热带雨林，傣族风情

西双版纳位于中国云南省南端，与老挝、缅甸山水相连，与泰国、越南近邻，土地面积近2万平方公里，国境线长966公里。 她美丽、富饶、神奇、犹如一颗璀灿的明珠镶嵌在祖国的西南边疆。澜沧江纵贯南北，出境后称湄公河，流经缅、老、泰、柬、越5国后汇入太平洋，誉称为"东方多瑙河"。西双版纳辖景洪市、勐海县、勐腊县和11个国营农场，总人口近84万人。这里聚居着傣、哈尼、拉祜、布朗、基诺等13个少数民族，占全州人口的74%。 西双版纳地处北回归线以南的热带北部边沿，热带季风气候，终年温暖、阳光充足，湿润多雨，是地球北回归线沙漠带上唯一的一块绿州，是中国热带雨林生态系统保存最完整、最典型、面积最大的地区，也是当今地球上少有的动植物基因库，被誉为地球的一大自然奇观。西双版纳在国内外享有"植物王国"、"动物王国"、"药物王国"的美誉。1995年被国务院公布为全国第一个自然生态平衡的生态州。
西双版纳原本是云南最好玩，最值得旅游的地方，只是由于旅行社之间恶性和过度竞争的结果，游客到了西双版纳后，由于时间短，由于有大量的进店购物，很多非常漂亮的地方不会带客人去了，客人也没有时间去。建议：如果你的时间较充足的话，增加在西双版纳停留的时间。

In the southwest of China and at the southern most tip of Yunnan Province, there is a picturesque, fertile and mysterious land - Xishuangbanan. In the Dai language, "xishuang" is "twelve" and "banna" is "one thousand pieces of land", thus "Xishuangbanna" can be directly translated into "twelve thousand pieces of land". As a matter of fact, it refers to the twelve regions that are under its administration. With Myanmar to the southwest and Laos to the southeast, Xishuangbanna has a boundary line of 1,069 kilometers.

Covering an area of 19,700 square kilometers, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture is composed of one municipality and two counties. The highest point in the region is 2,429 meters above sea level whereas the lowest is only 477 meters. Dominated by a tropical rainforest climate, the average temperature of Xishuangbanna is 21°C.

The capital of Xishuangbanna Prefecture is "Jinghong", which means "the City of Dawn" in the Dai language. It is 692 km from Kunming. There are more than ten nationalities including the Dai, the Hani, the Jinuo and the Bulang, etc in its land. There live over 5,000 species of plants and hundreds kinds of rare and valuable birds and animals in its 20,000 square kilometers tropical virgin forest, thus Xishuangbanna is noted as "the Kingdom of Plants and Animals" and "An Emerald on the Tropic of Cancer".

The Dai people are good at singing and dancing and believe in the Buddhism, the Buddhism temples are scattering over every village. The village of the Dais mostly builds by the water, circling with bamboo fence and covering with the fruit trees, so as to set up the independent courtyard one by one. The Water-Splashing Festival, namely the New Year's Day by the Dai calendar will be celebrated every year in the 6th month of Dai calendar (on April 13 - 15 by the solar calendar). The rich and colorful activities attract numerous tourists from home and abroad.