Kunming has been inhabited for 2,000 years. The town was a remote Chinese outpost until 8th century when the kingdom of Nanzhao captured it and made it a secondary capital. In the 14th century, the Ming Dynasty set up shop, building a walled town in Yunnanfu, as Kunming was then known. The middle of the 19th century saw the intrusion of the West into Kunming from British Burma and French Indochina. In 1910 the French to exploit the region's copper, tin and timber resources. Kunming's true modern expansion began during World Wall II when factories were established and refugees fleeling the Janpanese poured in from eastern China. The face of Kunming has radically changed, with streets widened and office buildings and housing projects erected.
 |
|
