| Xishuangbanna or Sipsongpanna is an autonomous prefecture in southern Yunnan
Province, People's Republic of China. In the Dai language, "xishuang" is
"twelve" and "banna" is "one thousand pieces of land", thus "Xishuangbanna" can
be directly translated into "twelve thousand pieces of land". As a matter of
fact, it refers to the twelve regions that are under its administration. With
Myanmar to the southwest and Laos to the southeast, Xishuangbanna has a boundary
line of 1,069 kilometers.
Covering an area of 19,700 square kilometers, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous
Prefecture is composed of one municipality and two counties. The highest point
in the region is 2,429 meters above sea level whereas the lowest is only 477
meters. Dominated by a tropical rainforest climate, the average temperature of
Xishuangbanna is 21oC.
The capital of Xishuangbanna Prefecture is "Jinghong", which means "the City
of Dawn" in the Dai language. It is 692 km from Kunming. There are more than ten
nationalities including the Dai, the Hani, the Jinuo and the Bulang, etc in its
land. There live over 5,000 species of plants and hundreds kinds of rare and
valuable birds and animals in its 20,000 square kilometers tropical virgin
forest, thus Xishuangbanna is noted as "the Kingdom of Plants and Animals" and
"An Emerald on the Tropic of Cancer".
The Dai people is good at singing and dancing and believes in the Buddhism,
the Buddhism temples are scattering over every village. The village of the Dais
mostly builds by the water, circling with bamboo fence and covering with the
fruit trees, so as to set up the independent courtyard one by one. The
Water-Splashing Festival, namely the New Year's Day by the Dai calendar will be
celebrated every year in the 6th month of Dai calendar (on April 13 - 15 by the
solar calendar). The rich and colorful activities attract numerous tourists from
home and abroad. |
ATRACTIONS IN
XISHUANGBANNA 
