July 12, 2010 - Kunming, Yunnan, China

Pinyin: Yu pengdao shuini qiang de shihou shuole shenme?  Hao ba.
Joke Translated: What did the fish say when he ran into the concrete wall?  Dam(n)!

Yun translates into south. Nan translates into clouds. Yunnan translates into south of the clouds. This morning we flew to the southern province of Yunnan's capital, Kunming - elevation 5,700 feet. Although I attended undergraduate school at one of the highest positioned schools in the continental U.S. (13 years ago), I immediately noticed a little wooziness from elevation sickness. Must drink more water.

Quick facts about Yunnan Province:

- 43 million people inhabit this region

- about the size of Germany

- 94% is mountain plateau

- #1 cash-crop is tobacco (also mining of aluminum, ore, titanium, tin, copper, gold, silver)

- Major rivers include: Lancang-Mekong , Nu-Salween, Dulong-Irawaddy, Yuan-Red, and Jinsha-Yangtze

Yunnan Province is culturally and ecologically unique in China, because it more resembles Southeast Asia than a stereotypical image of the Middle Kingdom.

The hydroelectric resources of Yunnan are comparable to the Columbia River Gorge. There are about 14 dams along the Columbia River. Although the numbers are not solid, there are 14 dams planned for the Lancang-Mekong River in Yunnan (3 of which are complete and 5 of which are in various stages of construction), and 13 dams planned for the Nu-Salween River, none of which is complete since Premier Wen Jiabao halted the project in 2004 for failure to comply with China's Environmental Impact Assessment laws. Yunnan is known for its ethnic minority groups (some 25 groups have representation here of more than 5000 people), and many of these people live along the province's major river systems. As the dams are built, these people are being displaced from land inhabited by their ancestors for hundreds/thousands of years.

Darrin Magee, Professor of Environmental Asian Studies at Hobart-William Smith, expert on Yunnan river operations, and our on-site study-tour regional virtuoso. Darrin has been involved in Yunnan water research for nearly ten years and provided us with incredible insight into river politics.

The Mekong River runs through Thailand, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Vietnam, as well as Tibet, Qinghai, and Yunnan Province in China. In 1992, the Asian Development Bank created the Greater Mekong Subregion to spur regional economic development and integration throughout the countries of the Lancang-Mekong Basin.

Then in 2000, China's Western Development Campaign began. Major priorities of this movement include:

- infrastructure

- education

- urbanization

- resource exploitation

Infrastructure of building roads, airports, railroads, and dams across China. Education to improve the ability of the peoples in the west to participate in a modern technical socioeconomic system, but also to ensure widespread use of spoken and written Mandarin and adherence to national goals (critics see assimilation as a major motivator of such policies, especially since China's minorities in western areas are often labeled as being of "low quality", or backwards). Urbanization requiring rural villagers movement into cities to work in factories, where increased wages outweigh farm life. Resource exploitation of everything... land, people, environment; a specific example is running high power cables from southwest river dams to major eastern cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. This exploitation of western resources for eastern China demand has been referred to as "internal colonization" by some (e.g., David S. G. Goodman), while others see in it a genuine effort on the part of Beijing to address glaring differences in levels of economic development in inland versus coastal China. Educational programs, in-migration by Han people from eastern China, and resettlement due to infrastructure projects creates potential for some ethnic minority group members to lose their strong connection to ancestral lands and bloodlines may be diluted.

Rivers flowing off the Tibetan Plateau provide water to almost half the world's population. The majority of these rivers flow out of China. As China continues building dams, not only to produce electricity but also to control flooding, many downstream users are concerned about the transboundary impacts of those dams. In spring of 2010, the Lancang-Mekong River ran so low that in Thailand boats were unable to float the river. China said this was because of the drought, Thailand was quick to counter that it was because China is controlling the water into their country, primarily through the filling of large reservoirs on the Lancang. China finally agreed to release daily river flow data to show they're not filling reservoirs and restricting water into Thailand and other downstream countries. Previously this information was a national secret. This data sharing would be a showing of good-will between China and other countries downstream. As of this blog post, however, China has still not released their daily river flow data.

Biggest problem with China's dam(n) plan is peak flood control is needed during summer Monsoon season, at the same time when electricity juiced air-conditioning for battling summer heat is desired.

It is so easy to make parallel ecological and cultural comparisons between China and the United States. In the Columbia River Gorge we worry about salmon populations getting through the dam(n) locks, there are 10 fish species of concern on the Lancang-Mekong River. The Dalles Dam flooded an active thousand year old Native American trading site, along with Celilo Falls and its associated petroglyphs; Hoover Dam flooded ancient Anasazi Cliff Dwellings and a portion of the Colorado River; Oahu Dam in North Dakota flooded the best farming land on Mandan Indian Reservation, cutting in-half the tribal community.

After arriving in Kunming, we immediately ate again! at the Yuyuan Restaurant, people watched at Green Lakes Park, then took-in another Vegas-style performance, called Dynamic Yunnan, about the 25 local ethnic minority groups.