Early in the evening this past Sunday, shoppers passing near the Xinhua Bookstore on Nanping Jie may have noticed a bloodied young man laying on the ground between roughly 5:30 and 8:00 pm.

Who beat up this man and left him injured on the street? According to witnesses interviewed by local paper Shenghuo Xinbao (aka Life Times), the man had been beaten by plainclothes chengguan (城管) – literally 'city management' – the government employees who are charged with keeping the streets free of unlicensed commerce.

The man, Yuan Bangjin (袁帮金, pictured above), moved to Kunming from Sichuan in January of this year after a tragic 2008 in which the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake killed his wife and destroyed his shop. According to the Shenghuo Xinbao article, Yuan barely had more than a photo of his deceased wife when he arrived in Kunming.

According to Tong Dahong (童大洪), a friend of Yuan's, the two men had been playing cards with others before returning to Nanping Jie, where Tong was flogging goods at a makeshift street stall. When the chengguan arrived, Tong fled, leaving Yuan to face the chengguan alone.

The chengguan reportedly mistook Yuan for an illegal street vendor, leading to a quarrel that quickly turned violent, according to onlookers quoted in the Shenghuo Xinbao report.

"We change shifts at three, afterward I was sitting in our [chengguan] kiosk the whole time, we did not beat anyone – furthermore we didn't wear plainclothes today," Chengguan captain Yu Bing (余兵) told Shenghuo Xinbao.

"If you're going to say we're beating people, you need photographic evidence," Yu added. "At present we've undergone an investigation and we have no responsibility whatsoever.

A woman working near the Xinhua Bookstore on Nanping Jie told Shenghuo Xinbao a very different story. The woman, who did not give her name, said she and her coworker both saw plainclothes chengguan beat Yuan.

"[Chengguan] come here everyday, frequently in plainclothes," she said. "I know exactly what they look like."

After being taken to a hospital for treatment, Yuan went to the Huguo Police Station, where he was told that they could not deal with the matter. Yuan then went to the chengguan bureau for the Wuhua District, where he was told that they would only investigate if he provided photographs of him being beaten by chengguan.

"How can I obtain photographic evidence [of my beating] while I'm being beaten?" Yuan asked Shenghuo Xinbao.

Kunming's chengguan have a local reputation for frequently resorting to heavy handed tactics when dealing with street vendors and even registered businesses. Conflicts involving chengguan can also end up with chengguan suffering casualties. A chengguan was stabbed to death on Wenlin Jie in late 2005 while confiscating a tangerine vendor's cart.

In what may be an effort to improve the image of chengguan in Kunming, a "military-style" seven-day training program for thousands of chengguan around Kunming was launched on Sunday, according to a Yunnan Information News report.

Yang Zhaolin, an assistant chengguan captain, told the paper he was optimistic about the effect the training would have on Kunming's chengguan.

"I believe that later on, the team members who complete this training will definitely not enforce the law the way they wish to or enforce the law haphazardly, putting an end to any unhappiness that results from the process of law enforcement," Yang said.

Yuan Bangjin image: news.kunming.cn

Chengguan training image: news.ifeng.com

The end of the year is a special time in which editors and writers around the world recycle content from the previous twelve months and repackage it as new content. We at GoKunming are not above this practice, so here's our look at the people and events that shaped 2008 in Kunming and Yunnan.

January
The year began with the Yunnan government shelving its plans to dam Tiger Leaping Gorge, while not necessarily sparing the Jinsha River – the headwaters of the Yangtze – from several new hydropower projects. Kunming banned the use of car horns and the city seemed to be getting a little less horn-heavy for about two weeks. A few days later the city – which is adding an average of 560 automobiles per day to its streets – issued its 900,000th license plate.

Pretty much all of southern China except for Kunming was at the mercy of a winter storm that paralyzed domestic travel and left thousands of travelers stranded in Kunming. Shangri-la (Zhongdian) was hit by heavy snowfalls that destroyed much of the area's livestock and crops plus telecommunications and power networks.

February
Yunnan was hit by a rash of sulfuric acid spills in late January and mid-February with more than 70 tons of the toxic chemical spilling near rivers and most likely entering local water supplies.

Kunming Municipal Party Secretary Qiu He was making waves a few months into his new post, ordering local newspapers to publish the names, titles, responsibilities and phone numbers of local officials in early February and firing a Chenggong investment official who fell asleep during a meeting.

