Itinerary Details

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  Day 1: Arrival in Kunming

  Attractions: No
  Meals: No
  Hotel: hotel in Kunming

  Welcome to Kunming! Upon your arrival at Changshui airport, 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. If you have time, take a relaxing stroll around the humped backed bridges and Chinese pavilions of the Green Lake Park.

  If your schedule permits, we highly recommend to visit Kunming's best theatrical option, the Dynamic Yunnan Show, 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 (not included in tour price, but can be booked extra).

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  Day 2: Kunming tour

  Attractions: Stone Forest, Jiuxiang Caves
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Kunming

  Drive about 1.5 hours to one of Yunnan greatest wonders, the Stone Forest in Shilin County. Weather and time have sculpted a massive karst labyrinth that 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, which you can still find inside the park, jamming together singing folk songs or making embroidery.

  After lunch, we’ll see another piece of art made by nature, the Jiuxiang Caves, part of 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. Enter the caves through narrow green canyon and see the entrance of the caves hidden inside the forests from above as you fly over it in the cable car.

  

  Stone Forest

  

  Jiuxiang Caves
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  Day 3: Kunming - train to Dali (730m)

  Attractions: Dali Old Town 
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Dali

  Get brought by your guide and driver to Kunming Railway Station to catch the train to Dali (about 2 hours). Once you arrived at Dali Railway Station in Xiaguan City, your Dali tour guide will be waiting and take you to Dali Old Town. This is the heartland of the prosperous Bai people, with their colourful costumes and traditional lifestyle. 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 cosy little bars or warmly decorated coffee shops, or walk around its lively main streets where local artists sell all kinds of beautiful handicrafts.

  

  Travel from Kunming to Dail by train

  

  Dali Ancient Town
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  Day 4: Dali - Lijiang (2500m)

  Attractions: Xizhou morning market, Three Course Tea ceremony, Erhai Lake, Lijiang Old Town
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Lijiang

  In the morning we stop off at the ancient market town of Xizhou, just 19 kilometres north of Dali Old Town. Here we will visit 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 a traditional Three Course Tea ceremony and an exquisite example of traditional Bai-style courtyard homes.

  Enjoy a short boat trip on Lake Erhai to Tianjingge Island and enjoy the majestic views of the green and clouded Cangshan Mountain Range looming over Dali’s lands from far while swarms of birds fly peacefully around you over the tranquil lake.

  After lunch we will drive up to Lijiang (2.5 hours) and 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. 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 was a key stopping point of the Tea Horse Road and has long been a magnet for traders, merchants, bandits and slavers. The town is set in a truly exceptional mountain landscape which will remain with you for the rest of your life.

  

  Lake Erhai

  

  Lijiang Ancient Town
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  Day 5: Lijiang tour (2500m)

  Attractions: Black Dragon Pool, Dongba Museum, Jade Lake Village, Baisha Village
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Lijiang

  The next morning starts with a visit to the 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 Naxi minority and the Shamanic Dongba culture and the unique matriarchic Naxi sub branch of the Mosuo Minority.

  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 to Joseph Rock. Rock was a Victorian National Geographic explorer 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.

  We continue our way to Baisha Village with its famous Buddhist Murals. These are part of local heritage with a history of over 600 years and also belong to the World Cultural Heritage of the UNESCO since 1997. The old town is highly rated for its traditional Naxi style and being one of the earliest Naxi villages. The local traditional embroidery is worth a look as well, it is considered as some of the greatest handicraft in the world.

  

  Black Dragon Pool

  

  Baisha Village
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  Day 6: Lijiang - Shangri-La (3450m)

  Attractions: First Bend of the Yangtze River, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Dukezong Ancient town
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Shangri-La

  Shortly after breakfast, your driver will drive you up to the First Bend of the Yangtze River at Stone Drum Town (1.5 hour) to see the impressive scenery, where the third longest river in the world make a sudden V-turn. This area is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas.

  Continue 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 new 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). 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.

  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. 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.  

  

  Tiger Leaping Gorge

  

  Dukezong Ancient Town