Leisure and entertainment

[edit]Leisure and entertainment

Within Kunming, the entertainment district has its focus around Kunming Square, with many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants. Eating out is the main pleasure after dark in Kunming. Food aside, one feature of less formal Yunnanese restaurants is that they often have a communal bamboo water pipe and tobacco for their customers. Nightlife has improved recently, thanks to rising incomes and tourist population. There are plenty of student bars and clubs. The city has several operatic troupes and indigenous entertainments which includehuadeng, a lantern dance. Although indoor performances are lacking, there are often informal shows at the weekend outside the Workers' Cultural Hall and in Cuihu Park. There are similar shows at the Yunnan Arts Theater on Dongfeng Xi Lu. Kunming's main cinema house is on the south side of the Dongfeng Lu/Zhengyi Lu intersection. The other main multiplex, the XJS, at the junction of Wenlin Jie and Dongfeng Xi Lu.

[edit]Arts

In October 2006, artists from China, Taiwan, the US, Canada, Japan and elsewhere adopted a constitution for the newly formedInternational Folk Arts and Craft Union (IFACU). The stated mission of IFACU is to organize and promote cooperation among the world's artists to promote and preserve folk arts and crafts. The organization will be based in Kunming, ostensibly because of the ethnic diversity in Yunnan and the variety of folk art and crafts found throughout the province. The first IFACU general assembly is scheduled to take place in Kunming sometime in 2008.

[edit]Art galleries

• 
  YunArt Gallery, highlights leading and up-and-coming artists from Yunnan.^[16]
  
• 
  TCG Nordica, an international art gallery and culture centre situated in the heart of the artist community at Chuang Ku/LOFT in Kunming.[5]
  

The Kunming dialect is very similar to that of Sichuan and Guizhou but uses the third tone much less than standard Chinese. Many terms are used only in Kunming dialect, such as 板扎 meaning 'terrific'.

Kunming at night

Kunming's cuisine is distinctly Yunnanese and combines fresh ingredients afforded by the moderate climate with mild herbs and spices giving its cooked dishes sufficient flavour but lacking the pungency associated with food from other regions of the country. The city's climate fosters the growth of literally hundreds of species of mushroom which are consequently a predominant feature of many dishes. There are other regional Chinese cuisines, with a few upmarket restaurants serving international dishes. Back lanes running north off Dongfeng Xi Lu or Jinbi Lu have the famous stalls and restaurants where the locals offer specialties such as grilled cheese, hotpots, fried snacks rolled in chilli powder, loaves of meat-stuffed soda bread, and rich duck and chicken casseroles. The special dish of Kunming is guò qiáo mĭxiàn, a boiling, chicken soup with rice noodles under a very thin layer of oil. Raw meat and vegetables are added by the consumer to ensure the ingredients are fresh and the ingredients will be cooked in the hot soup since the cut of the raw meat and vegetables are extremely thin. The legend behind "crossing bridge noodles" involves a student studying for the imperial exam (which was given once per year). He went to study on an island a short way from his wife and village. Every day his wife would bring him food, but because of the distance (she had to cross a bridge) the food would get cold. The student's wife figured out that by layering the broth with oil, she could keep the food hot.

Some of the most famous Kunming food is as follows:

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  Over the Bridge Rice Noodles Guo qiao mi xian 过桥米线
  
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  Steam Potted Chicken 气锅鸡
  
• 
  Er Kuai (Rice Cake)
  
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  Smoked Smelly Bean Curd, a popular night stall snack 臭豆腐
  
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  The Eight Treasures of Yunnan, a type of stuffed cake
  

Every year, many Chinese and international athletes come to Kunming for high-altitude training. The city has been China's national high-elevation training base for more than 30 years. There are two major training complexes, Hongta Sports Center and Haigeng National Training Center.^[17]

Haigeng National Training Center is located on Lake Dianchi near Kunming's award-winning Lakeview Golf Club and new condominium developments, and is relatively isolated. It contains eight basketball courts, weight rooms, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a dozen football pitches, two running tracks, a pool for swimming and one for diving. It also has a large snooker hall, a room for table tennis and a volleyball gym. Athletes, coaches and team managers stay onsite in the complex's many dormitories and hotel rooms.^[17]

