Yunnan

Yunnan, a province in the south-west of China, bounded on the S. by Annam, Siam, and Burma, with an area estimated at 122,000 sq. m., and a population, put by Mr Colquhoun at 4,000,000, having sunk from 15,000,000 through plague and the war of the Mohammedan Panthays which smouldered from 1855 till 1872. The surface is mainly an extensive uneven highland plateau, in which the main ranges trend north and south. Between these ranges, which vary in height from 12,000 to 17,000 feet in the north to 7000 or 8000 in the south, are numerous deep defiles through which run some of the largest rivers of Indo-China—the Mekhong or Cambodia, the Salween, and the Shweli. Fertile plains and valleys are numerous. In the northern part the surface is wild, broken, and barren, wrapped in mist and fog, and the population sparse. But the south and south-west are populous and richly cultivated. Except in the cities the mass of the people is made up of aboriginal tribes, such as the Lolo, Pai, and Maiao. In the plains rice, maize, peas, beans, opium, tobacco, and sugar are the chief products—about a third of the whole cultivated area being given to the poppy. Almost the only import is cotton from the Shan states, but some British piece-goods reach the province from Canton. There is much mineral wealth as yet little wrought. The main routes available for tapping the wealth of Yunnan are (1) by the Yang-tsze River, from Shanghai; (2) by the Canton River, from Canton; (3) by the Songka River, from the Tongking gulf; (4) by the Bhamo route, from Bhamo on the Irawadi; (5) by some route from British Burma. Mr Colquhoun's judgment is that the last is the best—by railway from the side of Burma. The first important exploration was that of the French (1867-68). Later were Cooper in 1868, Dupuis in 1869-70, Margary (murdered 22d February 1875 at Manwyne, the last town on the Chinese border), Grosvenor and Baber in 1876, McCarthy and Captain Gill in 1879, Count Szechenyi in 1880, Colquhoun in 1881. See Across Chrysé (1883) by the last.