periods, the Wu man and the white man in Yunnan rose up and seized the land that originally belonged to the Kunming ethnic group, and the Kunming tribe had no choice but to migrate outward, and eventually, most of the Kunming people migrated to the vicinity of Dianchi Lake, and multiplied and grew here, becoming the most important ethnic group in the Dianchi area.
In the second year of Baoyou of the Song Dynasty (1254), the dali state was destroyed by the army of the Yuan Dynasty, and "Kunming Thousand Households" was set up in Yanyi (the ancient place name of the Kunming area), and Kunming was used as a place name and has been used to this day.
Before being called "Kunming", the Kunming area had several names, the more famous Yizhou, Jianning, Ningzhou, Queensland, Yanxian and so on.
Due to its location in the southwest border and far from the Central Plains regime, the Kunming area has always been controlled by ethnic minorities, and since entering the modern era, Kunming's status has been significantly improved, and after Wu Sangui defected to the Qing Dynasty, he was named the King of Pingxi, and later used Kunming as a base to rebel against the Qing, and finally ended in failure.
In 1911, the famous generals cai yi and Tang Jiyao of the Yunnan Army launched the Chongjiu Uprising in Kunming and declared the independence of Yunnan. After Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of victory, Cai Yi, who was in Beijing, in order to confuse Yuan Shikai, pretended not to care about the world, went in and out of the eight hutongs of Beijing, mixed with Xiao Fengxian, but secretly left Beijing, arrived in Tianjin, and then returned to Kunming by water bypass, and in 1915 launched a patriotic uprising in Kunming, which received a nationwide response and dealt a heavy blow to Yuan Shikai's ambition to become emperor.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, because Kunming was located in the southwest, it became a place of refuge for many people, and also brought a lot of advanced culture, such as the famous Southwest United University, the school site was located in Kunming, which became the most dazzling area in the cultural circles during the War of Resistance.
Because of the beautiful scenery of Kunming and the spring of the four seasons, it has become one of the top ten tourist hotspots in the country, including Stone Forest, Dianchi Lake, Xishan, Yangzonghai, Anning Hot Spring, Jiuxiang Cave and other scenic spots.
Kunming is also a multi-ethnic city, according to statistics, there are 26 ethnic groups, all retain the different characteristics of each ethnic group, such as the "Torch Festival" of the Yi people, the "March Festival" of the Bai people, the "Songkran Festival" of the Dai people, and the "Stepping on the Flower Mountain" of the Miao people.
Kunming's cuisine is also unforgettable, the most famous is the bridge rice noodles -
There is also the famous flower cake, eat a bite of soft and tender and fragrant -
In addition, there are the famous steam pot chicken, fire scoop beef, Guishan bacon and so on, which makes people drool at a glance!