Hong Kong director Stanley Tong signed an agreement with Dianchi National Tourist Resort to build a 3 billion yuan (US$418 million) television and film base that would become 'China's Hollywood'.

Yunnan's first international highway opened, connecting it with Vietnam's Lao Cai province.

March
Construction of the 'turtleback' flyover at Xiao Ximen commenced, throwing Kunming traffic into chaos. Work on the flyover – which is mockingly referred to as 'the newly added slope' (新加坡), or 'Singapore' in Chinese - was finished four months later.

Tens of thousands of bottles of counterfeit beer were found in Kunming's Majie area. The beers are expected to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amount of fake booze being sold around the city.

China played Australia's Socceroos in a World Cup qualifying match in Kunming that ended in a 0:0 draw. The match looked like a sure victory for China when it was awarded a late penalty kick, only for kicker Shao Jiayi to kick a slow roller into Oz goalie Mark Schwarzer's waiting hands. Team China went on to fail to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

April
The old standby F visa option disappeared for foreigners living in China as visa restrictions tightened in the runup to the Beijing Olympics, while protestors vented nationalist anger at Kunming's Carrefour outlets.

May
The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences World Congress, originally scheduled to be held in Kunming in July, was canceled - apparently due to Olympic-related security concerns.

On May 12, an earthquake measuring 8.0 in magnitude centered in Wenchuan devastated much of Sichuan province and killed at least 69,000 people. Yunnan did what it could to help its neighbor to the north by treating victims from the disaster zone, taking children into its schools and raising money for the relief effort.

The Yunnan white-handed gibbon was declared extinct.

June
Free plastic bags at retail outlets were banned in China.

The Olympic torch passed through Kunming. The torch was originally scheduled to pass through areas including Beijing Lu, Wenlin Jie and Yuantong Jie, but its route was altered at the last minute, keeping it out of the view of most Kunming residents. The torch continued through Yunnan to the cities of Lijiang and Shangri-la before heading to earthquake-battered Sichuan.

The third hydropower station on the Lancang River – as the upper reaches of the Mekong River in Yunnan are known – went online.

July
Yunnan announced a total ban on the production, sale and use of plastic bags across the province, beginning on January 1, 2009.

Jackie Chan announced that he would open a 'Jackie Chan Peace Garden' outside Kunming in the city of Anning. Meanwhile, Kunming was in the middle of planting 800,000 trees throughout the city.

Two people were killed and 14 injured in double bus bombings that took place on public buses on Renmin Xi Lu. A militant Islamic group took credit for the bombings, a claim which was refuted by local police. The bombings were not declared solved until the suspected bomber blew himself up while trying to plant a bomb in Salvador's Coffee House almost half a year later.

August
After an unprecedented buildup, China hosted the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and several other cities, winning 51 gold medals, more than second-place US (36) and third-place Russian Federation (23).

Kunming unveiled its 12-year development plan, detailing how the city intends to handle a major influx in residents and an increasingly important role in regional trade and transport.

September
It was announced that Yangzonghai Lake, one of the largest lakes in Yunnan, was suffering from heavy arsenic pollution, with the bulk of the blame placed upon Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Industrial and Trade Company, which allegedly found it easier to pay the relatively low fines for not treating wastewater than to purchase and install the equipment necessary for cleaning wastewater. Shortly afterward, Yunnan established a special court for handling crimes against the environment.

October
A government study of HIV/AIDS infections in Yunnan revealed that that women and gay men had emerged as the fastest-growing demographics for new infections, replacing intravenous drug users. It was also noted that new infections were moving away from ethnic minorities in rural areas to Han Chinese in urban centers throughout the province.

A group of fossilized crustaceans from 525 million years ago found near Chengjiang were said to display the first example of collective behavior among animals.

Citing difficulties with the local business environment, Hong Kong-listed property giant Shui On Land pulled out of its Yunnan development projects.

November
Starbucks announced that it would market Yunnan coffee via its hundreds of mainland outlets.

Kunming Airlines announced that it would launch operations in January 2009, the first step in its quest to become a dominant regional airline.

