Kunming and much of the rest of Yunnan have been enjoying idyllic cloudless days for most of the last five months, but the azure skies have concealed an increasingly dire issue: Yunnan is running out of water.

In November of last year, Kunming officials were asserting that should Kunming not receive any precipitation this winter, there would still be enough water in the city's reservoirs to provide the city with water until late spring 2010.

Fast-forward to today, and the government's no-need-to-worry tone has given way to grim statistics that underscore the severity of the current drought, the worst the province has seen in 60 years.

What's the damage looking like at this point? Nearly five million people are having difficulty accessing drinking water, forest fires are up 600 percent and hydropower generation has been halved. Estimates of drought-related agricultural losses are currently at 6.5 billion yuan (US$952 million).

Aside from Kunming, areas suffering most from the drought include Lincang, Pu'er, Jianshui, Yuxi, Chuxiong, Dali and Baoshan, where 300,000 people lack access to enough drinking water. The drought is also causing water prices to skyrocket. In Wenshan one cubic meter of drinking water is reportedly selling for as much as 100 yuan.

In some of Yunnan's more remote areas, villagers have to walk to other villages and towns up to 20 kilometers away in order to buy water at high prices, then carry the water home on their backs.

The provincial government has set aside 389 million yuan for drought relief, which will be allocated for distributing drinking water to the areas most in need and irrigating more than 700,000 of the 2 million hectares of crops affected by the drought.

Officials estimate that more than 500,000 hectares of crops have already been destroyed by lack of water. Yunnan is also expected to produce 40 percent less grain during this summer's growing season. Farmers are also struggling to provide water for 3.3 million large livestock.

To make matters worse, the drought is fueling an increase in forest fires before the rainy season begins in late spring. Firefighters around the province have battled about 59 blazes in the past five weeks, according to Xinhua Net, though most have been small enough to have been successfully extinguished in one day. There is now a jumbo helicopter stationed at Kunming Wujiaba International airport to assist in firefighting.

Several fires have burned in the areas around Kunming recently, including on Qipan Mountain to the west, forests near Shuanglong in the northeast, and Changchong Mountain in the north.

We followed up our recent bicycle trip to Chongchang Mountain with a visit to survey the fire damage over the weekend. Though the mountain retains its verdant, forested slopes and panoramic views of Kunming, it has lost some of its charm: the summit is a mass of rock and black charred grass and smells strongly of smoke.

The timing for the drought conditions couldn't be much worse, as Chinese New Year approaches and people around the province stock up on fireworks to set off in celebration of spring's arrival. In light of the drought and superdry conditions, the Kunming municipal government has shortened the 25-day fireworks sales season to 12 days, with sales ending February 19.

Update: Fireworks sales are now banned after February 16.

Crop image: CCTV

Yunnan prides itself in being a little weirder than the rest of China, as exemplified by its "18 oddities" (云南十八怪), a list of some of the stranger phenomena found in the province, such as eggs at the market being packaged with rope, the popularity of smoking tobacco out of bongs and the renowned slowness of the province's trains.

Cords of eggs can still be found in rural markets around the province, and bongs have yet to go out of style, but in the coming years, Yunnan's rail network will no longer stick out because of its slowness.

Yesterday Dali's vice governor Li Hongwei (李红卫) told reporters yesterday that construction will begin at the end of this year on a new high-speed rail line linking Dali with Kunming via Chuxiong. The new rail line will reduce travel time between Kunming and Dali by train to two hours, more than three times faster than the current seven hours.

Li said passenger trains on the new line, which will take three and a half years to complete, will have an average speed of 200 kilometers per hour. No cost estimates for the project were provided.

The Kunming-Dali high-speed rail line is the second high-speed rail project in Yunnan announced in the last year. Plans for a Kunming-Shanghai high-speed rail line were announced in December 2008. The line will have a target speed of 350 kilometers per hour, shortening the travel time between the two cities from 37 hours to 10 hours.

Chinese President Hu Jintao wrapped up a four-day inspection tour of Yunnan on Tuesday in which ethnic unity and government concern for the development of western China were the primary messages, according to a Xinhua report.

President Hu's inspection tour, which was not covered in Chinese media until its conclusion yesterday, took him through Kunming, Chuxiong and Yao'an, the site of a 6.0 magnitude earthquake that injured hundreds and destroyed tens of thousands of homes earlier this month.

While in Kunming's Shuncheng neighborhood, Hu stressed the importance of ethnic unity to a group of minorities, urging them to "Improve the precious and hard-earned overall good ethnic unity in China and to make the flower of ethnic unity bloom even more brightly and beautifully."

Perhaps somewhat ironically, most of Shuncheng, downtown Kunming's old Muslim quarter, has fallen victim to the wrecking ball, displacing its former Hui and Uighur residents for major real estate projects including the Twin Towers, a soon-to-be finished high-end residential, commercial and office development on Dongfeng Xi Lu, west of the Jinri Tunnel.

While in Yao'an, Hu inspected rubble from this month's earthquake and met with local officials and homeless locals, offering words of encouragement and support.

"We are definitely able to cross this difficult junction and rebuild a beautiful home," Hu said.

While making the rounds in Yunnan, Hu also sent a personal greeting to US President Barack Obama during this week's China-US strategic and economic dialogue. During the talks, China and the US agreed to resume military ties, which had been suspended in fallout from riots in Tibet last year, and it was announced that Obama would visit China before the end of this year.

More than 80 are injured and more than 3,200 homes are destroyed after an earthquake shook the countryside around 175km Northwest of Kunming on Thursday night.

