Xishuangbanna: A Little Southeast Asia in China

Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture is one of the eight autonomous prefectures in Yunnan Province, the capital is Jinghong City. Xishuangbanna is located on the northern edge of the tropical zone south of the Tropic of Cancer, covering an area of 19,124.5 square kilometers. It is connected with Laos and bordering Myanmar, with a national border of 966.3 kilometers. It connects six countries with one river and has four national ports. Xishuangbanna has jurisdiction over 1 county level city and 2 counties. In 2019, Xishuangbanna has a population of 793,300 ethnic minorities. The Dai nationality is the main ethnic group, living in 13 ethnic groups. As of November 2020, the permanent population was about 1,3 million.

Xishuangbanna is the region with the most intact tropical ecosystem in China, known as the "Kingdom of Plants", "Kingdom of Animals", "Biological Gene Bank" and so on. Xishuangbanna has China's only tropical rainforest nature reserve. It is a national ecological demonstration area, a national scenic area, a member of the United Nations Biodiversity Protection Circle, and an observation point for sustainable development of tourism of the United Nations World Tourism organization, with 1/6 of the plant species and 1/4 of the animal species in China.

Xishuangbanna is the second largest natural rubber production base in China, the original place of big leaf tea and the hometown of Pu 'er tea. It has one 5A scenic spot and nine 4A scenic spots. Xishuangbanna is famous for its tropical rainforest natural landscape and ethnic customs, and is one of the hot tourist cities in China. It has been honored as China's most internationally influential tourist destination and one of the world's 12 hottest tourist destinations.

● Top things to do in Xishuangbanna

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences: It is located in Huludao Island, Menglun Town, Mengla County, Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Xishuangbanna. It is the largest botanical garden in China with the most abundant collection of species and the largest number of plant parks. It is also a comprehensive research institution and scenic spot integrating scientific research, species preservation and popular science education.

Mengle Buddhist Temple, located in the suburb of Jinghong City, the capital of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, is the former site of the royal temple Jingle Beng Temple of the ancient Dai Dynasty. The building was destroyed in the war in 1848 AD (Xianfeng Years of Qing Dynasty) and rebuilt in 2005 to fully display the history and traditional culture of the Southern Buddhism.

Xishuangbanna Wild Elephant Valley: It is located in Mengyangzi National Nature Reserve and UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve of Xishuangbanna, 22 kilometers away from Jinghong City. It is China's first national park with animal protection and environmental protection as its theme. Xishuangbanna is the only habitat of the Asian elephant in China. It is the only place in China which tourists can communicate closely with wild Asian elephant.

Dai Nationality Garden: It is located in Ganlanba, Xishuangbanna and has China's best preserved five Dai natural villages in the scenic area, covering an area of 3.36 square kilometers.

● Xishuangbanna Food&Drinks

Dai nationality sour meat: Dai people are good at pickled sour meats, with sour beef tendon, head and feet the most characteristic.

Fragrant bamboo roasted rice: It is a famous dish of the Dai people in Xishuangbanna. Mix glutinous rice with peanut, put it into bamboo tube, inject water and soak for 4-5 hours, plug the tube tightly with banana leaf, put bamboo tube on high heat at an inclined angle and cook until the bamboo tube is burnt, pop the banana leaf plug out. Take out the bamboo slips, crack them evenly along the sides of the bamboo tube, peel off the bamboo skin, take out the rice tightly wrapped with bamboo film, cut into round pieces and put in the plate.

Pineapple rice: Reserve the pineapple shell as a container, put the fried pineapple, rice and dish into the pineapple shell.

Roast chicken with thatch, Bulang nationality barbecue and so on.

● Xishuangbanna Transportation

Airport: Xishuangbanna Gasa International Airport is the second international airport in Yunnan Province, located in Gasa Town, Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Prefecture. By October 2020, it had opened 65 domestic and foreign air routes to 54 cities.

Railway: On December 3, 2021, the China-Laos Railway was officially put into operation. It starts from Kunming in the north of Yunan Province, passes Yuxi,

Pu 'er, Xishuangbanna to Mohan port, then passes Boten, Monsai, Luang Prabang, Vannong in Laos and finally arrives at Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It is the first overseas railway built and operated in cooperation with Laos in accordance with Chinese standards and directly connected with China's railway network. The total length of the railway is 1,035 kilometers.

Highway: There are three passenger stations in Jinhong City: Jinghong passenger station, passenger transport west station, passenger transport south station.

● Xishuangbanna Weather

Xishuangbanna is located in the northern edge of the tropical zone, with Ailao Mountain and Wuliang Mountain as the barriers to the north which block the southward cold current. To the south and east side of the south part are the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Influenced by the southwest monsoon of the Indian Ocean and the southeast airflow of the Pacific Ocean, the climate in Xishuangbanna is characterized by high temperature and rainfall, distinct dry and wet seasons but no obvious seasons. Therefore, the climate in Xishuangbanna is warm and humid all year round. There is no four seasons except dry and wet seasons, the dry season is from November to April of the next year, and the wet season is from May to October.

Xishuangbanna has abundant rainfall and sunshine, with an annual rainfall of 1,136-1,513 mm. During the wet season, there are more clouds and rain, less wind speed, less sunshine, high temperature and high humidity. During the dry season, there are few clouds and rain, strong light and thick fog and dew. The annual average temperature in Xishuangbanna is between 18.9℃ and 22.6℃.