A delegation of Yunnan officials and businesspeople visiting India asked the Indian government to establish a consulate in Kunming to facilitate the visa application process for Yunnan residents wishing to take advantage of the direct flights between Kunming and the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

The famed Shaolin Temple announced that it would take over management of four Kunming temples for 20 years, during which time it would receive all of the temples' revenue. Shaolin Temple's abbot was accused of being a 'CEO monk'.

December
A man stabbed three women and took a nurse hostage at the Carrefour on Longquan Lu, before being lured to a door where some rice noodles had been placed for him and getting shot in the head by a police sniper, ending the five-hour standoff.

Ground was broken on the 'South Asian Gate', a 72-story, 316-meter tall building that will be completed in four to five years and will be the tallest man-made structure in Yunnan province. It is expected to serve as a hub for business between China, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

A bomb exploded in popular foreign-owned cafe and restaurant Salvador's Coffee House, killing the man who was wearing a backpack with an ammonium nitrate bomb in it near the rear bathroom. Nobody else was hurt. Police concluded that the man, 30-year-old Li Yan of Xuanwei, had also been behind the unsolved bombing of two buses in Kunming in July.

Direct flights opened between Kunming and Taipei.

The GoKunming team thanks everyone who visited the site in 2008 and wishes all of its readers a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has given China Eastern Airlines permission to reopen its previously suspended Kunming-Dali and Kunming-Jinghong routes, half a year after stripping the Shanghai-based airline of the routes because of mid-air protests by several of its Yunnan subsidiary's pilots.

In March of this year, China Eastern pilots are reported to have deliberately turned back midway through their provincial flights out of Kunming as a form of protest over dissatisfaction with strict lifetime contracts and low pay.

The airline quickly fired its Yunnan management, but that was not enough to prevent regulators at CAAC from discontinuing its Kunming-Dali and Kunming-Jinghong routes on May 4 and reducing feeder routes from Kunming to Lijiang, Shangri-la, Mangshi, Lincang, Pu'er and Wenshan by 20 flights daily, on April 26.

CAAC said that it had restored the routes plus increased the frequency of other China Eastern routes in Yunnan as a result of the airline's 'impressive contribution to Sichuan earthquake relief and rescue efforts', according to aviation trade publication ATW Daily News.

Analysts say the restoration of the routes may not help offset the estimated loss of 405 million yuan (US$59 million) in revenue from the route suspensions, as Chinese domestic tourism has been slumping since the Wenchuan earthquake in May.

Related articles:

China Eastern loses Xishuangbanna, Dali routes

China Eastern fires Yunnan management over pilot demonstration

China Eastern officials, pilots meet after Kunming protest

Editor's note: GoKunming is publishing photos from the collection of Auguste François (1857-1935), who served as French consul in south China between 1896 and 1904, during which he spent several years in Kunming. The photos have been provided by Kunming resident and private collector Yin Xiaojun (殷晓俊). GoKunming thanks Yin Xiaojun for providing us a glimpse of Yunnan at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Year: 1900
Subject: Refugees from Sichuan
Location: Unknown location in Kunming

Background:

In general, life in southwest China is much less arduous than it was a century ago, but natural disasters can still strike with little notice - as this year has demonstrated to catastrophic effect. This year southwest China has experienced a massive winter storm, a catastrophic earthquake near Wenchuan in Sichuan, and the more recent tremor that destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes in Sichuan and Yunnan.

More than a hundred years ago, Auguste François bore witness to the tragedy of the flooding of Luzhou in Sichuan. The people in the photo above are refugees from the flooding of the Jinsha River, which eventually becomes the Yangtze River.

That these refugees even made it to Yunnan is little short of a miracle. These seven extremely poor people had barely enough clothing to cover themselves, and included two elderly and one child in their ranks.

Moreover, some of the refugees are missing toes, likely due to leprosy (麻风病), and the child's belly is bloated from undernourishment. The sad scene is an unforgettable illustration of the Chinese phrase yi bu bi ti (衣不蔽体) or "not enough clothing to cover oneself".

Related articles:

Auguste François, Yin Xiaojun and Kunming at the end of the Qing Dynasty

Relocated pandas suffering from post-earthquake stress

Yunnan contributing to earthquake recovery effort

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.

Related articles:

24 hours later, aftershock hits Sichuan, Yunnan

Earthquake rattles Sichuan, Yunnan provinces

More than two months after the devastation of the 8.0 magnitude Wenchuan earthquake, the psychological scars of the earthquake and its aftermath are only beginning to heal for those who were affected by the massive tremor.

