Kunming Archive Bureau and Kunming Archives are a combined establishment directly under the administration of the municipal government. Kunming Archive Bureau is in charge of the archive cause in Kunming, including unified planning, cooperation and system unification, and exercises its supervision and direction of the archive work of Kunming. Kunming Archives is a permanent base for keeping files and records, whose primary task is to, under the premises of maintaining the truth of the history of the Party and the nation, keep all the files and records complete and safe, to make them available to the public.

There are 45 personnel posts in the joint organization of Kunming Archive Bureau and Kunming Archives, with establishment of one office and four divisions, namely: General Office, Policy and Statute Division, Reception and Control Division, Information Control Division and Protection Technical Division. The quality level of the personnel: 2 persons with graduate student degrees, 16 persons with bachelor degrees , 22 persons with college degrees, and 4 persons with polytechnical and high school degrees. Among the staff there are 4 deputy file researchers, 14 file clerks, 5 assistant file clerks, with average ages of 39. This has met the requirement for the staff being young, knowledgeable and specialized.

    Kunming Archives presently has 6,660 square meters of store room and 4,300 square meters of office, which includes File-Consulting Room, Consulting Center For Presently-Used-Documents which are open to public, Information Center, Consignation Center, Appraisal and Classification Center, Salvage and Protection Center, Catalog Center, Digital Processing Center, Resource Base, Patriotism Education Base, etc.. The reserved archives include 154 sorts of such diversified files as writ, scientific technology, accountancy, photographs, etc., totaling 312,435 volumes and 7,460 books as well. The length of the files arranged on the shelves all together reaches 4,658 meters. These files, covering such rich wide fields as politics, economics, cultures, education, health, etc., are records of the true historical process of the people in Kunming undertaking political activities, economy construction and scientific researches. They are not only the basis, evidence and reference for proceeding a variety of work, the treasure of the Party and the nation, but also the key material for compilation of chronicle and research of Kunming history.

    A local area network (LAN), a website of Kunming Archives (Bureau ) and a Kunming archive information database have been established for management of archive. Laws and stipulation on archive, archive work and concept have been introduced and published on the internet. Advanced management has been carried out by inputting and scanning the original documents into the computer. Salvage and protection measures have been taken by making documents into microfiche files, restoring illegible words, removing insects by freezing and sterilizing, preserving old files by paperhanging, etc. Installations and devices have been provided in the file storehouse, such as compression shelves, antitheft doors, “1211” auto alarms, auto-spraying fire extinguishers, monitoring systems, infrared alarms, temperature and moisture automatic control systems, etc. Such protection measures have been taken in accordance with the state requirements. Hence the joint unit of Kunming Archives and Kunming Archive Bureau was awarded with the title “Provincial First Advanced Archives Establishment” in 1998, appraised to be “Kunming Advanced Unit for Informatization Construction” in a series of 2 years in 2002 and 2003 respectively, evaluated as “Advanced Collective Amongst the State Archive Establishments” in 2003, and has enjoyed commendation from the State Ministry of Personnel Resources and the State Archive Bureau.