Photo Gallery: China's 'Dwarf Empire' stands tall

Dwarf Empire Amusement Park does in fact exist, as photographer Peijin Chen visited the mushroom housed land of little people and snapped the gallery you see here. The park is located on a picturesque hilltop on Xishan, a mountain on the outskirts of Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province. Dwarf Empire is almost entirely staffed by midgets under the height of 1.3 meters.

GoKunming.com followed up on Dwarf Empire back in October in response to numerous media outlets from Perez Hilton to Telegraph.uk picking up on the story which was -- from we can tell -- first posted here (Spanish link.)

Dwarf Empire is, in a way, a 'dwarf town,' as there are about 100 midgets from all over China performing various jobs and living on location in dormitories. Most of them are performers, some are cooks or janitors, and others are management staff.

While on the surface it may seem a bit ... insensitive to run a theme park that appears to be exploiting 'little people,' those who work there actually "receive 1,000 yuan ($147) per month plus free room and board -- better remuneration than a university graduate in Kunming can expect to be offered. Employees are no younger than 18 years old," said park manager Wu Wei in the GoKunming post.

If you want to see the park for yourself, there are public buses from Kunming's city center to the Dwarf Empire, which is located next to Butterfly Ecological Park (an interesting place in its own right.)
 

Chris Anderson is the former associate editor of CNNGo based in Hong Kong and is now the AOL Travel senior editor of Huffington Post Media Group.

Read more about Chris Anderson

Peijin Chen is an American photojournalist living in Shanghai, China. He is interested in primarily interested in documenting Chinese social issues.

Read more about Peijin Chen