Word: jinghong
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...first glimpse of her roots had come two days earlier. Our passenger plane from Thailand dropped through a thick layer of cloud to reveal steep, wrinkled peaks flanking a jade patchwork of paddies. As we whizzed over the treetops to land outside the main town of Jinghong?or in Dai Lue, Chiang Rung, "the city of the dawn"?what looked like dozens of Pizza Huts peeped from the verdure. This was the unique architecture of the Dai?their signature, high-canted roofs perched atop thick teak pillars...
...Such are the attractions drawing 12 full flights a day from nearby Kunming to Xishuangbanna ("Banna") in the tropical southern Chinese province of Yunnan. The trees are some of the can't-miss sights that have made the area around Banna's main town, Jinghong, explode as a center for domestic tourism. The other big draw is the group of lawless towns just over the Burmese border. Judging by the crush of the crowds, this is Chinese holiday heaven: an open orgy of casinos, transvestite dance revues and brothels. Although Rangoon's military junta doesn't officially admit non-Chinese...
...taxi into Jinghong presents an almost eerie surprise after arriving at the airport with the harried hordes of package tourists: a sleepy, tree-lined city along the lazy Mekong, surrounded by low mountains. The tour groups vanish: variances in Western and Chinese tastes work to segregate the city. Domestic tourists stay across the river in glitzy, Vegas-style hotels offering all-day shows of tribal dancing and wild animal routines that would outrage even the mildest environmentalist. Foreigners mostly stay in the many small hotels and guesthouses in the old town, such as the clean and quiet Banna Guesthouse, where...
...beautiful and interesting excursions, the country outside Jinghong provides endless choices. Walkers can enjoy jungle jaunts along the Mekong and through Dai or Hani villages (see DETOUR). The main draw is the cultural diversity of tribal minorities. Predominantly populated by the Buddhist Dai, Banna is ethnically linked to the hill tribes of Laos, Burma and northern Thailand. Other smaller groups in the area are the Hani and Lahu peoples, mainly of Tibetan stock. Known for their hospitality and resistance to assimilation, the indigenous cultures provide a color and individualism very different from that found in other, more monolithic parts...
...stumble across one of the scores of centuries-old Dai temples in the area, most of which were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution but are now being rebuilt by monks. If you want more than a day trip, the 1.5 million-hectare Sanchahe Nature Reserve, 48 km north of Jinghong, offers tree houses in the forest canopy for around $25 a night. Take a guide and venture deep into the forest to try to see the wild elephants?and even, it's rumored, the odd tiger?that still live in the park. Here, too, strangely shaped trees abound. As before...