8 Days Classic Tour of Yunnan

Day 1: Kunming

Begin your journey through the diverse landscapes of China's most spectacular province in the regional capital of Kunming. One of our English-speaking tour guides and a professional driver will transfer you directly to your hotel, giving you plenty of time to recover from a long flight with a relaxing stroll around the humped backed bridges and Chinese pavilions of Green Lake. If there is time, you can even visit a couple of the city's museums by yourself, to learn how Kunming has long been an international city, attracting diplomats, generals and explorers.

Known as Yunnan-Fou until the 1920s, Kunming was a key strategic military center during the Second World War II, when it played host to the world-famous Flying Tigers American air base, as well as the starting point for the infamous Burma Road. Located at an altitude of about 1,900m Kunming is sunny and pleasant all year round.

Kunming's theatrical options include the highly recommended Dynamic Yunnan Show at Kunming's Art Theatre, where beautifully costumed dancers and musicians perform choreography with drums, inspired from the ethnic village dances and sing exotic songs that will bring tears to your eyes.

Day 2: Kunming - Stone Forest and Jiuxiang Caves 

At 8:00 the morning, your driver and tour guide will pick you up at your hotel and drive you about 1.5 hours to one of Yunnan greatest wonders, the Stone Forest. This wonder of nature, a forest made of stone, used to be an ocean about 270 million years ago. Then the earth’s crust rose and limestone pierced through. Weather and time have sculpted a 350 km² karst labyrinth that literally feels like you are walking through a forest, with ancient stone trees looking down on you. Every rock formation you pass has its own touching story or thrilling legend, passed on by the natives who have lived in this area for ages. The natives belong to the Sani minority, a branch of the Yi ethnic minority. You can find many beautiful girls in traditional clothing and maybe even cute grandma’s jamming together singing folk songs as they create embroidery.

But there are more wonders to see, and for that we will have to go underground. After lunch we’ll see another piece of art made by nature, the Jiuxiang Caves. And this is not your average karst cave, this area is the largest cave group system in China, with rivers, gorges, waterfalls, forests, natural stone bridges, and anything you image you would find in a fairyland. Take a floating boat ride on the river through narrow green canyons and see the entrance of the caves hidden inside the forests from above as you fly over it in the cable car. Jiuxiang is not just a cave, it is a hidden magical world.

After that, your driver brings you back to your hotel (about 1.5 hours) and you can take a rest.

Day 3: Dali

Your guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel around 8:00 and bring you to Kunming Railway Station to catch the train to Dali (about 2 hours). We recommend to take train D8672, 09:24 – 11:32, but earlier or later is possible on request, there are many trains throughout the day. Once you arrived in Dali, your Dali tour guide will be waiting and take you to Dali Old Town to have a filling local lunch. This is the heartland of the prosperous Bai people, with their colourful costumes and traditional lifestyle. The restored battlements that surround the city date from the Ming Dynasty, and provide a wonderful view of the amazing architecture. When we picture ancient China, Dali is the image that appears in our imagination, wooden houses with ornate eaves and stone streets, well-worn over centuries of use. Dali has long been a melting pot for different cultures, and you will see the Bai people as well as the Yi and the Hui going about their daily business in their traditional garb.

Dali is known for her relaxed atmosphere, and is a great town to stroll around. Have a drink in one of the many cozy little bars or warmly decorated coffeeshops, or walk around its lively main streets where local artists sell all kinds of beautiful handicrafts. Climb the city walls and enjoy the view of the impressive mountains on one side and the tranquil lake on the other.

Day 4: Dali - Lijiang

In the morning we stop off at the ancient market town of Xizhou, just 19 kilometers north of Dali. Here we will visit the visiting the morning market, where locals dressed in traditional minority clothing sell and buy local fruits, freshly cut meat, piles of fragrant spices, livestock and anything else you can think of. You can visit some of the most well-preserved courtyard homes and sample the delicious Xizhou Baba a wonderful local flat bread that comes in a variety of sweet and savory varieties.

Enjoy a short boat trip on Lake Erhai to the tiny Jinsuo Island – a local cormorant-bird fishing village in the middle of the sparkling waters. Enjoy the majestic views of the green and clouded Cangshan Mountain Range looming over the Three Pagodas from far while swarms of birds fly peacefully around you over the tranquil lake.

After lunch, the 170 km drive up to Lijiang (2.5 hours) is fast and comfortable thanks to the recently completed, but largely empty expressway, although the views of countryside will probably make you want to stop to get some pictures. We will take you directly to your hotel, so that you can enjoy Lijiang Old Town by night, a location that well deserves its reputation as being the most romantic spot in all of China. The town has withstood a lot, including a heavy earthquake in 1996. Her pretty streams that wind through a maze of enchanting back alleys is part of an ancient complex water-supply system of that still functions effectively today. Lijiang’s architecture, a blend of elements from many different cultures that have come together over many centuries, was a key stopping point of the Tea Horse Road and has long been a magnet for traders, merchants, bandits and slavers. Even today the maze cobbled alleys and winding streams allows visitors to step back in time. The town is set in a truly exceptional mountain landscape which will remain with you for the rest of your life.

