Yunnan

 

China Eastern Operates A320 from Singapore to Changi, departure at 2am, arrival, 4 hours later, at Kunming New Airport. The bright new Airport is 15km away from the town center, and taxis cost around 100RMB. Here is a summary of the itinerary:

First day => Arrived in Kunming and visited the city center: JingXing Jie ( old Markets selling antiquities, but also rare animals, scorpions and snakes!), Yuantong confucius temple and the ZhenQing Temple with its nice lake, and the muslim quarters and their amazing noodles! In the evening, a train leaves Kunming at 22:30 to Lijiang, for 150RMB.

Second Day => Arrived at Lijiang at 7am after a good night's sleep in the train, and visited the huge old town. The best thing to do in Lijiang is to have a good stroll in the old paved streets amongst the hundreds of ancient houses, stopping for drinks of food! Visited Mu's Mantion, Wangu Tower (to have an amazing view from the top of the hill on the old town), ZhongYi Market and the Black Dragon Pool Park. There are some amazing bar'restaurants along JinXiang Xiang street with good views of town from the top!

 

 

Third Day => Took a bus from Lijiang to Shangrila, 4 hours drive, 70RMB. Visited the amazing Ganden Sumtseling Monastery. It looks quite new because it had to be reconstructed a couple of years ago, and the 700 monks that live there kind of hide from the chinese tours that lead their chinese customers, well clustered around a little flag in a speed-visit.

Fourth Day => Took a private car (200 RMB for the day) to go to ShiKa Shan, to have a walk ontop the 4500m moutain! Cold, snow, wind garanteed, with awesome vistas on surrounding moutains, and great stupas, all decorated with dozens of colorful prayer-flags. Went for a stroll on horse back on the steppes near NaPa Lake, and visited the amazing Pudacuo national Park. The entry is expensive (220RMB) and it can be packed with tourists. During Chinese new year however, the tourists were quite scarse, and the visit extremely enjoyable! The national Park is huge, and it is not possible for tourists to visit by themselves. Hence, buses are available to go to certain portions of the park, where it is possible to walk to the next "bus stop" 3-5 km each time. Lakes, steppes, vegetation, mountains, huge forests Yaks and Horse make this park an awesome nature break!

Fith Day => Took the 9:30 bus from ShangriLa to LiJiang, and stopped in QiaoTou after 3h drive, to start the trek to the tiger Leaping gorge. For people who want to make the trek to Tina's Guesthouse in Zhong HuTiaoXia, here are a couple of recomendations in order not to repeat our mistakes :P 1) Dont miss the start path to the high path. From QiaoTou, it is a nice road that goes straight for 1km, but it is not clearly indicated where to turn. If missed, continue to walk on the road, and ask locals for unused paths that lead to somewhere to the top! 2) Do plan plenty of time for the trek, as it will really take 7 hours to walk the full 20km. The trek is very enjoyable, with great sights, nice vegetations, and the occasional locals that sell (for a high price of course) drinks snacks and all sorts of "herbs". Tina's guest house makes a perfect stop after the hard trek. Good rooms, food and Dali Beer! Note as well that it is possible to leave heavy stuff at Jade's Guesthouse, just before the entry to the trek. (After the "ticket counter")

Sixth Day => From Tina's Guesthouse, cross the bridge to Sandy's guesthouse, where a very steep path down the gorge starts. The path is a succession of narrow and uneven rock-stairs and slopes, all the way down to the YangtZi River, some 1500m below! The view is amazing and it takes approximately 45-1 hour to go down because of the precautiously slow progression. Once at the bottom, it is possible to go on rocks right next to the river, at parts where the water really violently mixes. Again, great scenery from the bottom of the gorge, after having spent the whole trek with a view on the moutains on top, and the tiny river down the narrow gorge. The way up is quite strainous, and a "shortcut" can be taken via "THE" Ladder. Don't be mistaken. This old rusty ladder hardly attached to the cliff''s surface is at least 20m high, with sliperry edges and uneven steps. (Something that we realised only halfway up of course) The ladder being completely vertical... the climb with the wind blowing is quite impressive!From Tina's Guesthouse, mini-vans go to Lijiang or Shangrila (55RMB, 3hours).

Seventh Day => Visited the city center of Lijiang

Eight Day => Rented bikes (50RMB for a day) to visit the villages around Lijiang (not as big but more authentic and less touristy than Lijiang), and YuShu old town (A mini Lijiang, very enjoyable, with an amazing French Cafe / Patisserie right in the center of town!) In the evening, 22:00 => Train Lijiang - Kunming, arrival 6am the next day.

Ninth Day => Kunming. Flight Kunming - Singapore at 22:30, arrival 2:30am.