Kunming is located in Yunhan Province in the southern part of China, and is located in a mountainous area. Kunming is said to be a city of four seasons: all like spring. Its altitude is a little higher than Denver at 6,200 feet and its climate is a bit more temperate than Denver.

The city spreads over a plain below a mountain, but unlike Denver, its southern expansion is blocked by a lake, Dian Chi, whose sinuous shoreline cuts through 300 miles of wilderness. There is a limited amount of cultivatable land, so the foothills are layered in terraced farms.

Kunming is a showcase of modernized China. Once regarded as a hardship post by Chinese officials, Kunming is now the transportation crossroads of the southwest, an industrialized manufacturing center and the resort area of China.

During World War II, Kunming was an air base for the American Flying Tigers. The late television weatherman, Stormy Rottman, was among the many Denverites stationed there.

The food of Yunnan is reported to be hot and spicy, and it is said that Marco Polo came to the area and discovered the long, rich noodles of Kunming and went back to Italy with the idea of spaghetti.

Denver is pleased to be taking part in the “opening of the door” in China, and enjoys a very warm and healthy relationship with the people of Kunming. There have been high school student exchanges between the two cities and exchanges of business personnel. In all, it has been a very profitable and enjoyable relationship since 1985.

The newly (1997) named Kunming Park is located at the 2500 block of South Grant Street (Vassar and Grant).

Of all the cities in China, it is particularly appropriate that Kunming should be Denver’s sister city, because Kunming was essential in the American war effort in the Pacific theater of operations in World War II.

Kunming was, in fact, the Chinese terminus of the overland Burma Road supply trains, and also the flights over the “hump”, i.e. the Himalaya Mountains from India.

It was also the base of the famous American Flying Tigers in World War II and the Headquarters of our China-Burma-India Theater.

You will remember Denver’s long-time radio weatherman, the late Leon “Stormy” Rottman, who served the Flying Tigers as Weatherman. Also, the current head of the Denver-Kunming Committee of Denver Sister Cities, John Yee, served with the Flying Tigers.

Kunming, in fact, has a city memorial to the Americans who served in the war effort in World War II.