Qujing

Qujing is a prefecture-level city in eastern Yunnan, the province's second-largest economy after Kunming, and is nicknamed the "throat of Yunnan" for its position on the route linking Yunnan with Guizhou and the rest of China. Its economy rests on coal mining, phosphate chemicals, tobacco, metallurgy and increasingly wind and solar power on its high plateau. The city sits at the source of the Pearl River, China's third-longest river, marked at the Zhujiangyuan scenic area. Every spring the fields of Luoping county erupt into a vast golden sea of rapeseed blossom, one of the most photographed landscapes in the country, alongside the multi-tiered Jiulong Waterfalls. Qujing is also a cradle of ancient Cuan culture, preserved in the celebrated Cuan Baozi and Cuan Longyan steles prized by Chinese calligraphers.