For centuries, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty that followed it ruled Yunnan as a colony rather than as a true province of China. It served China as a kind of Siberia, a place of exile for criminal, dissidents and officials who fell out of favor with the emperor. The actual number of progressive thinkers and intellectuals banished there was relatively small but they brought with them the language, architecture and customs of north China. One lasting sign of their influence is the style of roofs in many central Yunnanese towns, reminiscent of the imperial splendor in Beijing