A 6.0 magnitude tremor rattled Yao'an County (姚安) in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture yesterday, with damage reports only just beginning to be released to local media. As of 12:00 am today, more than 620,000 people have been affected by the quake, with 56 seriously injured and 28 lightly injured.

The quake, which was felt in Kunming, took place at 7:19 pm on Thursday night, 10 kilometers below the earth's surface. In addition to Yao'an, injuries and damage have also been reported in Dayao, Mouding, Nanhua, Yuanmou and Yongren.

The tremor collapsed more than 3,200 homes and more than 4,800 have been damaged. Five thousand tents have been sent to Yao'an for victims left homeless by the quake.

Update: As of 8:30 am on Friday, China Daily is reporting 336 injured with 18,000 collapsed homes, and 30,000 homes suffering damage.

Other reports have put the quake at 6.2 magnitude. One person is reported dead, with over 300 injured, 29 seriously.

Image: news.kunming.cn

Bus accident leaves 21 dead
The highway between Kunming and Chuxiong was the scene of a fatal collision between a tourist bus and a truck full of watermelons on Saturday. Nineteen people died on Saturday and two more on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 21, according to a Xinhua report.

The watermelon truck reportedly crashed into the back of a tour bus carrying tourists from Beijing, Shanxi and Hunan at 6:40 Saturday morning. Both vehicles lost control and veered off the road. Twenty people were also injured in the accident, all of whom are no longer in critical condition, according to a Yunnan government spokesperson.

Bangladesh, Yunnan discussing rail link
Bangladesh Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain met with Yunnan government officials last Thursday to discuss a proposed rail line between Kunming and its sister city in Bangladesh, the port city of Chittagong, according to Bangladeshi media reports.

In recent years the Yunnan government and China's central government have expressed their desire to have transport links to Chittagong, which lies on the Bay of Bengal. Port access in the Bay of Bengal would reduce Chinese reliance upon the Malacca Strait, which occasionally has piracy problems. The Malacca Strait is also patrolled by the US and its allies, which adds to Beijing's uneasiness.

A rail line connecting Chittagong with Kunming would pass through mountainous northern Myanmar. In his visit to China, Hossain also met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to seek technical and financial assistance for the project.

Kunming Nanchang rail line to launch tomorrow
Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces will finally be connected directly by rail with tomorrow's launch of the 1235/6 train between Kunming and Jiangxi provincial capital Nanchang, according to a Sohu report citing Jiangxi railway officials.

The new line will feature 20 stops between Kunming and Nanchang. In addition to stops in Yunnan and Jiangxi, the line will also pass through cities in Guizhou and Hunan provinces.

Accident image: news.xinhuanet.com

China has allocated 27 million yuan (3.95 million dollars) in relief funds for the areas of southern Sichuan and northern Yunnan hit by a 6.1 magnitude quake on Saturday that affected nearly a million people and whose death toll currently stands at forty.

The areas of Huili County and Panzhihua in Sichuan plus Chuxiong prefecture in Yunnan were hit hardest by Saturday's tremor, which destroyed or damaged more than 392,000 homes and led to the evacuation of around 181,000, according to Xinhua reports. At least 675 have been reported injured.

Saturday's quake was located on the southern end of the fault line involved in the devastating May 12 earthquake centered around Wenchuan county that left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing.

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24 hours later, aftershock hits Sichuan, Yunnan

Earthquake rattles Sichuan, Yunnan provinces

Yesterday at 4:31 pm, a strong aftershock registering 5.6 in magnitude hit southern Sichuan near Panzhihua 24 hours and one minute after Saturday's 6.1-magnitude earthquake in the same location. Once again, the tremor was able to be felt in buildings as far south as Kunming.

According to the most recent Xinhua reports, 32 people died in Saturday's quake, more than 400 were injured and over 100,000 homes were destroyed or damaged.

No information has been made available regarding casualties or damage from Sunday's aftershock. More than 800,000 people have been affected by the quakes.

According to Chinese media reports, the areas most affected by the quakes include Panzhihua, Huili and Liangshan in Sichuan and Zhaotong, Chuxiong and Dali.

UPDATE: As of 6:30 pm Beijing time on Monday, Xinhua is reporting that 38 people have been confirmed dead from the quake.

Related article: Earthquake rattles Sichuan, Yunnan provinces

Yesterday at the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Industry Development Conference in Chuxiong it was announced that 11 mainland and Hong Kong companies will invest more than 90 billion yuan (US$13.1 billion) in Yunnan's tourism industry.

The group of eleven is led by HK-listed Shui On Land (瑞安房地产), best known for being developers of the Xintiandi and Corporate Avenue project in Shanghai. Total investment by Shui On Land in Yunnan this year is expected to reach 48 billion, more than the other 10 companies combined.

In December 2007, Shui On signed a cooperation agreement with the provincial government – today it is working on four major projects in Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Diqing.

Smart Hero Group (骏豪集团), another Hong Kong developer, will invest more than 25 billion yuan in the city of Chengjiang, 70 kilometers southeast of Kunming. The project, located at the Sun Mountain International Ecological Tourism and Leisure Holdiday Area, will commence construction in September. Smart Hero has existing tourism and hospitality projects in the cities of Xiamen, Sanya and Chongqing.

Smart Hero's investment in Chengjiang is indicative of a larger trend in Yunnan – in addition to established tourist cities such as Kunming, Lijiang, Dali and Shangri-la, smaller cities and lesser-known areas in Yunnan are beginning to attract larger amounts of investment. Other examples include Pu'er and Yangzonghai.

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Property giant Shui On moving into Yunnan