Sichuan, Yunnan & the Southwest

The Sichuan Basin had its own Bronze Age civilisation: the masks and figures from Sanxingdui, near Guanghan, belong to the ancient Shu. The Qin conquered Shu in 316 BC, and around 256 BC the governor Li Bing built the Dujiangyan irrigation system, still watering the Chengdu plain. Chengdu was the capital of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms era and a rich Tang city where the poet Du Fu lived.

Yunnan stood apart for centuries under the kingdoms of Nanzhao and Dali, based on Erhai Lake, until the Mongols conquered Dali in 1253. Ming soldiers and settlers followed, and the admiral Zheng He was a Hui Muslim born near Kunming. Guizhou became a province only in 1413, and uprisings by the Miao and other peoples recurred into the 19th century.

The modern era made the region a refuge. During the war with Japan the Nationalist government moved to Chongqing, which was bombed heavily from 1938, while the Burma Road fed Kunming and exiled universities taught there. The Long March passed through: the Zunyi Conference of 1935, in Guizhou, raised Mao's standing. After 1949 the south-west became a site for defence industry, and Chongqing was split from Sichuan as a municipality in 1997 as the Three Gorges Dam's reservoir filled. The Wenchuan earthquake of May 2008 killed about 70,000 people in Sichuan.

The south-west is home to many of China's ethnic groups. Yunnan alone has 25 recognised minorities: the Bai around Dali, the Naxi of Lijiang with their pictographic Dongba script, the Yi, the Hani of the Yuanyang terraces, and the Dai of Xishuangbanna, who follow Theravada Buddhism and splash water to mark their New Year in April. Guizhou is the heartland of the Miao and Dong, known for silver headdresses, batik, embroidery and drum towers, and western Sichuan is ethnically Tibetan, with the Yi in Liangshan.

Among Han Chinese, Sichuanese and Chongqing people speak south-western Mandarin and pride themselves on a relaxed, pleasure-loving outlook: Chengdu's teahouses, mahjong tables and ear-cleaners are part of the city's self-image, and Chongqing is brasher and faster. Sichuan opera is known for bian lian, face-changing, in which performers switch masks in a flash.

Festivals follow the minority calendars — the Yi Torch Festival in summer, the Bai Third Month Fair in Dali, Miao festivals in Guizhou — alongside Han New Year.

Sichuan has about 84 million people and Chengdu, with around 21 million in its wider municipality, is Sichuan's capital and a hub for electronics and software. Chongqing's municipality holds over 30 million, most of them outside the dense, hilly core, and makes cars and motorbikes. Yunnan has about 47 million, with Kunming at around 8 million, and Guizhou about 38 million, with Guiyang as its capital.

Guizhou was long one of China's poorest provinces; it has since built highways, bridges and data centres, and the FAST radio telescope sits in its karst hills. Yunnan lives on tourism, tobacco, tea, flowers and cross-border trade with Laos and Myanmar, and Kunming has a huge bird and flower market.

Life in Chengdu moves slowly, with afternoons in teahouses and hotpot suppers, while Chongqing people climb stairs, ride cable cars and eat hotpot in sweltering heat. Rural out-migration, tourist pressure on old towns, and the frailty of mountain roads in earthquakes and floods are persistent issues.

Sichuan cooking pairs chillies with Sichuan peppercorn for mala, the numbing-hot flavour. Beyond mapo tofu, Chengdu dishes include huiguo rou, twice-cooked pork; gongbao jiding, diced chicken with peanuts and chillies; dan dan noodles; and fuqi feipian, sliced beef and offal in chilli oil. The base is Pixian doubanjiang, fermented broad-bean chilli paste. Chongqing claims hotpot, simmered in beef tallow, along with xiaomian spicy noodles. Sichuan distils baijiu, including Wuliangye from Yibin.

Many Yunnan dishes are spicy too. Guoqiao mixian, crossing-the-bridge noodles, has raw ingredients cooked at the table in scalding broth; the province's markets are famous for wild mushrooms in summer; Xuanwei produces cured ham; and the Bai and Yi make rubing, a firm goat's cheese, and rushan, cow's-milk 'milk fans' dried on bamboo sticks. Rose-petal flower cakes are a Kunming sweet, and Yunnan grows Pu'er tea and most of China's coffee.

Guizhou likes sour flavours: the Miao sour fish soup, suantang yu, uses fermented tomato and rice. Maotai baijiu comes from the town of Maotai in Guizhou.

Chengdu's giant panda breeding base is best visited early, before the pandas sleep, and the city adds Wenshu Monastery, the Wuhou Shrine, Du Fu's Thatched Cottage and the Sanxingdui museum nearby. The Leshan Giant Buddha and Mount Emei are a UNESCO World Heritage Site to the south-west, Dujiangyan and Mount Qingcheng to the north-west. Jiuzhaigou's lakes and waterfalls, with the limestone pools of Huanglong nearby, lie in the northern mountains. Chongqing has river views from Hongyadong, the Dazu Rock Carvings and the start of Three Gorges cruises.

Kunming has Green Lake, Western Hills and the Stone Forest. Dali's old town sits between the Cangshan range and Erhai Lake, beside the Three Pagodas; Lijiang's canals and wooden houses lie beneath Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Tiger Leaping Gorge follows the Jinsha, the upper Yangtze, with a high trail above the river, and Shangri-La has the Songzanlin monastery. In the south, Yuanyang's Hani rice terraces are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Xishuangbanna offers Jinghong's Dai temples and rainforest.

Guizhou's minority villages include the Miao settlement of Xijiang, spread across hillsides in Leishan County near Kaili, and the Dong village of Zhaoxing, with its drum towers. The Huangguoshu waterfall and the karst forests of Libo complete the province.