Yuncheng

Yuncheng (simplified Chinese: 运城; traditional Chinese: 運城; pinyin: Yùnchéng) is the southernmost municipality in Shanxi province, China. It borders Linfen and Jincheng municipalities to the north and east, and Henan and Shaanxi provinces to the south and west.

The Olympic Torch Relay went through this city June 25, 2008 on its way to Beijing.

Administration

The Municipal executive, legislature and judiciary are in Yanhu District (盐湖区), together with the CPC and Public Security bureaux.

Public Security Issues

Rural communities in the Yuncheng Municipal region have been the hunting grounds of Snakeheads, Chinese Human trafficking mafia. Rural children, typically middle school students fit for labour, were "recruited" with the promise of jobs in in China's far southwest -- Longchuan County in Yunnan's Dehong Prefecture. Once in Longchuan the children were whisked ("through sugar-cane fields on a motorcycle") over the international border into Kachin State and imprisoned. They were made to sign demands for ransom (e.g. 40 - 80 000 RMB). They are subjected to Torture (burnt by cigarette, violated by chopstick, fingernails pulled by pliers, forced into fights by starvation, terrorised by captive animals) prior to making telephone appeals home.

For the "recruiter"/kidnappers the ethno-linguistic ties between the Jingpo-nation citizens of Dehong and those of Kachin are an enabling factor, as is the ineffectiveness of Chinese-allied Myanmar police in this region of de facto independence (Cf. Nayoubeng Mountain militia); Inter-Pol is of even less use, as Myanmar itself is a rogue state.

According to the Chinese-language Beijing News (2009 Jan 20), around 50 students left Yuncheng for the Snakehead "jobs" in September-October 2008. Some boys disappeared immediately, the rest were to follow. Two families whose sons had left Yuncheng in the middle of October paid ransoms on Nov 5; these boys reappeared in Longchuan on Nov 8. Back home in Shanxi, the boys told police and reporters that one of their cellmates had been one of the earliest-disappeared Yuncheng boys, and was in a very bad way ("nothing but skin and bones .. babbling like an idiot"). Yuncheng police paid a third ransom at year's end, and one boy, disappeared in late October, was retrieved on Jan 2.^[1]

Geography

Yuncheng has a continental, monsoon-influenced semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), with four distinct seasons.^[2] Winters are cold but dry, while summers are hot and humid. Monthly mean temperatures range from −0.9 °C (30.4 °F) in January to 27.4 °C (81.3 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 14.05 °C (57.3 °F). Rainfall is concentrated in the warmer months.

Transportation

• China National Highway 209

Yuncheng in Popular Culture

The British writer Justin Hill spent two and a half years here with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), from 1993-5. It was the basis of his first book, A Bend in the Yellow River.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is set here.

Notes and references