Institute of Tropical Botany

12. Colorful People in Downtown Xishuangbanna

We spent a day in the city of Jinghong. It was a fairly modern city for this area of China. Most of the people there were minority nationalities. After the KMT fled this area after the civil war the PLA "Liberated" the area in 1950 and brought medical and economic advancement. But unstable government policies inflicted the region with period of religious persecution, the imposition of Han Chinese language and customs, and discrimination against ethnic groups. These tribulations alternated with periods of relative autonomy in local administration and religious freedom, such as exist today.