Hongta Sports Center was built in 2000 by one of Yunnan's largest corporations Hongta cigarette company with a cost of US$58 million. Near Haigeng Park, the complex is mostly used by professional athletes but also acts as a sports club for the general public. The general public can use all of its extensive facilities and every weekend, it hosts amateur football matches. Aside from about 10 football pitches, including one surrounded by a running track, Hongta also has a 50 m swimming pool, a badminton gymnasium, tennis courts and a basketball court. It also has one of China's few ice hockey rinks, and a workout room with treadmills and weightlifting machines. There are also game rooms for air hockey and pool tables, and a basement bowling alley. Hongta also has a 101-room hotel and restaurant.^[17]

[edit]Golf

Golf is a major attraction in Kunming. There are four golf courses within an hour's drive of downtown. For the last six years, Spring City Golf and Lake Resort in nearby Yiliang County has reigned as the best golf course in China and Hong Kong according to US Golf Digest. In 2004, it was named Asia's best golf resort by Asian Golf Monthly.^[9] It hosts the Kunming Leg of the Omega China Tour.

Kunming has attracted foreign investment in golf course development. "Spring City" Golf Resort is a US$600 million project that began as an investment led by Singapore's Keppel Land Group in 1992. Today it is not only ranked by some as China's top golf course, but also one of the top golf destinations in all of Asia. Much of this is attributable to Keppel's financial backing in addition to having golf legend Jack Nicklaus and eminent golf course designer Robert Trent Jones, Jr design the two courses.^[9]

[edit]Sport facilities

Major sports facilities include:

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  Tuodong Sports Center, a multi-purpose venue
  
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  Golf: Spring City Golf and Lake Resort, its 'Mountain Course' was designed by Jack Nicklaus
  
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  Lakeview Golf Villa
  
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  Cuihu Park tennis courts
  
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  Kunming Municipal Athletic Center
  
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  Kunming Gymnasium
  
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  Yunnan Provincial Stadium, home to Hongta Yunnan Football Club
  
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  Wuhua District Stadium
  

Hong Kong China International and Dianchi National Tourist Resort will jointly invest and construct a new television and film base in Kunming. The Kunming TV, Film and New Media Industry Base (昆明影视与新媒体产业基地) or "Dream City" will be built by a joint venture created for the project with an investment of three billion yuan (US$418 million) allocated for the base's first phase, which will cover three square kilometers. The base will feature television and film studios, shooting stages and equipment, state-of-the-art production facilities andvideo game production, and a film school established by Peking University and Beijing Film Academy.The whole project is expected to be completed by 2013 with a total investment of 17 billion yuan ($2.3 billion).^[18]

• 
  BigScreen Festival (or "BigScreen Italia"), focuses on Chinese and Italian cinema
  
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  Yunnan Mulicultural Visual Festival ("Yunfest"), focuses on Chinese documentaries in Yunnan [6]
  
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  Kunming Anime Festival
  

Kunming attracts domestic and foreign tourists all year round. At the center of Yunnan province and as its capital, Kunming is also a transport hub for tourists heading to other parts of Yunnan such as Dali,Lijiang and Shangrila.

Over 24 million domestic tourists visited Kunming in 2007, with 800,000 foreign tourists visiting annually.^[19] Kunming's total revenue from tourism in 2007 was 16.8 billion yuan, an increase of 8.0% over 2006.

Kunming hosts the China International Travel Mart every two years.

Conference and exhibition venues in Kunming include the Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center and the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Hall.

• 
  Kingdom of the Little People, a theme park featuring performers with dwarfism, is also located near Kunming.^[20]
  

Kunming industrial zone on the west coast of the Lake Dian

Due to its position at the geographical center of Yunnan, one of China's largest producers of agricultural products, minerals and hydroelectric power, Kunming is the main commercial hub for most of the province's vast resources.

Kunming's chief industries are copper, lead and zinc production. Its iron and steel industry has been greatly expanded. Salt and phosphate mines around Kunming are some of the largest in China. Yunnan Copper Company Limited, based in Kunming, is one of Yunnan's largest mining corporations. From the late 1970s, Kunming's main industries also came to include food and tobacco processing and the manufacture of construction equipment and machines.

