Golden Fields of Luoping Photography Excursion

Day 1: Kunming – Stone Forest

Your tour guide will pick you up from your Kunming hotel in the morning. If you want to stock up with some delicious sandwiches and cakes for a picnic, ask the driver to stop off at the Wicker Basket Bakery on the way. Having a private car pick you up from your hotel means that you can be there in just ninety minutes, giving you much more time to explore this huge area. Once you make it to the park, the entrance is quite complicated if you cannot read Chinese, but our guides can take care of all that for you.

If you do want to bring a picnic lunch, the guide will happily show you some of the most beautiful and secluded grassy areas. Alternatively, they also know the very best local restaurants and can show you where to find the tastiest Yiliang Roast Duck. This is a specialty of the area and has the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth textures and flavours. Many people say that it is even better that its Peking counterpart.

The fantasy rock formations of the Stone Forest will transport you deep inside a Tolkien novel. Not only is it a must see for geologists and geographers, but this magical place is a dream-come-true for anybody who has ever lost themselves in a fantasy film, or a swords-and-sorcery novel. This labyrinth of rock pillars and stone spires, some of which soar up to 50 metres in height, are straight out of Lord of the Rings. Whether you are a Game of Thrones fan or a Harry Potter diehard, this is one of the very few places on the planet where it is easy to imagine yourself in a real-life realm of magic and mystery.

One of many UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China, this petrified forest has been eroded into the ethereal shapes of huge swords and towering pagodas. Millions of years of tectonic shifts and erosion from wind and rain have resulted in a maze of sharp-edged fissures and sky-piercing pinnacles, punctuated by pavilion lookouts and subterranean rivers. This truly spectacular collection of bizarre rock formations has made it one of the most popular tourist attractions in all China, ever since Marco Polo first passed this way in the 14th century. This means that it is imperative to have a knowledgeable guide to make sure that you do not get lost, and to show you how to escape the vast crowds of domestic tourists, who descend upon the park every day. It is essential to book in advance, as although there are many guides at the entrance, none of them speak English.

Our hand-picked guides know this park like the back of their hands.  Once inside, they can lead you to the best vantage points for taking the most memorable pictures, and tell you the local legends that are attached some many of the more impressive rock towers. They will help you escape the busiest central parts of the park, and head for the lesser known highlights such as Deep Orchid Valley and the Stone Prison.

If you want to do some souvenir shopping, our guides know all the local shopkeepers and will help you to negotiate a fair deal.  Silk paintings and hand stitched embroidery are especially good value here, and can cost up to five times as much in Beijing and Shanghai.

In the afternoon, you driver will take you onwards to Luoping, where you will be staying the night in the highly rated Cloud Hotel. About 240 km south east of Kunming, in a small corner of the province where Yunnan meets Guizhou and Guangxi, this is China’s very own Golden Triangle, but the only thing here that is intoxicating is the view.  The landscape here is mostly flat, punctuated by charming karst hillocks which dot the landscape. At the same time this unique terrain features a number of small sinkholes, natural basins that look like the rings of a snail's shell. Even the most gentle breeze to will make the crops ebb and flow in the most spellbinding patterns.

The most popular viewpoint to see the flowering rapeseed crop is from the top of Jinjifeng which translates as Golden Rooster peak, and is just 10 to 15 minutes from Luoping town. There is a small ticket office situated inside Lingyi Temple, about halfway up the mountain. Many photographers congregate here to shoot the sunrise and sunset over the sea of flowers. The afternoon and evening rays produce a much brighter light and make for much better photos. The fields themselves stretch way out into the distance and so a wide-angle lens would be very useful. Study the work of other photographers around the internet before you arrive, in order to find the most attractive parts to shoot. Luck is important as the weather/sunlight makes a huge difference. On a partly cloudy day, wait until the sun shines through the clouds to take some shots with great contrast.

Day 02: Duoyi River and Ten Thousand Hills

Just thirty kilometres south of Luoping is the tranquil and lazy Duoyi River. Bamboo groves, weeping willows and ancient water wheels create a truly idyllic setting. This area is the Bouyei minority heartland. Bouyei traditional clothes are some of the most attractive of all the minorities, their dark navy blues and intricate embroidery making them excellent souvenirs. It is quite a long walk of maybe 5km to the waterfall, but there is an also an electric golf cart for the elderly and young children. The golf cart costs ¥15 one way. Beautiful Chinese Banyan trees dot the shoals of this placid river and there are many different kinds of waterwheel on display, that are very educational.

Another popular place to admire rapeseed fields is Shiwandashan (Hundred Thousand Hills), about 15 kilometres away from Luoping town. This is where we will be spending the afternoon and early evening. The terrain here is hilly and much more varied. There are farms all along both sides of the country road, and up and down the slopes are small settlements and sleepy hamlets. The backdrop of the hills stretching back into Guizhou is particularly impressive. This is one of those places where you can have several photographers shooting for an hour or more and each one and producing entirely different images.

Day 03: Luoping, Nine Dragons Waterfall and back to Kunming

Niujie is a few kilometres to the north of Luoping town and is the best place to see the terracing that has been created to farm the sinkhole areas. Here the flowers are grown in circular rings to follow the contours of the slopes. Sunrise is the best time to see early morning mists and a warm gentle sunlight.

Later in the morning, we will be heading out to Nine Dragons Waterfall. Despite the name, there are actually ten beautiful cascades grouped together here. The largest drops 56 metres and is a huge 110 metres in width. As the canola flowers bloom, the area is in full flood, making for a grand aquatic spectacle. In the dry season, the elegant waterfall hangs like a sliver chain in the clear blue sky. Directly below the second cascade, Lovers Waterfall plunges into a very deep pool, and has become a favourite spot for legends of forbidden love and suicide pacts.

Located about 50 minutes to the North East of the town, the views here are still very satisfying long after the canola blooms have faded and the tourist tumult has returned to a trickle. Ask you driver to drop you off at the top of the waterfall, for an easier walk down rather than the main drop off. The bamboo rafts are a fun way to get up close and personal to the falls.

After lunch, you have the choice of heading back to Kunming or extending you tour onto the amazing fantasy landscapes of Xingyi. The magnificent scenery at Maling Gorge and Wangfeng Lake will certainly exceed anything that you have seen so far. If instead, you decide to head straight back to Kunming, then we will make sure that you are in good time to catch the highly rated Dynamic Yunnan Show