Escape the hustle and bustle of the city to Kunming Waterfall Park

Kunming Waterfall Park / 昆明瀑布公园

Kunlanjie, Panlong District, Kunming, Yunnan, China / 云南省昆明市盘龙区昆澜街

Flowerbed at the east side of Kunming’s’ Waterfall Park with Chinese characters written Kunming Waterfall Park Shuixin District, Kunming, China 云南省昆明市水新区 East side of Kunming Waterfall Park at Beijing road (北京路) (nearby bus stop 瓦窑村北口)

If you leave the city center of Kunming direction to the north, following Beijing road (北京路 ), you will approach to the Kunming Waterfall Park (昆明瀑布公园 ). It is an enormous man-made artificial waterfall. Opened for visitors in 2016, the 400 meters in width main waterfall impressed thousands of visitors. There is no bigger waterfall park in Asia!

View over the upper lake of Waterfall Park on a sunny day in late October with people enjoying the trees, plants and flowers East view over the lake to the spring of the park

Walking over the glass bridge above the cascades under green trees listening to the waterfall looking at the cloud of water and fog with a nice view over the surrounding city on a beautiful sunny day View to the west from the glass bridge at the edge of the waterfall

The park itself is relatively big. It invites its visitors for different leisure activities. Some just walking around, others do some sport activities, families play with their kids in the amusement area. For those who want just to escape the hustle and bustle of the city can bring a book or their favorite music on their phone, too, and look for a cozy place to sit and relax, while watching or listening to the enormous amount of water falling down the wall.

View from the upper platform south of the waterfall over the 400-meter width cascades and the natural waterfalls people watching the water enjoying the sun and walking over the glass bridge in front of the cascades Viewing terrace at the south side of the waterfall

Funny notice: Although you might think that the rules on the streets follow a chaotic system, it is really organized in that park. As you can see on the map at the end of this page there are arrows on it recommending a counter clockwise walking around the lake. Same, but stricter counts for the pathway behind the cascades: you HAVE to first walk right hand side behind the cascade and THEN over the glass bridge in front back to the platform. Vise versa was for me not allowed. On that day, they provided some umbrellas at the tent in case you need one (useful for cloudy days).

Walking through the spectacular water-tunnel behind the cascades of the waterfall listening to the noise of the water rushing down the wall Turbulent water behind the cascade

One very interesting highlight the engineers added to their project, is, the possibility to even walk behind the cascade! That is really impressive! Smart hint: if you like to explore the mysterious path behind the turbulent water, be sure to wear grippy shoes and may bring an umbrella (in case the day is not very hot and sunny). It will take you a while to walk all the 400 meters through the “water tunnel”.

Exit of the water-tunnel looking at the direction to the waterfall with impressive stones in front covert with plants and flowers Exit of the “water tunnel”

Natural waterfalls at the Waterfall Park covert with trees, plants and flowers with a view over the lower lake with a forest covert island in the middle of the lake on a sunny day North view to the natural-looking waterfalls

At the exit there are some big stones with flowers and you can see some smaller, natural looking waterfalls to the right-hand side. They are very beautiful to look at. The way is continuing direct in front of the waterfall leading over a curly bridge. Standing in the middle of the bridge looking in direction to the waterfall you might be lucky to see a small, colorful rainbow.

Walking over the lower glass bridge directly in front of the 400-meter cascades spotting a beautiful colored rainbow on a sunny day Beautiful rainbow in front of the 400-meter wide cascade

View from the west side platform over the lower lake of Waterfall Park with the 400-meter cascades and the natural waterfalls in the background people walking alongside the lake looking over the water watching the birds on the island View visitor’s platform over the whole waterfall scenery from the west to the east side

Within the park, apart from small snack cottages where you can purchase some popcorn or Chinese sausages, there is not really an opportunity to eat something. Nevertheless, if you leave the park over the big stairs in the west you can walk alongside a fancy housing side. There you will find some small different restaurants in between coiffeurs, fruit shops, and other small shops.

Beautiful Chinese classical houses with shops, hairdresser and restaurants at Pan Jiang Xi Lu Street 盘江西路 on the west side of Waterfall Park Small shopping street at the west side of the Waterfall Park (Pan Jiang Xi Lu Street 盘江西路)

Fried rice dish with soup and pickled garlic in a restaurant at Pan Jiang Xi Lu Street 盘江西路 Typical rice dishes can be found in this street Pan Jiang Xi Lu

Behind the buildings of Pan Jiang Xi Lu with beautiful gardens covered with flowers, trees and plants Flower garden behind the shops and restaurants of Pan Jiang Xi Lu between colonial French style houses

The waterfall park is located 13 kilometers north of the city center (Dongfeng Square (东风广场 )). If you choose to go there by taxi it costs around 30元 and takes half an hour. Starting at this point, you can also take the metro line 2 until Sijiaying station (司家营 ). From there you can either just turn left direction to the river and walk alongside the Panlong river (盘龙江 ) until you reach the park. Walking distance is about 3 kilometers or 45 minutes. The walkway next to the river is like a long park itself, leading through colorful flowerbed.

Flowerbed alongside Panlong river (盘龙江): Golden Chrysanthemum 金叶菊 alias Valentine’s Chrysanthemum

夏去秋来花落去，遍地璀璨是金菊.

“Summer is gone, autumn is coming, the flowers are withered, the most shining is still the Chrysanthemum.” -Chinese ancient poetry

Evening vibe on a bridge view over Panlong river with the sunset in the background with trees and flowers alongside Evening scenery at Panlong river (盘龙江) north of Kunming

How to get there?
Bus z65 and z46 are on opportunity, too. In case you like to enjoy the skyscraper scenery alongside Beijing road you can take bus 23 from Dongfeng Square, and change to bus z6 at Sijiaying station (Beijing Road) 司家营 (北京路 )站 . The nice feature here: bus 23 is sometimes a half open double-deck bus (effective 2019). My recommendation is to visit the waterfall park in the late afternoon, walk back when the sun sets alongside the river until Sijiaying station, and take the bus 23 back to the city center. The high buildings alongside Beijing road are amazing colorful enlightened with remarkable color effects.

View over junction of Beijing road (北京路) and Gufeng Road (谷丰路) at 羊肠村 station with colored lights houses in the background at night Intersection of Beijing road (北京路) and Gufeng Road (谷丰路) at 羊肠村 station of metro line 2

Night vibe at Beijing road (北京路) nearby Beichen 北辰 station with colorful enlightened buildings

As the Waterfall Park is located in the north of Kunming it is not yet included in our 1 Day Kunming City Tour. However, if you like to visit the Park, maybe within the City Tour, you can simply contact us and get your tour tailored. This option makes it truly convenient to visit this spot easily in combination with a whole bunch of other nice places in and around the city.

Map of the pathway, emergency exits and attractions of the Waterfall Park in Kunming Map of Kunming Waterfall Park with pathway around the lakes and attractions

Flowerbed with beautiful yellow and red flowers on the upper platform in front of the waterfall for the 70 anniversary of China at the main entrance to the Park at the south-west Colorful flowerbed during Chinas' 70 years celebration in front of the Waterfall viewing platform