What defines Kunming? A national historic and cultural city with a distinctive plateau lakeside character, Kunming is naturally endowed with beauty, uniqueness and depth.

From the ancient Dian Kingdom to Yizhou Commandery, from Tuodong City to Shanchan City, from the establishment of Yunnan Province to the so‑called “Turtle-and-Snake City,” a reference to its symbolic urban layout, the planning and layout of Kunming’s urban settlements over more than two millennia have always unfolded closely around Dianchi Lake. The city’s lifeblood follows its waterways; when the lake thrives, so does the city.

Today, standing at a new starting point in urban development, we seek our roots through inquiry, set our course through reflection, and fulfill our commitments through action. At the intersection of history and reality, we explore the driving forces behind its development; through the integration of ecology and culture, we envision the city’s future.

Kunming under a blue sky and white clouds. File photo

Explore — Understanding the City’s Inherent Endowments

The “Pearl of the Plateau” has never been merely a geographical label. It carries the city’s historical memory and cultural DNA.

More than 600 years ago, Mu Ying, Wang Zhanhai and other pioneering figures in the governance of Yunnan climbed to the summit of the Western Hills and looked out over the lake city. In accordance with the terrain of the mountains and waters, and drawing on the dynamic principles embodied in the “turtle-and-snake” urban form, they built the city in a way that established the lakeside as the central organizing principle of the city’s layout.

At the citywide meeting on May 22 to advance the development of Kunming as a “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital,” following the Kunming Municipal Party Committee’s urban work conference, “mountains and waters” were once again incorporated into the city’s positioning. The goal is to build Kunming into a landscape city that embraces both mountains and Dianchi lake, with natural scenery integrated throughout the urban fabric. This further strengthens and elevates the wisdom and philosophy of lake-centered city-building.

Dawn redwoods at South Dianchi Wetland Park. Photo by Song Guangxu

The eight Chinese characters in “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital” answer the question of what Kunming has to offer: its distinctive historical memory, natural endowments and cultural character.

“Lakeside” speaks to Kunming’s ecological foundation and the source of its civilization. Dianchi is a lake, yet it carries something of the vastness of the sea. It offers the advantages of a lake while also conveying the openness of the sea. For generations, Kunming’s people have lived by the water, giving voice to a millennia-long urban epic that stretches from the fishermen’s songs of Dianchi Lake to the enduring story of the Spring City.

“Spring City” reflects Kunming’s climatic endowment and cultural core. With its deep historical accumulation, the name “Spring City” signifies not only a mild and temperate climate, but also a profound, vibrant and resilient spirit. It is a contemporary expression of the city’s spiritual core: warm and gentle, yet strong; open and inclusive, yet grounded in conviction.

“Mountains and waters” define Kunming’s urban fabric and distinctive landscape. Kunming’s layered landscape pattern, traditionally described as the larger and smaller configurations of “three mountains and one body of water,” features mountains rising like dark-green screens and 35 rivers flowing into Dianchi Lake through waterside mist. Together, they outline the landscape framework of the Spring City.

“Flower Capital” represents Kunming’s way of life and its signature industry. As flowers find their way into every street, lane and corner of the city, blossoms and flower-themed events continue throughout the year. “Flower Capital” has grown from a simple landscape symbol into a marker of Kunming’s distinctive industries, and it has become one of the liveliest expressions of the city’s brand.

Chinese roses along a motor vehicle lane. Xinhua

Taken together, the four key words — “lakeside,” “Spring City,” “landscape” and “Flower Capital” — look back to Kunming’s millennia-old wisdom of city-building, capture the city’s distinctive character, and point clearly to its future direction. They reinforce one another and form an integrated whole, giving full meaning to the vision of “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital.” More importantly, they express what is most essential, most valuable and most irreplaceable about Kunming.

To understand this innate endowment is to understand Kunming’s past, present and future. It also lays a firm foundation, gathers strength and points the way forward as we remain committed to pursuing high-quality urban development in the new era.

Reflect—Reexamining the Foundations of the City’s Development

Building Kunming into a “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital” is by no means a simple exercise in city image positioning. Rather, it is a strategic choice grounded in the trends of the times, responsive to people’s expectations, and aimed at solving development challenges. It is supported by a clear historical context, policy basis and practical logic.

In the latter half of the last century, Kunming’s urban development once deviated from its origins as a lakeside city. Problems such as reclaiming land from the lake and development built too close to the shoreline emerged, severely weakening the connection between the lake and the city. The heavy price paid for this is one we are still making up for today.

At the citywide meeting to advance the development of Kunming as a “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital,” the phrase “returning to the origins of city-building” was particularly thought-provoking. Incorporating “lakeside” into the city’s positioning is precisely about awakening historical memory and moving Kunming from “being near the lake yet unable to see it” toward true integration between lake and city. At its core, this shift represents a profound restructuring of Kunming’s logic of urban development.

Egrets perch in flocks atop dawn redwoods by Dianchi Lake. Photo by Wang Junxing

From the top-level guidance on urban work set out at the Central Urban Work Conference to the provincial urban work conference’s arrangements for high-quality urban development, Kunming has been studying, absorbing and adapting these requirements to its own realities. Through concrete action, the city is putting its commitment to more sustainable, quality-driven development into practice.

