Yunnan experienced great industrial growth after 1949 from the national government’s policy of locating new industries in interior provinces with abundant natural resources. The Kunming region developed into a giant industrial complex, consisting of steelworks, iron- and copper-smelting facilities, and plants for manufacturing fertilizers, machinery, trucks and automobiles, industrial chemicals, optical instruments, textiles, and processed foods. Gejiu, in the southeast, has a well-developed nonferrous metals industry.

Elsewhere in the province the focus is more on light manufacturing, notably tobacco, tea, and sugar processing. Cigarette manufacturing at Yuxi, Kunming, and Qujing is particularly well known throughout the country. Traditional handicrafts include marble wares, variegated (purple) copper and tin handicrafts, brocades made by the Dai people, rugs from the far southwestern Xishuangbanna region, and rattan ware from the western Tengchong area.

Transportation

Because of its rugged and broken terrain, Yunnan long suffered from poor communications. Until World War II the only rail link with the outside world was the French-built railroad from Kunming to Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam. Since the mid-1950s, however, railroads have linked Kunming with Guizhou, Guangxi, and Sichuan and thus to other parts of China.

It was in the development of highways that Yunnan made the fastest progress, opening links with neighbouring provinces and achieving a balanced network within Yunnan. Kunming, Dali, and Pu’er (to the southwest) form the triangular axis of Yunnan’s road system, from which radiate numerous highways. The most famous of these routes is the Burma Road, running from Dali to Lashio in Myanmar (Burma), the supply route used during the Sino-Japanese War. Express highways from Kunming eastward to Qujing and westward to Dali and Baoshan have also been completed. The vigorous road-development program had significant effects. Travel and trade with Guizhou, Guangxi, and Sichuan increased, and the close links with Tibet and Xinjiang to the northwest proved their strategic value. But most important was the momentum for development and modernization in the remote regions inhabited by minority peoples. The slow transport of goods on men’s backs or by pack animal is still relied upon in the more isolated areas, but truck transport now reaches most villages, making available large quantities of modern tools, fertilizers, and daily necessities to the farmers and making it possible to ship farm products to near or distant markets where they can be sold to the best advantage of the producers.

Most of the rivers in Yunnan are unnavigable, except for short distances or in broken stretches. Steam launches ply between towns on the shores of Lake Er, but they cannot sail beyond there to connect with other waterways. Efforts were made to improve the situation of the waterway channels. Cross-border international water transportation has been in service since the beginning of the 21st century along the Mekong (Lancang) River, both for cargo and passenger traffic. Major river ports were built on the southwestern stretch of the river at Lancang (administratively part of Pu’er) and Jinghong.

Aviation has added an important dimension to transportation in Yunnan. Kunming is the hub of both domestic and international services of the airlines.

Constitutional framework

Like those of China’s other provinces, Yunnan’s administrative divisions are hierarchically organized. Immediately below the province level, there are eight prefecture-level municipalities (dijishi) and eight autonomous prefectures (zizhizhou), designated for various minority peoples. At the next lower level there are districts under municipalities (shixiaqu), county-level municipalities (xianjishi), counties (xian), and autonomous counties (zizhixian). The lowest political units are the villages and towns. At all levels, People’s Congresses are the organs of government authority. The executive functions of government are performed by the People’s Councils elected at each level by their respective People’s Congresses. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with its own congresses and committees at every level, exercises a controlling power over this system of government.

The large number of autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties reflects the government’s intent to end the traditional antagonism between Han and non-Han peoples. The policy seeks to preserve the languages, customs, and cultural traditions of the minority peoples and to afford equal opportunity to all ethnic groups. Adequate representation of the nationalities on every level of government is a prerequisite. At the same time, the government is determined that the minorities should experience the same socialist transformation as the Han majority.

Health and welfare

Since 1949 Yunnan made giant strides in sanitation and public hygiene. Such previously widespread diseases as trachoma (a contagious eye disease), smallpox, malaria, measles, snail fever, and bubonic plague were brought under control. Iodization of water put an end to the high incidence of goitre. Clinics providing medical care are available in all the counties, but modern hospitals are found only in the major cities. There is an expanding demand for medical staff, hospital beds, and modern equipment. The government has promoted a massive movement to expand cooperative medical service and to collect local medicinal herbs.

A minimum of social welfare is available to the people. Local work-unit welfare funds provide care for the sick, the disabled, the aged, and victims of drought or flood. For industrial workers there are accident-prevention measures and insurance programs that provide for hospital treatment, sick leave, disability compensation, maternity leave, old-age benefits, and death benefits. The government has improved the housing situation and expanded recreational facilities, including hot springs, swimming pools, cinemas, and theatres.

Education

Besides the regular school system, spare-time schools of all types bring adult education to farms, factories, offices, and other places. Evening classes or off-work study sessions enable working people to go to school without leaving their jobs. The movement to upgrade the education of adults has complemented the campaign against illiteracy. A basic Chinese vocabulary is taught to millions of illiterate people in short but intensive courses. For the minority peoples an effort has been made to spread the knowledge of their own written language if one exists. Nonetheless, Yunnan’s illiteracy rate is second to that of Tibet, largely because ethnic minorities receive inadequate education.

In higher education, Yunnan has one major national higher-education institution—Yunnan University (1922) in Kunming. There are also some two dozen other schools, among which the most prominent are Kunming University of Science and Technology (1958), Yunnan Agricultural University (1938), Kunming Medical University (1933), Southwest Forestry University (1939), and Yunnan Normal University (1938). Other notable establishments of learning and research are the Kunming branch of the Academia Sinica (Chinese Academy of Sciences), the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory at Fenghuangshan, and the Yunnan Provincial Library in Kunming.