3 days
Day 1: Kunming — Stone Forest, Yunnan ethnic museum. Day 2: Fly to Lijiang, Old Town. Day 3: Yulong Snow Mountain or Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Province · Southwest China
云南省 · Yúnnán Shěng — capital Kunming, yunnan (cross-bridge rice noodles, wild mushrooms, dai-style barbecue, ham, goat cheese, coffee).
History & character
Yunnan is the most ethnically diverse province in China — 26 of the country's 56 officially recognised ethnic groups have their core homelands here, and roughly a third of the population is non-Han. The Dali Kingdom (937–1253) and the preceding Nanzhao Kingdom (738–937) were independent Yunnan-centred states with cultural ties to Tibet, Burma, and the Khmer empire as much as to Tang and Song China.
The province is geographically extraordinary. Three of Asia's great rivers — the Yangtze (here called the Jinsha), Mekong (Lancang), and Salween (Nu) — run parallel through deep north-south gorges in the Three Parallel Rivers UNESCO area. Tropical Xishuangbanna in the south borders Laos and Myanmar; alpine Shangri-La in the north sits on the Tibetan Plateau at 3,200m. The Yuanyang rice terraces, carved by the Hani people, are themselves UNESCO listed.
Coffee, cut flowers, mushrooms (especially the matsutake export trade to Japan), and tea (the Pu'er industry) are major rural exports. Tourism has been the dominant driver of Lijiang and Dali for two decades.
When to visit
October–early December and February–April are optimal. Yuanyang rice terraces are flooded December–March. Tropical south is best November–February. Avoid late June–early September monsoon rain.
How to get there
Kunming Changshui (KMG), Lijiang (LJG), Dali (DLU), Shangri-La (DIG), Jinghong (JHG, for Xishuangbanna). HSR from Shanghai 11h, from Guangzhou 7h, from Chengdu 6h. The China–Laos railway from Kunming to Vientiane operates.
Key cities
All cities →More attractions in Yunnan
Sample itineraries
Day 1: Kunming — Stone Forest, Yunnan ethnic museum. Day 2: Fly to Lijiang, Old Town. Day 3: Yulong Snow Mountain or Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Add Dali (Erhai Lake, Three Pagodas), Shangri-La, Yuanyang rice terraces (in season), Jianshui ancient town, Tengchong volcanic hot springs.
Dishes of Yunnan
Yunnan's daily flatbread — a thick wheat or rice-flour round cooked on a griddle and eaten plain or stuffed.
Cold poached chicken shredded by hand, dressed in chilli oil, sesame paste and Sichuan peppercorn.
Fish slices submerged in a deep pool of chilli oil and Sichuan peppercorns. Served bubbling.
The original mala hotpot — a simmering cauldron of beef tallow, Pixian doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn for communal dipping.
Chongqing's signature breakfast noodle — wheat noodles in a fierce chilli-oil-and-pepper soup.
Thin Yunnan rice noodles served with a scalding bone broth and a spread of raw toppings to cook at the table.
Itineraries touching Yunnan
10d · Ten days through two of China's most photogenic landscapes: Yunnan's terraced rice fields and highland villages, followed by the karst pinnacles and river mist of Guilin and Yangshuo.
10d · Ten days through three of China's most significant tea-growing regions: Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea in Hangzhou, Wuyi rock oolong in Fujian, and Pu'er aged tea in Yunnan — each with its own landscape and tea-house culture.
10d · The northwest Yunnan circuit through Bai, Naxi and Tibetan culture.
14d · Two weeks covering the Beijing–Xi'an–Shanghai circuit plus a Yunnan extension through Kunming, Dali and Lijiang — the combination that most first-time visitors leave wishing they had done.
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