Last December, the Municipal Party Committee’s Urban Work Conference reviewed and analyzed the new situation and new tasks facing Kunming’s urban development, and proposed the working approach of building Kunming into a “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital.” The main leaders of the Municipal Party Committee have conducted multiple field studies on related work. Through repeated journeys around Dianchi Lake, Kunming’s ideas and measures for advancing this initiative have become increasingly clear.

The citywide work promotion meeting on building Kunming into a “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital” gave this a clearer expression: “To build a ‘Lakeside Spring City’ means that, when planning urban development, Dianchi Lake — Kunming’s most central, most distinctive and most competitive element — must be placed first. It means promoting a shift in the city’s development concept from a ‘mountain city’ to a ‘lakeside city,’ transforming the advantages of the lake into ecological assets, livability gains, industrial opportunities and brand value, and making Dianchi Lake the city’s most important asset in improving residents’ sense of well-being and enhancing urban competitiveness.”

A scenic view of Dianchi Lake. File photo

“To build a ‘Landscape Flower Capital’ means integrating the park city concept into urban planning and development. It means creating a park city where the city is set within gardens and gardens are integrated into the city, fully showcasing Kunming’s natural advantages, distinctive charm and ecological value as a city of mountains, waters and flowers.”

This initiative is a vivid practice through which Kunming thoroughly implements Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on urban work. It reflects the city’s proactive commitment to respecting its historical and cultural landscape, properly balancing urban development and ecological protection, and enabling the people to share in ecological dividends and the fruits of urban development.

This initiative is about allowing people to see the mountains, enjoy the waters and preserve memories of home; to settle their lives amid lakes and mountains, find a sense of belonging in culture, and experience beauty among flowers.

Act — Embracing the Responsibility of Integrating Lake and City

Looking back, how far have we come in this endeavor?

The 108-kilometer Dianchi Greenway has been fully connected and opened to the public. Fifty-four wetlands and 46 beautiful villages now draw visitors to linger. The Dounan Flower Market has ranked first nationwide in transaction volume for 27 consecutive years. The jacaranda has grown into a cultural and tourism brand with an annual output value exceeding 200 million yuan — and its value continues to rise.

In the past, urban expansion pushed blindly toward the foothills and hinterlands. Today, the city is returning to the lakefront where people live their everyday lives. Dianchi Lake is gradually changing from the city’s edge into its center, quietly weaving into the fabric of residents’ everyday lives.

Looking ahead, we must keep moving forward and continue this work with sustained effort.

Jacarandas on Jiaochang Road. Photo by Zhao Wei

In building a “Lakeside Spring City,” we will always uphold the lifeline of Dianchi Lake’s protection and governance. We will respect the natural grain of mountains and waters, preserve the city’s ecological character, carry forward its historical and cultural heritage, and retain its memories of home.

Through coordinated lake and shoreline management, and by returning the lakefront to public life, we will reshape the relationship between the lake and the city, promote the deep integration of people, the city, the lake and industry, allowing the city to sit harmoniously between mountains and lake while blending into nature.

In this way, residents will be able to open their windows to mountain-and-water views and step outside into a living landscape painting, as Kunming becomes a plateau lakeside city that is ecologically beautiful, culturally rich, comfortable and livable, and full of charm.

In building a “Landscape Flower Capital,” Kunming will build on its natural landscape fabric of encircling mountains and crisscrossing river networks. It will respect the natural terrain and landforms, protect the skylines of mountain ridges and waterfronts, and integrate the aesthetics of mountains and waters throughout the entire process of urban planning, construction and management. Through flowers, it will cultivate the city’s character; through culture, it will enrich the city’s substance; and through industry, it will support the city’s development. In doing so, Kunming will strive to become a plateau water city of “half mountains and waters, half lake,” and a park city where “blossoms keep spring alive throughout the year,” forming a distinctive urban charm in which the city rests amid mountains and waters, people live among flowers, and culture thrives in everyday urban life.

Residents stroll and relax along the Dianchi Greenway. Photo by Huang Xiaosong

The citywide work promotion meeting on building Kunming into a “Lakeside Spring City, Landscape Flower Capital” offered clear guidance to every builder and participant: everyone should change their mindset and fully recognize Kunming as a lakeside city. At the same time, it also set clear boundaries for future work — what can be done and what cannot be done — reminding everyone of their responsibility and duty.

For those involved in building the city, one thing should be clear: world-class urban competitiveness does not come from a concrete jungle of high-rises, but from the perfect coexistence of unique natural endowments and profound cultural heritage.

When cyclists greet the sunrise on the greenway in the morning, when residents watch egrets return to their nests from wetland boardwalks at dusk, when the 108-kilometer greenway links lake views, mountain scenery and the lights of countless homes, and when flowers from around the world bloom in profusion beside Dianchi Lake — this thousand-year-old city, with the lake as its soul and flowers as its signature, is writing a splendid new chapter of urban development in the new era amid mountains and waters.

Click here to view the Chinese report

(Editors: Diana, Rachel)