In addition to the millions of survivors in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, the endangered giant panda, also known as China's 'national treasures' (国宝, guobao) are also recovering from the traumatic experience. China's largest giant panda breeding base at Wolong is only 30 kilometers from Wenchuan.

Initially the three pandas Si Jia (思嘉), Qian Qian (芊芊) and Mei Qian (美茜) – all females less than two years old – were transported out of Wolong to another base in Ya'an, Sichuan. Due to continuous aftershocks and landslides, it was decided that the pandas would be moved to Kunming, where it is hoped they will recover from what is essentially post-traumatic stress disorder over the next two years.

After arriving in Kunming on June 26, the three pandas are now in their third week at the Yunnan Wild Animal Zoo in northeast Kunming, and are still jittery from the quake.

The Wenchuan quake was catastrophic for the Wolong reserve, where 150 pandas had been living. More than a dozen of the base's 32 pens were destroyed, five pandas went missing and one died.

Si Jia, Qian Qian and Mei Qian didn't come to Kunming alone, their zoo keeper Xiao Yi also moved to Kunming from Wolong. According to a Xinhua report, their keeper tries to soothe the three young pandas by saying nice things to them in the Sichuan dialect.

"When they feel safe enough, the three pandas will enjoy themselves in the playground," Xinhua quoted Xiao as saying. "They roll all the way down the slope and stack themselves up, one on top of another, but they are extremely scared of loud noises."

According to Xiao, recent thunder in Kunming has had a startling effect on the pandas, who are having the same reactions to thunder as they did to the aftershocks and landslides in Sichuan.

There are plans to build a new Wolong panda base, this time in Huangcaoping, Sichuan. Required investment for the project is estimated at two billion yuan (US$290 million). The new base, proposed by the Wolong reserve, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is expected to feature a panda laboratory, panda hospital, a 1,500 square meter cub pen plus a bamboo cultivation area.

Kunming's three pandas will have to wait if they want to move back to Wolong – if approved, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Image: clzg.cn

Related article:

Gentle giants arrive in Kunming

Tiger fishing

First came the great winter storm of 2008, then the devastating Wenchuan earthquake, whose official death toll now stands at nearly 70,000. Now China is coping with its third major natural disaster of the year as heavy rains and floods batter the country's south.

Continuing heavy rains in Yunnan and across southern China since June 6 have led to 57 deaths and 1.27 million people fleeing their homes, with more rain expected throughout the region over the coming days. According to Xinhua reports more than 17 million people have been affected by the flooding with more than 10.6 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in damage incurred so far.

The rains have led to the swelling of rivers in China's south, with key manufacturing province Guangdong experiencing its worst flooding in 50 years. On Monday, Guangdong's provincial flood control bureau ordered local governments in Guangzhou and eight other cities to reinforce river embankments and make evacuation preparations.

Although damage in Yunnan has been relatively light compared to Guangdong and other lower-lying areas including Jiangxi, Guizhou and Hunan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rains here are a major concern as many of the flooding rivers – including Guangdong's Pearl River – have their headwaters in Yunnan.

China's National Meteorological Center is forecasting more rains in southern parts of the country - including Yunnan - over the next few days.

Image: Xinhua

The Olympic torch relay is passing through Lijiang today as it continues its path through Yunnan province toward earthquake-ravaged Sichuan.

This morning, 13-year-old Zhang Zilan (张紫兰) of Wenchuan, Sichuan shared her torch relay responsibilities with 12-year-old He Zhensheng (和震生). Zhang is one the many children from the earthquake disaster zone that have been relocated to Lijiang, where they are now attending school.

He, whose name Zhensheng literally means "born from a quake", was born during the deadly 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Lijiang in 1996.

Tomorrow the torch will make its last stop in Yunnan in Shangri-la (Zhongdian). The next day, the ethnically Tibetan area of Shangri-la will hold its annual horse racing festival (赛马节), which was supposed to take place on Sunday but was postponed by the local government – thanks to reader Steph Jensen for notifying us of the postponement.

Editor's note: If you have a story idea or a tip you'd like to share with GoKunming please feel free to contact us via our contact form.

Image: clzg.cn