In May 1995, the State Council approved Kunming as an Open City. By the end of that year, the city had approved 929 overseas-funded enterprises with a total investment of 2.286 billion US dollars including 1.073 billion U.S. dollars of foreign capital. More than 40 projects each had an investment of more than nine million U.S. dollars.

Kunming is also a center of engineering and the manufacture of machine tools, electrical machinery, equipment and automobiles (including heavy goods vehicles= truck with a gross combination mass (GCM) of over 3,500 kilograms (7,716 lb).

). It has a major chemical industry, as well as plastics, cement works and textile factories. Its many processing plants, which include tanneries, woodworking and papermaking factories, use local agricultural products. In 1997, Yunnan Tire Co. opened a tire plant in Kunming, with a capacity to produce two million tires per year.

Because of its location in the southwest of China, Kunming missed out on China's rapid economic growth in the 1990s. However, the city has recently received renewed attention, becoming an international commercial hub for South and Southeast Asia. The Kunming economic authorities are active participants in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), promoting trade throughout China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

Several railroads and highways have been planned to connect Kunming to areas of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, providing access to seaports.

In 2006, the Chinese government approved a 2912 km oil pipeline to be built from the Indian Ocean coastal town of Sittwe, Myanmar to Kunming. This pipeline will carry African and Middle Eastern petroleum to China, bypassing some oil shipments through the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea. The pipeline will cut oil transport time by two weeks. In addition, Kunming is also said to be the site for an oil refinery for the incoming oil.

[edit]Development zones

Kunming has two major development zones, Kunming High-tech Industrial Development Zone (biological medicine, new materials, electronic information, photoelectron, agriculture) and Kunming Economic and Technology Development Zone (mechanical equipment production, biological science and food industry, information industry, software).

Kunming Economic & Technology Development Zone

First established in 1992, Kunming Economic & Technology Development Zone is a national-level zone approved by State Council. Kunming is located in east-central Yunnan province with preferential location. After several years' development, the zone has formed its pillar industries, which include tobacco processing, machinery manufacturing, electronic information, and biotechnology.^[21]

The Kunming High-tech Industrial Development Zone (KMHNZ), is a state-level high-tech industrial zone established in 1992 to the northwest of downtown Kunming. It is administratively part of Kunming City. It has covers an area of 9 square kilometres (3.5 sq mi). KMHNZ is located in the northwest part of Kunming city, with 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Kunming Railway Station, and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Kunming Wujiaba International Airport.^[22]

[edit]Industrial parks

There are 30 key industrial parks promulgated and recognized by National Development and Reform Commission in Yunnan Province.^[23]

The largest include:

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  Chenggong Industrial Park
  
• 
  Anning Industrial Park
  
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  Songming Yanglin Industrial Development Zone
  
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  Dongchuan Special Industrial Park
  
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  Xundian Special Industrial Park
  
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  Kunming Haikou Industrial Park
  

For the fiscal year of 2009,^[24]

• 
  Kunming's gross domestic product (GDP) was 180.9 billion yuan;
  
• 
  Fixed asset investment was 160.1 billion yuan;
  
• 
  Real estate investment was 36.9 billion yuan;
  
• 
  Retail sales was 86.5 billion yuan;
  
• 
  Per capita disposable income within Kunming's urban areas grew to 16,496 yuan;
  
• 
  Kunming's average farmer outside of the city earned 5,080 yuan.
  

As of 2008, Kunming is home to 65 of the Top 100 Enterprises in Yunnan Province. The top 100 enterprises were based on their revenues for 2007. Hongta Group, with revenues of some RMB39.88 billion for 2007 topped the list, while Hongyun Group took the third place with revenues of RMB39.23 billion. The tobacco sector remains the largest sector in the province.

Top 10 Kunming-based companies, according to Yunnan Provincial Enterprise Association:^[25] (company; annual operating revenue; primary business)

1. 
   Hongta Group (红塔集团): 40,798,100,000 yuan; tobacco
   

http://www.kaplan.com.cn/html/sp/AboutUS/ContactsUs/

2. 
   Preparatory Overseas Courses, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics :
   
3.