Kunming's turn-of-the-century stone pathways and arching city gates resonate in stark blacks and whites at an exhibition of recently uncovered photographs now on display at the Yunnan Provincial Museum.
The glass-based images are the work of French official Auguste Francois, who arrived at Yunnan in 1898 to oversee construction of what is widely regarded as the most ambitious engineering feat of French colonialism in East Asia - a narrow-gauge railway line linking the Vietnamese port of Haiphong with Kunming.
The Dian-Vietnam Railway - which required the boring of 150 tunnels and the building of 3,422 bridges - began operations in 1911, linking land-locked Yunnan with the rest of the world.
For Kunming, a rural hamlet strategic enough to boast international trade ties for more than 2,000 years, it was the construction of rail and road infrastructure during the past 100 years that has led to its development as a metropolis.
According to Li Zhaogang, operations director for the recently completed Nanning to Kunming Railway, connecting Kunming has required a vigorous mix of patience, endurance, and ground-breaking technology.
That is due primarily to Yunnan's treacherous topography, which is as vexing to build across as it is breathtaking to behold.