Day 5: Lijiang

The next morning starts with a visit to the iconic Black Dragon Pool, one of the most iconic views in China of the impressive Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background of a beautiful traditional Chinese garden. Then head to the Dongba Museum right next door, a little gem where you can learn about the unique matriarchic Naxi minority culture during a guided tour. At Jade Lake Village, a tiny village – without lake – tucked away in the southern valley in the shadow of the majestic Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, we will visit the previous residence and now museum dedicated Joseph Rock. Rock was a Victorian National Geographic explorer, plant hunter and early CIA operative who became a feared clan leader here in the beginning of the twentieth century in the 20 years of his life that he spent in this area. He recorded Naxi culture and risked his life exploring the far corners of Yunnan. Because of Rock, Lijiang became known in the western world.

In just the same fashion that Rock explored these towering mountain ranges, we too will join a two hour guided horse trek among the coniferous forests and mountain slopes. The trek passes by ancient Naxi deer farms, the ruins of Jujian Temple, and the King Ranch of the Naxi. Your driver will collect you at the end of the day to take you back to your hotel.

Day 6: Lijiang - Tiger Leaping Gorge - Shangri-La

Shortly after breakfast, we will drive up to the the First Bend of the Yangtze River at Stone Drum Town (1.5 hours) to see the impressive scenery, where the third longest river in the world make a sudden V-turn. In the past this was an important military strategical point in many different era’s, which of course make for good stories that has been passed on. You can find a monument for the Red Army's River Crossing during the Great March in 1936. Then you will continue further north to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, trapped deep below the snow-capped peaks of Haba Snow Mountain to the north, and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to the south. This is one of the deepest gorges in the world, 16 km long with a sheer 3900 meters between the wild waters of Jinsha river and the top of the Haba Snow Mountains next to it. The inhabitants of the gorge are primarily the indigenous Naxi people, who live in a handful of small hamlets. Your tour guide will meet you here.

Later in the afternoon the tour continues to the fabled Tibetan city of Shangri-La at an altitude of well over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). People often say that the journey is as important as the destination, and as you follow the road into the mountainous Shangri-La county (2.5 hours), you can only agree with them. On the way you will get tingling feelings in your stomach as you continue your way to the far corner of the world up to the Tibetan plateau, populated by robed monks a wild plateau nomads. Notice the landscape and architecture gradually change, with barley fields and yaks scattered across the valleys and the year-round snow-capped mountains always towering above you. On the way to Shangri-La we will take a stop at a local idyllic Yi Minority Village. Then you will arrive at your final destination: Dukezong Ancient town, the ancient town center in Zhongdian city, where the locals still preserve the old Tibetan way of life, crafting traditional jewelry made of silver or horn, instruments, earth ware and daggers. The amount of traditional handicrafts shows the importance in old times as a trading post on the old Tea-Horse Road. Let this lovely mountain town welcome you, and spend your free time wandering through the narrow alleys and cobbled winding lanes or relaxing from the day’s adventures.  

Day 7: Shangri-La

After a sumptuous Tibetan breakfast, your driver will take you out to the restored Songzanlin Monastery, also called ‘Little Potala Palace’ as this 17^th century monastery is modelled after the Potala Palace in Lhasa. It is the largest Tibetan monastery in Yunnan with over 700 monks actively practicing Tibetan Buddhism. The huge golden roof is a bright shining beacon that attracts Buddhists from all over Asia. There will also be a chance to visit a local family and experience the real life of a herdsman in the high steppe.

After lunch, we will take a closer look at Baiji Temple, which means Hundred Chicken Temple (you will have to come here to find out why it's actually called this way), from here the wonderful birds-eye panorama view of Shangri-La and the surrounding mountains will blow you away.

Afterwards, you will be able to enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee (or perhaps a pot of Yak Butter Tea for the more adventurous) at Shangri-La’s High Mountain Resort which overlooks the beautiful Napa Lake nature reserve, a beautiful highland meadow full of yaks, horses and birds. The meadow looks different every season: in summer wild flowers turn it into a colorful carpet, in winter the meadows turn into fields of gold, and in the spring green land stretches to the skyline.

In the evening, the locals are very energetic dancers and there will be plenty of chance to join in with the nightly mass dances that take place at Sifanglou Plaza. This is also a good chance to sample a few snow beers and some Yak meat kebabs

Day 8: Shangri-La (Departure)